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Alexander Wilson
(6 Jul 1766 - 23 Aug 1813)
Scottish-American ornithologist and poet who traveled extensively to make paintings of the birds he observed. His pioneering work was published in nine volumes of illustrations as American Ornithology.
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Science Quotes by Alexander Wilson (1 quote)
On the 25th of this month I remove to the SchoolHouse beyond Gray’s Ferry to succeed the present Teacher there. I shall recommence that painful profession once more with the same gloomy sullen resignation that a prisoner re-enters his Dungeon or a Malefactor mounts the Scaffold; Fate urges him, necessity me. … I shall have many difficulties to overcome in establishing my own Rules and authority. But perseverance overcometh all things.
— Alexander Wilson
From Letter to Charles Orr (14 Feb 1802), collected in Clark Hunter (ed.), The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson (1983), 191-192.
Quotes by others about Alexander Wilson (1)
I was a reasonably good student in college ... My chief interests were scientific. When I entered college, I was devoted to out-of-doors natural history, and my ambition was to be a scientific man of the Audubon, or Wilson, or Baird, or Coues type—a man like Hart Merriam, or Frank Chapman, or Hornaday, to-day.
In Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (1913), 23.
See also:
- 6 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Wilson's birth.
- Alexander Wilson - from Leading American Men of Science (1910).
- Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer,: A biography, by Robert Cantwell. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
