author
H. C. (Harry Crécy) Yarrow
1840–1929
A 19th-century army surgeon who ranged far beyond medicine, he wrote on North American Indigenous mortuary customs while also building a reputation in zoology and natural history. His work reflects the wide, sometimes surprising curiosity of early Smithsonian-era science.
2 Audiobooks
A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians
by H. C. (Harry Crécy) Yarrow
An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
by H. C. (Harry Crécy) Yarrow
About the author
Born in 1840 and remembered today as H. C. Yarrow, Henry Crécy Yarrow was an American surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist. He served as an army surgeon and later became the first Curator of Herpetology at the United States National Museum, part of the Smithsonian.
Yarrow took part in the Wheeler Surveys in the American West, where his field experience fed a broad scientific career. Alongside his zoological work, he wrote Introduction to the Study of Mortuary Customs Among the North American Indians and related studies, bringing together observations on burial practices and funerary traditions.
For audiobook listeners, he is an unusual historical figure: a medical officer with a naturalist’s eye and a researcher’s habit of turning close observation into detailed, documentary prose. His books belong to a period when science, anthropology, and exploration often overlapped in a single career.