American Medical Biographies/Harris, Thaddeus William
Harris, Thaddeus William (1795–1856).
Thaddeus William Harris, physician, botanist and entomologist, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, November 12, 1795. He was the son of Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768– 1842), a minister and descendant of William Harris, who came to this country with Roger Williams, and was author of "Journal of a Tour of the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains" (1805); "A Natural History of the Bible" (1821); and "Biographical Memoirs of James Oglethorpe" (1841).
Thaddeus William Harris graduated at Harvard University in 1815, received his A.M., in course and his M. D. in 1820; he practised at Milton Hill. In 1831 he was made instructor in botany and entomology at Harvard, also holding the position of librarian. In 1837 he became commissioner for the Zoological and Botanical Survey of Massachusetts and collected specimens and made a catalogue of insects common to Massachusetts, showing 2,350 different species. He was author of "A Report on the Insects of Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation" (Cambridge, 1841); a second impression was published in 1842 and a new and enlarged edition appeared in 1852.
He organized the Harvard Students' Natural History Society. His death occurred at Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 16, 1856. His son, William Thaddeus Harris (1826– 1854), graduated at Harvard University in 1846; he edited Hubbard's "History of New England," and published "Epitaphs from the Old Burying-Ground at Cambridge"; the son died at the age of twenty-eight.