Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Charles Henry Gilbert
Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. He collected and studied fishes from Central America north to Alaska and described many new species. Later he became an expert on Pacific salmon and was a noted conservationist of the Pacific Northwest. He is considered by many as the intellectual founder of American fisheries biology. He was one of the 22 "pioneer professors" (founding faculty) of Stanford University.
Born in Rockford, Illinois, Gilbert spent his early years in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he came under the influence of his high school teacher, David Starr Jordan (1851‒1931). When Jordan became Professor of Natural History at Butler University in Indianapolis, Gilbert followed and received his B.A. degree in 1879. Jordan moved to Indiana University, in Bloomington, in the fall of 1879, and Gilbert again followed, receiving his M.S. degree in 1882 and Ph.D. in 1883. His doctorate was the first such degree ever awarded by Indiana University.
Little is known about Gilbert's personal life. His wife, Julia Ringold Hughes (born December 6, 1849, Bloomington, Indiana) was a student at Indiana University and became superintendent of high schools in Bloomington. She died in California on November 30, 1916. There were three children, Carl (1891‒1963), Winnifred (Mrs. Carl F. Braun, 1886‒1980), and Ruth (Mrs. Percy R. Baker, 1885‒1982), all of whom graduated from Stanford University.
Jordan and Gilbert, along with other students forming the so-called "Jordan School of Ichthyology", explored the streams and rivers of Indiana and the southeastern United States in the late 1870s, describing a number of new fishes. In 1879, Jordan was asked by Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823‒1887), Director of the U.S. Fish Commission, to undertake a survey of the fisheries of the Pacific Coast of the United States. Jordan took leave of absence from Indiana University, chose Gilbert as his assistant, and headed west to San Francisco in December 1879. Their one-year pioneering survey of fishes of the West, from Southern California to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, laid the foundation for nearly 50 years of study of Pacific fishes and fisheries by the team of Jordan and Gilbert.
By the time Gilbert received his doctoral degree at the age of 24, he was the author or co-author (mostly with Jordan) of over 80 scientific publications. Gilbert served at Indiana University from 1880‒1884, first as instructor, then as Assistant Professor in Natural Sciences and Modern Languages. In 1884, he accepted the Professorship of Natural History at the University of Cincinnati, in Ohio, remaining there until December 1888. In 1889, Gilbert returned to Indiana University as Professor of Natural History.
Jordan became President of Indiana University in 1885. However, in 1890, U.S. Senator Leland Stanford (1824‒1893) and his wife Jane Eliza Lathrop Stanford (1828‒1905) chose Jordan to be the founding president of a new university to be established in Palo Alto, California, in memory of their deceased son, Leland Stanford, Jr. (1868‒1884). Among Jordan’s first appointments to the new faculty was Charles Henry Gilbert as the Chairman of the Zoology Department.
At Stanford University, Gilbert began a career that spanned nearly 37 years. He concentrated on Pacific fish, mostly marine, and participated in numerous expeditions aboard the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross. These cruises included three to Alaska, two off California, and one each to the Hawaiian Islands and the Japanese Archipelago. As a pioneer descriptive ichthyologist, Gilbert described either alone or with others about 117 new genera and 620 species of fishes. He published about 172 papers on fishes.
Around 1909, Gilbert turned his attention to the study of Pacific salmon and soon became the foremost expert on these economically important fish. He studied salmon from California to Alaska, but concentrated his efforts in British Columbia (from about 1912‒1921) and in Alaska (from 1918‒1927). He was the first to correctly apply the scale method to aging of Pacific salmon, he pioneered racial studies of salmon using scales, and he was instrumental in establishing tagging programs on salmon in Alaska. He was the first to confirm the "home stream" theory to spawning salmon. Additionally, he was also one of the first scientists to consider the population dynamics of northwest stocks of salmon.
Hub AI
Charles Henry Gilbert AI simulator
(@Charles Henry Gilbert_simulator)
Charles Henry Gilbert
Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. He collected and studied fishes from Central America north to Alaska and described many new species. Later he became an expert on Pacific salmon and was a noted conservationist of the Pacific Northwest. He is considered by many as the intellectual founder of American fisheries biology. He was one of the 22 "pioneer professors" (founding faculty) of Stanford University.
Born in Rockford, Illinois, Gilbert spent his early years in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he came under the influence of his high school teacher, David Starr Jordan (1851‒1931). When Jordan became Professor of Natural History at Butler University in Indianapolis, Gilbert followed and received his B.A. degree in 1879. Jordan moved to Indiana University, in Bloomington, in the fall of 1879, and Gilbert again followed, receiving his M.S. degree in 1882 and Ph.D. in 1883. His doctorate was the first such degree ever awarded by Indiana University.
Little is known about Gilbert's personal life. His wife, Julia Ringold Hughes (born December 6, 1849, Bloomington, Indiana) was a student at Indiana University and became superintendent of high schools in Bloomington. She died in California on November 30, 1916. There were three children, Carl (1891‒1963), Winnifred (Mrs. Carl F. Braun, 1886‒1980), and Ruth (Mrs. Percy R. Baker, 1885‒1982), all of whom graduated from Stanford University.
Jordan and Gilbert, along with other students forming the so-called "Jordan School of Ichthyology", explored the streams and rivers of Indiana and the southeastern United States in the late 1870s, describing a number of new fishes. In 1879, Jordan was asked by Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823‒1887), Director of the U.S. Fish Commission, to undertake a survey of the fisheries of the Pacific Coast of the United States. Jordan took leave of absence from Indiana University, chose Gilbert as his assistant, and headed west to San Francisco in December 1879. Their one-year pioneering survey of fishes of the West, from Southern California to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, laid the foundation for nearly 50 years of study of Pacific fishes and fisheries by the team of Jordan and Gilbert.
By the time Gilbert received his doctoral degree at the age of 24, he was the author or co-author (mostly with Jordan) of over 80 scientific publications. Gilbert served at Indiana University from 1880‒1884, first as instructor, then as Assistant Professor in Natural Sciences and Modern Languages. In 1884, he accepted the Professorship of Natural History at the University of Cincinnati, in Ohio, remaining there until December 1888. In 1889, Gilbert returned to Indiana University as Professor of Natural History.
Jordan became President of Indiana University in 1885. However, in 1890, U.S. Senator Leland Stanford (1824‒1893) and his wife Jane Eliza Lathrop Stanford (1828‒1905) chose Jordan to be the founding president of a new university to be established in Palo Alto, California, in memory of their deceased son, Leland Stanford, Jr. (1868‒1884). Among Jordan’s first appointments to the new faculty was Charles Henry Gilbert as the Chairman of the Zoology Department.
At Stanford University, Gilbert began a career that spanned nearly 37 years. He concentrated on Pacific fish, mostly marine, and participated in numerous expeditions aboard the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross. These cruises included three to Alaska, two off California, and one each to the Hawaiian Islands and the Japanese Archipelago. As a pioneer descriptive ichthyologist, Gilbert described either alone or with others about 117 new genera and 620 species of fishes. He published about 172 papers on fishes.
Around 1909, Gilbert turned his attention to the study of Pacific salmon and soon became the foremost expert on these economically important fish. He studied salmon from California to Alaska, but concentrated his efforts in British Columbia (from about 1912‒1921) and in Alaska (from 1918‒1927). He was the first to correctly apply the scale method to aging of Pacific salmon, he pioneered racial studies of salmon using scales, and he was instrumental in establishing tagging programs on salmon in Alaska. He was the first to confirm the "home stream" theory to spawning salmon. Additionally, he was also one of the first scientists to consider the population dynamics of northwest stocks of salmon.