Theodore Luqueer Mead
| Theodore Luqueer Mead | |
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Mead as a young man, aged 22, taken in 1874
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| Born | February 23, 1852 |
| Died | May 4, 1936 (aged 84) |
| Resting place | Greenwood cemetery, Orlando |
| Monuments | Mead Botanical Garden |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Occupation | naturalist, entomologist and horticulturist |
| Known for |
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| Spouse(s) | Edith Katharine Antill Edwards |
| Children | Dorothy Luqueer Mead |
| Parent(s) | Samuel H. and Mary C. Mead |
Theodore Luqueer Mead (February 23, 1852 – May 4, 1936) was an important American naturalist, entomologist and horticulturist. As an entomologist he discovered more than 20 new species of North American butterflies and introduced the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado to the wider scientific world. As a horticulturist, he is best known for his pioneering work on the growing and cross-breeding of orchids, and the creation of new forms of caladium, bromeliad, crinum, amaryllis and hemerocallis (daylily). In addition he introduced many new semi-tropical plants, particularly palm varieties, into North America. Recently a comprehensive historical biography of his life and times has been published.
The Mead family was originally from England; his mother (née Luqueer), a descendant of Dutch Huguenot stock. Mead was born at Fishkill, New York to Samuel H. Mead and Mary C. Mead and was the grandson of Ralph Mead, a well-known New York wholesale grocer, who in 1838 had built and lived in the Second Avenue Manhattan house, now referred to as the Isaac T. Hopper House. Schooled in America and in Europe, where he learned French and German and studied the classics, he developed a deep interest in natural sciences from an early age that was strongly encouraged by his parents.
His first interest was in butterflies, and as a youth he apprenticed under the guiding influence of William Henry Edwards, author of the monumental five volume standard text at that time, “The Butterflies of North America”. In 1871, Edwards suggested that Mead, aged 19, take a trip to Colorado with the task of exploring and discovering new butterfly species in the Colorado Rockies.
Over 20 species new to science were collected by Mead on this trip, and three named by Edwards in his honor still carry his name: Colias meadii (Mead’s Sulphur), Speyeria callippe meadii (Mead’s Silverspot) and Cercyonis meadii (Mead’s Wood-Nymph).
Mead’s butterfly knowledge and expertise grew to such an extent that he was given the job of collating the butterfly discoveries from all the Wheeler Survey expeditions in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona from 1871 to 1874 and submitting the results as part of the final report to the United States Government.
At the end of his collecting time in Colorado, in September 1871, he heard tell of a strange petrified forest and rock formation at Florissant and went there on horseback to investigate. Realizing the scientific importance of the site, he collected 25 lbs. of compressive shale fossil rocks containing insects and leaves and sent these via Edwards to Samuel Hubbard Scudder, a Harvard University paleontologist, whose publications and lectures after analyzing the fossils alerted the rest of the scientific community to this important site, now the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
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Wikipedia