- Henry Bryant
Henry Bryant (
May 12 ,1820 -February 2 ,1867 ) was an Americanphysician and naturalist. He was the grandfather ofHenry Bryant Bigelow .Biography
Bryant was born in
Boston , and graduated fromHarvard Medical School in 1843. In 1847 he was forced to abandon medicine because of ill health and turned to natural history, especiallyornithology .Bryant was a member of the
Megatherium Club a group of young naturalists at the newly formedSmithsonian Institution in the early 1860s. He appears in a famous photograph of the group, seated lower right. Others in the photograph are:Robert Kennicott ,Henry Ulke , andWilliam Stimpson .He collected birds in
Florida , theBahamas ,Ontario andLabrador ,North Carolina ,Cuba ,Jamaica andPuerto Rico .Bryant served as surgeon in the 20th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers in the
American Civil War , and was injured at theSecond Battle of Bull Run . He resigned his commission because of ill health before the end of the war and went to Europe. He bought theFrédéric de Lafresnaye collection of birds inFrance , and presented it to theBoston Society of Natural History . He died in Puerto Rico.References
*"Barbara and Richard Mearns" - The Bird Collectors ISBN 0-12-487440-1
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