Francis Hobart Herrick

Francis Hobart Herrick (19 November 1858, in Woodstock, Vermont – 11 September 1940, in Cleveland, Ohio) was an American writer, natural history illustrator and Professor of Biology at Adelbert College of Western Reserve University.[1]

Francis Hobart Herrick, ca1902
Plate from The American Lobster: A study of its habits and development

Herrick attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire from where he went to Dartmouth College in 1881. His Ph.D. was obtained at Johns Hopkins University in 1888. The embryology and biology of shellfish, especially lobster, became his consuming interest.

He was approached in 1890 by the United States Commissioner of Fisheries to research and publish a comprehensive report on the American Lobster. Over a period of five years Herrick studied lobsters along the seaboards of Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire working from a laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The finished work was entitled The American Lobster: A study of its habits and development[2] and appeared in volume 15 of the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1895. This definitive work includes some 100 detailed drawings of Homarus americanus. Herrick was greatly concerned about the unregulated lobster-fishing industry and that the limited migration of lobsters bedevils recovery of lobster populations once depleted.

His 1917 work was the first critical biography of John James Audubon and negated the public's romanticised image of him as an American woodsman.[3] An ornithologist with a particular interest in the aetiology of instinct in wild birds, Herrick was the first researcher to study the bald eagle in the field, and help popularise wildlife photography in the process. He became professor emeritus in 1929.

Personal life

Francis Hobart Herrick was the son of Marcellus Aurelius Herrick and Hannah Andrews Putnam and was married on 24 June 1897 to Josephine Herkomer (4 February 1860 Cleveland, Ohio - 30 August 1952 Alameda, California) the daughter of John Herkomer and Agnes Koenig. They produced 2 children Agnes E Herrick (1898?– ) and Francis Herkomer Herrick (1900–1996).[4]

Publications
  • Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time, New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1917. ISBN 140978455X
  • Wild Birds at Home, New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1935.
  • The American Lobster: A Study of its Habits and Development, Washington, Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission, 1895.
  • The American Eagle: A study in natural and civil history, New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1934.
  • The home life of wild birds : a new method of the study and photography of birds New York, G.P. Putnam, 1901

References
  1. Leutner, Winfred George (25 October 1940). "Francis Hobart Herrick". Science. 92 (2391): 371–372. Bibcode:1940Sci....92..371L. doi:10.1126/science.92.2391.371. PMID 17734574.
  2. Hobart, Herrick, Francis (1 January 1895). "The American lobster;". Govt. Print. Off. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "Annotated Response to W.H. Bishop's 1881 article The Lobster at Home in Maine Waters - Inquisitive Sailor". Archived from the original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
  4. "Family of Francis Hobart Herrick and Josephine Herkomer".

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