[PW] Ashtabula genus of jumping spiders

[Michael J. Lowrey]

On 3/2/07, Adrian Smith <a.smith at leeds.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> The Peckhams also published on wasps (solitary and social wasps)
> http://lib.leeds.ac.uk:80/record=b1841088
> http://lib.leeds.ac.uk:80/record=b1130602

I love the serendipity of this. As a Milwaukeean, I am embarrassed to
admit that I'd never heard of the Peckhams!

To quote from an abstract of a paper presented at a meeting of the
Mississippi Academy of Sciences, "Accomplishments of the nineteenth
century husband and wife team of George and Elizabeth Peckham have
mostly gone unnoticed because their work is in the entomological
literature. In fact, the Peckhams publications on the behavior and
classification of jumping spiders and behavior of solitary wasps were
crucial in supporting the theory of sexual selection and pioneered
many of the techniques and concepts associated with ethologists of the
mid twentieth century! In 1880 George Peckham organized the first
American biological laboratory program in any high school at the
Eastern High School in Milwaukee. He married his coworker, Mary
Gifford, one of the first science graduates from Vassar. They set to
work introducing Darwinian concepts into education and began their
studies on the taxonomy and behavior of jumping spiders, a large group
of visually oriented spiders. They were among the very first
taxonomists to emphasize the value of behavior in classification. In
1889 they published one of the first studies on sexual selection,
supporting Darwin's concept against Wallace's alternative explanation
of courtship behavior. In 1898 they produced On the Instincts and
Habits of Solitary Wasps — a literary as well as scientific classic.
Unlike the later work of Fabre, which stressed the "perfection" of
insect behavior, the Peckhams identified chained behaviors
subject to natural selection. The Peckhams were inseparable
researchers and educators."

The French Wikipedia article machine-translates to inform us
charmingly, "George William Peckham, born March 23 1845 in Albany in
the State of New York and dead January 10 1914 in Milwaukee, and
Elizabeth Maria Gifford Peckham, born December 19 1854 and dead
February 10 1940, are a couple of zoologists having carried out
together the essence of their work. George Peckham takes part in 18
years with the American Civil War and obtains the rank of first
lieutnant later one year. After the war, it resumes its studies and
obtains a title of doctor of medicine in 1872. Graduate also of right,
it however prefers to teach biology in East Division High School of
Milwaukee. In 1888, Peckham is named director of this establishment
and in 1891, inspector of the state education. In 1897, it leaves this
career to take the direction of the public library of Milwaukee,
function which it occupies until retirement in 1910. Together, they
particularly study manners of the spiders, in particular of the
salticidae, and the wasps. Their work on the reproductive behavior and
the imitation in these animals is worth an international reputation to
them."

Two examples of Elizabeth's work, "Communal Life" (from Wasps: Social
and Solitary); and "Ammophila and Her Caterpillars" (also from Wasps:
Social and Solitary), are included in
American Women Afield : Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists
(Marcia Myers Bonta, ed.)  She is important enough to rate entries in:
Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of
Contemporary women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915.
American Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary
Biography Index, Volume 20: September, 1994-August, 1995.
Notable Women Scientists (1999) and
Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century (1986)

-- 
Michael J. "Orange Mike" Lowrey

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food
and clothes."
     --  Desiderius Erasmus