John C. Merriam
| John Campbell Merriam | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 20, 1869 Hopkinton, Iowa |
| Died | 30 October 1945 (aged 76) Oakland, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Paleontology, Education |
| Institutions | Carnegie Institution of Washington, National Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Institution |
| Alma mater | Lenox College, University of California, Berkeley, University of Munich |
| Doctoral students | William J. Sinclair |
John Campbell Merriam (October 20, 1869 – October 30, 1945) was an American paleontologist, educator, and conservationist. The first vertebrate paleontologist on the West Coast of the United States, he is best known for his taxonomy of vertebrate fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, particularly with the genus Smilodon, more commonly known as the sabertooth cat. He is also known for his work to extend the reach of the National Park Service.
He was born in Hopkinton, Iowa, the eldest child of postmaster, store proprietor, and American Civil War veteran Charles E. Merriam. His middle name Campbell was his mother's middle name, and the maiden name of his maternal grandmother.
Both his father Charles E. Merriam and his paternal uncle Henry C. Merriam had served as officers in the 12th Iowa Infantry, Company K; after capture at the Battle of Shiloh, they were sent to Libby Prison for some time before being returned to the battlefields. Eventually, when the two brothers were mustered out, they returned to Iowa, married, and raised families.
It seems that John Campbell Merriam may not have had a close relationship with his brother Charles E. Merriam Jr. (five years younger), who went on to University of Chicago as a political scientist and founder of the Social Science Research Council. Certainly, their intellectual trajectories were quite distinct: while Charles was a hardball political scientist, John Campbell was a paleontologist whose science verged into Christian mystical telology (see Stock) (check for more biographic details on brother C.E. Merriam). Both John Campbell Merriam and his brother Charles E. Merriam Jr. spent their later years in Washington, D.C., where they influenced national policies in their chosen fields.
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