Arthur Donaldson Smith

Arthur Donaldson Smith (1866–1939) was an American physician, hunter, and explorer of Africa. In the 1890s he made a geological expedition to Lake Rudolph (now Lake Turkana), passing through what was then Somaliland, southern Ethiopia and Kenya.[1] In order to visit Ethiopia, he had to get permission from Menelik II. The trip lasted 18 months and took place between 1894 and 1895. In 1897 he published a book about his trip called, Through Unknown African Countries: the First Expedition from Somaliland to Lake Rudolf.[2]

Arthur Donaldson Smith

In 1895 three new species of reptiles endemic to the Horn of Africa were named in his honor by Belgian-British herpetologist George Albert Boulenger: Zamenis smithi (now Platyceps brevis smithi), Hemidactylus smithi, and Pseuderemias smithii.[3]

He is interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

References

  1. Address by former US ambassador to Ethiopia (archive of Addis Tribune)
  2. "Through Unknown African Countries: the First Expedition from Somaliland to Lake Rudolf". World Digital Library. 1897. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  3. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Smith, Arthur", p. 247).


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