author
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
1841–1906
A major American geologist and paleontologist of the late 19th century, he helped shape scientific teaching at Harvard while writing widely about the Earth, evolution, and human society. His career mixed influential scholarship and teaching with ideas on race that are now understood as deeply harmful.
2 Audiobooks
Domesticated animals : Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization
by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
Outlines of the Earth's History: A Popular Study in Physiography
by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
About the author
Born in Newport, Kentucky, in 1841, he studied at Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School under Louis Agassiz and graduated in 1862. During the Civil War he served with Union forces in Kentucky before returning to academic life.
He became one of Harvard's best-known science teachers, serving first as professor of paleontology and later as professor of geology. He also directed the Kentucky Geological Survey for part of the 1870s, and his writing ranged from crustal structure and Earth history to broader questions about evolution and religion.
Shaler died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1906. Although he was an important figure in American geology and education, some of his writings promoted racist theories that have since been strongly discredited, so his legacy is remembered as both influential and deeply troubled.