Alexander Emanuel Rodolphus Agassiz

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Alexander Emanuel Rodolphus Agassiz

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Neuchatel, Neuchâtel, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Death: March 27, 1910 (74)
at sea on board S.S. Adriatic
Immediate Family:

Son of Louis Agassiz and Cècile Agassiz
Husband of Anna Agassiz
Father of George Russell Agassiz; Maximilian "Max" Agassiz and Rodolphe Louis Agassiz
Brother of Ida Olympe Frederika Higginson and Pauline Elizabeth Augusta Shaw

Managed by: Erica Howton
Last Updated:

About Alexander Emanuel Rodolphus Agassiz

Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz

Agassiz, the son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and emigrated to the United States with his father in 1849. He graduated from Harvard University in 1855, subsequently studying engineering and chemistry.

He became a specialist in marine ichthyology, but devoted much time to the investigation, superintendence and exploitation of mines. Up until the summer of 1866, Agassiz worked as an assistant in the museum of natural history that his father founded at Harvard. That summer, he took a trip to see the mines for himself and he afterwards became treasurer of the enterprise.

Out of his copper fortune, he gave some US$500,000 to Harvard for the museum of comparative zoology and other purposes.

Of Agassiz's other writings on marine zoology, most are contained in the bulletins and memoirs of the museum of comparative zoology; but he published in 1865, with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, his stepmother, Seaside Studies in Natural History, a work at once exact and stimulating, and in 1871 Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay.

He died in 1910 on board the RMS Adriatic en route to New York from Southampton.

Publications

  • Agassiz, Alexander (1863). List of the Echinoderms. 1. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 17–28. OCLC 36956837.
  • Agassiz, Alexander; Agassiz, Elizabeth Cary (1865). Seaside Studies in Natural History. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. OCLC 6831649.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1865). Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. Volume III. Boston; London: Little, Borwn and Company; Trübner and Company. OCLC 133105996. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1872). Revision of the Echini. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 15541842.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1877). North American Starfishes. Cambridge: University Press. OCLC 24040786.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1881). Report on the Challenger Expedition. London: Printed for H.M.S.O.. OCLC 182880731.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1876). "Explorations of Lake Titicaca". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge) 3: 279–286. OCLC 81353205.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1886). Three Cruises of the Blake. Cambridge: Wilson. OCLC 22024684.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1903). The Coral reefs of the Tropical Pacific. Cambridge: University Press. OCLC 62552109.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1903). Coral Reefs of the Maldives. Cambridge: University Press. OCLC 29568734. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  • Agassiz, Alexander (1904). Panamic Deep Sea Echini. Cambridge: University Press. OCLC 1878360.
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Alexander Emanuel Rodolphus Agassiz's Timeline

1835
December 17, 1835
Neuchatel, Neuchâtel, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
1862
July 21, 1862
Nahant, Essex County, Massachusetts, United States
1866
May 24, 1866
Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
1871
September 3, 1871
Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
1910
March 27, 1910
Age 74
at sea on board S.S. Adriatic