Lyman, Theodore

Lyman, Theodore, 1833–97, American naturalist, b. Waltham, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1855, and Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, 1858. He was in the Union army as an aide (1863–65) on the staff of Gen. George Meade. As Massachusetts commissioner of inland fisheries (1866–83) he was a leader in the movement for the conservation of food fish. For the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (with which he was associated, 1859–87) he published many scientific papers on marine forms. He served in Congress (1882–85) as an independent in favor of civil service reform.

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Lyman, Theodore (1833–97) zoologist, soldier; born in Waltham, Mass. He graduated from Harvard in 1855 and worked under Louis Agassiz. He was one of the first trustees of the Museum of Comparative Zoology and he pursued his studies both at home and abroad. He volunteered during the Civil War and was present at several important occasions; his letters to his wife, published as Meade's Headquarters, 1863–65, Letters of Col. Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox (1922) are a valuable source for students of the Civil War. He was a member of the House of Representatives (Ind., Mass.; 1883–85).

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Lyman, Theodore (1874–1954) physicist; born in Boston, Mass. He taught at Harvard (1907–25), then became director of Harvard's Jefferson Physical Laboratory (1910–47). He discovered the fundamental "Lyman" series of hydrogen wavelengths in the vacuum ultraviolet (1914), and continued to investigate the range of ultraviolet spectra to increasingly shorter wavelengths.