The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Harris, Thaddeus William

HARRIS, Thaddeus William, American entomologist: b. Dorchester, Mass., 12 Nov. 1795; d. Cambridge. Mass, 16 Jan. 1856. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1815, studied medicine and practised his profession in Milton, Mass., until appointed librarian of Harvard in 1891. This position he occupied until his death. Early in life he exhibited a fondness for natural history, and though plodding alone, attained to a scientific eminence which secured for him the fellowship of all the principal learned societies of America, and of many abroad. For several years he gave instruction in botany and general natural history in the college, and originated the Harvard Natural History Society for the students. He was chiefly distinguished, however, as an entomologist, and has been surpassed as such by no one in the United States. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. In 1837 he was appointed one of the commissioners for a zoological and botanical survey of Massachusetts, the result of which was his ‘Systematic Catalogue of the Insects of Massachusetts’ (1832), in which 2,350 species are enumerated. He also published ‘A Treatise on some of the Insects of New England which are Injurious to Vegetation’ (1842), a work of permanent value.