Nuttall, Thomas

Nuttall, Thomas, 1786–1859, American naturalist, b. England. He was a pioneer in American paleontology and was curator (1822–32) of the Harvard botanical garden. He accompanied several scientific expeditions to the Mississippi and Missouri valleys and the Pacific coast and published his findings in The Genera of North American Plants (2 vol., 1818) and A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada (1832). In 1842 he returned to England. He also wrote an account of his travels (1819) into the Arkansas territory.

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Nuttall, Thomas (1786–1859) botanist, ornithologist; born in Settle, Yorkshire, England. He worked in a Liverpool print shop before emigrating to Philadelphia in 1808. Taking up the study of botany, he accompanied scientific expeditions on the Missouri River (1809–11), the Arkansas and Red Rivers (1818–20), and the Columbia River (1834–35). He published a study of American plant life in 1818 and an ornithological manual in 1832. From 1822–32 he was curator of the Botanical Garden of Harvard. In 1842 he inherited a small estate near Liverpool and returned to England where, a bachelor and recluse, he spent his remaining years cultivating rare plants.