Samuel Hubbard Scudder

Samuel Hubbard Scudder (April 13, 1837 – May 17, 1911) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was a leading figure in entomology during his lifetime and the founder of insect paleontology in America. In addition to fossil insects, he was an authority on butterflies (Lepidoptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera). Biography Scudder was born on April 13, 1837, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Scudder and Sarah Lathrop (Coit) Scudder. His father was a successful merchant, and both parents had Puritan roots dating back to the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1620s. He was raised in a strict Calvinist Congregational household. One of his younger brothers, Horace Scudder, became a noted author and editor of the Atlantic Monthly, while his niece Vida Dutton Scudder was a writer and social activist. Scudder attended Boston Latin School, and then enrolled in Williams College in 1853 at the age of 16. He studied with naturalist Paul Chadbourne and geologist Ebenezer Emmons. Under their influence, Scudder developed an interest in natural history, especially entomology. He became an ardent collector of butterflies in the nearby Berkshire Hills. By the age of 19, Scudder was committed to pursuing a career studying insects. Scudder graduated from Williams in 1847 at the head of his class. He then entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard to study under Louis Agassiz, the most influential scientist in America at the time. After studying with Agassiz for four years, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1862, and then continued to work for Agassiz for another two years. Around this time, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was strongly debated in American scientific circles. Agassiz remained a staunch opponent of evolution, while Scudder, after initially siding with Agassiz's view, came gradually to accept Darwin's theory and build it into his entomological work.