View source for Thomas Nuttall

{{short description|English botanist and zoologist in America (1786-1859)}}
{{redirect|Nutt.|the surname|Nutt}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{For|the English footballer|Tom Nuttall}}
{{Infobox scientist
|image             = Thomas Nuttall.jpg
|image_size        = 150px
|caption           = 
|birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1786|1|5}}
|birth_place       = Long Preston, Yorkshire, England
|death_date        = {{death-date and age|10 September 1859|5 January 1786}}
|death_place       = St Helens, Lancashire, England
|citizenship = 
|nationality       = [[England|English]]
|field             = [[botany|botanist]]
|work_institutions = 
|alma_mater        = 
|doctoral_advisor  = 
|doctoral_students = 
|known_for         = 
|author_abbrev_bot = Nutt.
|author_abbrev_zoo = 
|influences        = 
|influenced        = 
|prizes            = 
|footnotes         = 
|signature         = Signature of Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859).png
}}
'''Thomas Nuttall''' (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an [[England|English]] [[botany|botanist]] and [[zoologist]] who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841.<ref>Graustein, Jeannette E.  1967.  ''Thomas Nuttall, Naturalist:  Explorations in America, 1808-1841''.  Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA</ref>

Nuttall was born in the village of [[Long Preston]], near [[Settle, North Yorkshire|Settle]] in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] and spent some years as an apprentice printer in England. Soon after going to the United States he met professor [[Benjamin Smith Barton]] in [[Philadelphia]]. Barton encouraged his strong interest in natural history.

==Early explorations in the United States==
In 1810 he travelled to the [[Great Lakes]] and in 1811 travelled on the [[Astor Expedition]] led by [[William Price Hunt]] on behalf of [[John Jacob Astor]] up the [[Missouri River]]. Nuttall was accompanied by the English botanist [[John Bradbury (naturalist)|John Bradbury]], who was collecting plants on behalf of [[Liverpool]] botanical gardens. Nuttall and Bradbury left the party at the trading post with the [[Arikara]] Indians in [[South Dakota]], and continued farther upriver with [[Ramsay Crooks]]. In August they returned to the Arikara post and joined [[Manuel Lisa]]'s group on a return to [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]].

Although [[Lewis and Clark]] had travelled this way previously, many of their specimens had been lost. Therefore, many of the plants collected by Nuttall on this trip were unknown to science. The imminent war between Britain and America caused him to return to [[London]] via [[New Orleans]]. In London he spent time organising his large plant collection and discussing his experiences with other scientists.

==Return to the US after the War of 1812; activities and major works (1815-1841)==
In 1815, he returned to America and after spending some more time collecting published ''The Genera of North American Plants'' (1818).<ref>{{cite book|author=Nuttall, Thomas|title=The genera of North American plants, and a catalogue of the species, to the year 1817|location=Philadelphia|publisher=Printed for the author by D. Heartt|year=1818|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001493986}}</ref> In 1817, Nuttall was elected a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1817&year-max=1817&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-02|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> From 1818 to 1820, he travelled along the [[Arkansas River|Arkansas]] and [[Red River of the North|Red River]]s, returning to Philadelphia and publishing his ''Journal of Travels Into the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819'' (1821).<ref name="Nuttall 1821" /> He was elected an Associate Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1823.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter N|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterN.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=9 September 2016}}</ref> In 1825, he became curator of the botanical gardens at [[Harvard University]]. He published his ''Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada'' (1832 and 1834).

In 1834, he resigned his post and set off west again on an expedition led by [[Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth]], this time accompanied by the naturalist [[John Kirk Townsend]]. They travelled through [[Kansas]], [[Wyoming]], and [[Utah]], and then down the Snake River to the Columbia. Nuttall then sailed across the [[Pacific Ocean]] to the [[Hawaiian Islands]] in December. He returned in the spring of 1835 and spent the next year botanizing in the Pacific Northwest, an area already covered by [[David Douglas (botanist)|David Douglas]]. On the Pacific coast, Nuttall heard of the ship ''Alert'' leaving San Diego in May 1836, bound for Boston. It is here that he encounters [[Richard Henry Dana Jr.]], a former student of his at Harvard who had set sail from Boston on a two-year voyage to the California coast at about the same time Nuttall had begun his expedition. Dana writes in his memoir, ''[[Two Years Before the Mast]]'' (1840), of his amazement at seeing his old professor "strolling about San Diego beach, in a sailor's pea jacket, with a wide straw hat, and barefooted, with his trousers rolled up to his knees, picking up stones and shells."<ref>Dana, Richard H. ''Two Years Before the Mast''. (1840). New York: Harper and Brothers.</ref> Nuttall was taken on the ''Alert'' as a passenger along with many of his flora and fauna specimens, which he brought back to Boston to be cataloged and preserved for posterity. Dana writes that though the professor spent much of the voyage in his cabin, he had some occasions to speak with Nuttall about his botanizing while Dana was at the helm of the ship "on a calm night" and was amused to hear his fellow shipmates refer to Nuttall as "Old Curious" for all the curiosities he conveyed on board. Once around the Horn, some of the sights on the trip through the South Atlantic prompted Nuttall to emerge from his quarters: upon sighting [[Isla de los Estados]] off the tip of Cape Horn, Nuttall told the Captain of the ''Alert'' that he would have liked to explore that place; and Nuttall also enjoyed the sight of dolphins swimming near the ship.

From 1836 until 1841, Nuttall worked at the [[Academy of Natural Sciences]] in Philadelphia. During this time he made contributions to the ''Flora of North America'' being prepared by [[Asa Gray]] and [[John Torrey]].<ref>[[A. Hunter Dupree|Dupree, A. Hunter]]. (1952). "Thomas Nuttall's controversy with [[Asa Gray]]". ''Rhodora''. Volume 54. Pages 293–303.</ref> The death of his uncle then required Nuttall to return to England. By terms of his uncle's will, to inherit the property, Nuttall had to remain in England for nine months of each year. His ''North American Sylva: Trees not described by [[François André Michaux|F. A. Michaux]]'', which was the first book to include all the trees of North America, was finished just before he left the US in December 1841.

==Later==
From 1842 until his death in 1859 Nuttall lived at Nutgrove Hall <ref>{{NHLE|num=1199265|desc= Nutgrove Hall|access-date=28 September 2015}}</ref> in [[St Helens, Merseyside|St Helens, Lancashire]], built by printer Jonas Nuttall in 1810.<ref>[http://www.nutgroveprimary.co.uk/?page_id=79 History of Nutgrove Methodist Aided Primary School]</ref> Nuttall is buried at Christ Church in the nearby village of [[Eccleston, Merseyside|Eccleston]].

==List of selected publications==
{{refbegin}}
* Nuttall, T. 1817. Observations on the genus Eriogonum, and the natural order Polygoneae of Jussieu. Part 1. ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 1(2), 24–31. ([https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/79416#page/34/mode/1up BHL link])
* Nuttall, T. 1817. Observations on the genus Eriogonum, and the natural order Polygoneae of Jussieu. Part 2. ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 1(3), 33–37. ([https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/79416#page/43/mode/1up BHL link])
* Nuttall, T. 1817. An account of two new genera of plants, and of a species of ''Tillaea'' and ''Limosella'', recently discovered on the banks of the Delaware, in the vicinity of Philadelphia. ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 1(6), 111–123. (Read September 16, 1817) ([https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/79416#page/153/mode/1up BHL link])
* Nuttall, T. 1817. Description of ''Collinsia'', a new genus of plants. ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 1(6), 189–192. ([https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/79416#page/236/mode/1up BHL link])
* {{cite book |last1=Nuttall |first1=Thomas |authorlink=Thomas Nuttall|title=The Genera of North American Plants: And a Catalogue of the Species, to the Year 1817 |date=1818 |publisher=Nuttall|location=Philadelphia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WYZIAAAAYAAJ |volume=1|isbn=9780608408859 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Nuttall |first1=Thomas |authorlink=Thomas Nuttall|title=The Genera of North American Plants: And a Catalogue of the Species, to the Year 1817 |date=1818 |publisher=Nuttall|location=Philadelphia  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk8-AAAAcAAJ|volume=2}}{{link note|note= both volumes also available [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/290 here] at [[Biodiversity Heritage Library|BHL]]}}
* Nuttal, Thomas (1821) {{cite web | title=A journal of travels into the Arkansa territory, during the year 1819 : with occasional observations of the manners of the aborigines; illustrated by a map and other engravings | website=Internet Archive | date=2016-10-23 | url=https://archive.org/details/journaloftravels00nutt/page/n7/mode/2up | ref={{sfnref|Internet Archive|2016}} | access-date=2024-11-27}}

{{refend}}

==Named after him==
The [[World Register of Marine Species]] lists 44 marine genera and species named after him with the epithet ''nuttalli''.<ref>[http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxlist Species with the epithet nuttalli]</ref> Various plants and birds were named after Nuttall, including [[Nuttall's woodpecker]] ''Dryobates nuttallii'' by his friend [[William Gambel]], and [[yellow-billed magpie]] ''Pica nuttalli'' and [[common poorwill]] ''Phalaenoptilus nuttallii'' by [[John James Audubon]].<ref>Richard and Barbara Mearns - ''Audubon to Xantus'' {{ISBN|0-12-487423-1}}</ref> He is also commemorated in the [[Pacific dogwood]] ''Cornus nuttallii'', Nuttall's larkspur ''Delphinium nuttallianum'', [[Nuttall's oak]] ''Quercus texana'', the catclaw briar ''[[Mimosa nuttallii]]'', Nuttall's violet ''[[Viola nuttallii]]'', Nuttall's saltbush ''[[Atriplex nuttallii]]'', Nuttall's rayless goldenrod ''[[Bigelowia nuttallii]]'', and other plants.<ref>{{Cite web|title=USDA PLANTS Profile|url=https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=binu2|access-date=18 May 2012}}</ref>

The Nuttall Ornithological Club of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], is named after him.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nuttall Ornithological Club|url=http://www.nuttallclub.org/History.htm|access-date=29 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222170918/http://www.nuttallclub.org/History.htm|archive-date=22 December 2011}}</ref>

==Named by him==
{{Main|Category: Taxa named by Thomas Nuttall}}
{{botanist|Nutt.|Nuttall, Thomas}}

==See also==
*[[Sierra Madre Wisteria]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="Nuttall 1821">{{cite book |ref={{SfnRef|Nuttall,|1821|p=}} |date=1821 |last1=Nuttall |first1=Thomas |title=A Journal of Travels Into the Arkansas Territory, During the Year 1819 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Thos. H. Palmer |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008586637}} Retrieved March 19, 2017. {{free access}} {{LCCN|05013013}}; {{OCLC|11838900|show=all}}.
<ol type="i" start="1">
<li>{{cite book |title=''Via HathiTrust'' |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081844205&seq=9 |type=[[New York Public Library]] }} {{free access}}</li></ol></ref>

}}

==External links==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite journal |ref={{SfnRef|Durand,|1860|p=297–315}} |date=January 1860 |last1=Durand |first1=Elias |author1-link=Elias Durand|title=Memior of the Late Thomas Nuttall |url={{GBurl|KK8aAAAAYAAJ|pg=PA9}} |type=re-print by C. Sherman & Son, Philadelphia |journal= [[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]] |volume=7 |issue=63 |pages=297–315 |access-date=July 8, 2024 |via=Google Books ([[Harvard University]]) }} {{free access}} {{ISSN|0003-049X}} (journal publication); {{OCLC|702368093|1029994055}} (article re-print).
* {{Cite Appletons' |year=1898 |editor-last=Wilson |editor-first=James Grant |editor-link=James Grant Wilson |editor2-last=Fiske |editor2-first=John |editor2-link=John Fiske (philosopher) |wstitle=Nuttall, Thomas|notaref=x |type=supplement |page=547 |volume=4: "Lodge–Pickens" |publisher=[[D. Appleton and Company]] |via=[[Wikisource]] }} Retrieved March 29, 2012. {{free access}} [[LCCN]] {{URL|https://www.loc.gov/item/unk80018968/|unk80018968}}; {{OCLC|1647333|show=all}}.
<ol type="i" start="1">
<ol type="i" start="1">
<li>{{cite book |title=''Via Google Books'' |url={{GBurl|u8JBAQAAMAAJ|pg=PA547|dq="nuttall, thomas"}} |type=[[UC Davis]] }} {{free access}}</li></ol></ol>

* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Nuttall, Thomas}}
*[http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/search/searchterm/sylva!michaux/field/title!title/mode/all!all/conn/and!and/order/nosort ''North American sylva''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128214543/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/search/searchterm/sylva!michaux/field/title!title/mode/all!all/conn/and!and/order/nosort |date=28 November 2019 }} - digital facsimiles from [[Linda Hall Library]]
*{{cite journal |last1=Nelson |first1=John |title=Thomas Nuttall. Brief life of a pioneering naturalist: 1786–1859 |journal=Harvard Magazine |date=2015 |issue=May–June |url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2015/05/thomas-nuttall |access-date=15 October 2018}}
{{refend}}
{{DNB poster|Nuttall, Thomas (1786-1859)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuttall, Thomas}}
[[Category:1786 births]]
[[Category:1859 deaths]]
[[Category:English taxonomists]]
[[Category:Botanists active in North America]]
[[Category:British ornithologists]]
[[Category:English zoologists]]
[[Category:Pteridologists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]
[[Category:Harvard University staff]]
[[Category:People from Long Preston]]
[[Category:19th-century British zoologists]]
[[Category:19th-century English botanists]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]