CHARLES C. ABBOTT BY CLARK WISSLER
DR. CHARLES C. ABBOTT, noted for his researches in the Delaware Valley, died at Bristol, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1919. He was born June 4, 1843, upon the site afterwards made famous by his discoveries. He lived in the old Abbott homestead where his ancestors settled in colonial days. This interesting old house contained many old and rare pieces of furni- ture, not to mention autograph letters and scientific mementos gathered by Dr. Abbott during his long and notable career. The house and its entire contents was destroyed by fire in 1914 and now stands as a deserted ruin. The loss was a great blow to Dr. Abbott, one from which he never fully recovered.
The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon Dr. Abbott at the University of Pennsylvania, 1865. From 1876 to 1889 he was assistant in the Peabody Museum at Harvard and from 1889- 1893, curator of archaeology in the University Museum, Philadel- phia. His first archaeological discoveries seem to have been finds of crude argillite implements on his homestead at Trenton. These were followed up by other discoveries, until in 1883, he de- veloped the conception of three superimposed cultures in the soil of his estate. These observations stimulated the systematic inves- tigation of the vicinity by Volk and others, on account of which the Abbott farm became, one of the most famous in American archaeology.
The best known book of Dr. Abbott is his Primitive Industry, but he was the author of a number of archaeological publications, the most important of which are the following: The Stone Age in New Jersey (American Naturalist, vol. vi, pp. 144-160, 199-229, 1872: also Annual Report for 1875, Smith- sonian Institution, pp. 246-380, Washington, 1876).
Reports on the Discovery of Supposed Paleolithic Implements from
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