William Henry Edwards
| William Henry Edwards | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
15 March 1822 Hunter, New York |
| Died | 2 April 1909 (aged 87) Coalburg, West Virginia |
| Residence | United States |
| Known for | A Voyage Up the River Amazon |
William Henry Edwards (March 15, 1822 – April 2, 1909) was an American businessman and entomologist. He was an industrial pioneer in the coalfields of West Virginia, opening some of the earliest mines in the southern part of the state. He was also a prominent naturalist specializing in the study of butterflies. He wrote The Butterflies of North America, a three-volume treatise that is highly regarded for its scholarship and the quality of its illustrations.
Edwards was born in Hunter, New York, a village that had been founded by his family just five years earlier and originally called Edwardsville. The son of William W. Edwards and Helen Ann (Mann) Edwards, he came from a prominent and successful American family. His father was a businessman involved in banking, insurance and European imports. His grandfather was Colonel William Edwards, founder of the family tannery business and inventor of several devices used in the manufacture of leather goods. His great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, was a distinguished theologian and revivalist preacher.
The Edwards family owned and managed a very large tannery in Hunter that relied on tanbark harvested from the hemlock forests of their country estate in the Catskill Mountains. Edwards grew up on the estate where he developed a lifelong appreciation of nature and an interest in natural history.
After attending the local village school in Hunter, Edwards went on to Williams College, Massachusetts in 1838. He disliked the strong religious tone at Williams but greatly appreciated that the school was one of the first colleges in America to make natural history an important part of the curriculum. Edwards graduated in 1842 and then studied law in New York City with the expectation that he would join the family business. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1846 but did not pursue a career in law.
In 1846 Edwards traveled to Brazil and journeyed up the Amazon River with his uncle, Armory Edwards. Armory had been the US consul in Buenos Aires and worked in Argentina for the family's leather business. It is possible that the original purpose of their trip was related to family business concerns but for Edwards the focus of this trip became the beauty and untrammeled wilderness he experienced as they explored the huge delta island of Marajo and went upriver from Belem to Manaus.
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