Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 05 Nov 2007
Biography of William Harlow Reed: The Story of a Frontier Fossil Collector
Biography of William Harlow Reed: The Story of a Frontier Fossil Collector
Page Range: 6 – 13
William Harlow Reed was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1848. His adventurous spirit led him to the Rocky Mountain West to take positions guiding, hunting game, and fighting Indians. In 1877, while working as a foreman for the Union Pacific Railroad at Como, Wyoming, he accidentally discovered large bones on the nearby ridge. These specimens, reported to O.C. Marsh at Yale University, heralded him into a career in vertebrate paleontology that he would pursue for the next 38 years. Although frustrated by certain aspects of field work and lack of recognition as a field paleontologist, he was a diligent and loyal collector for Marsh. He gave this same dedication in later years to W. C. Knight at the University of Wyoming and W. J. Holland at the Carnegie Museum. Although not formally educated in the sciences, Reed's desire to learn, interest in natural phenomena, and association with the notable paleontologists of his time, allowed him to gain a background in geology and paleontology. After more than 25 years of significant discoveries of dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, mammals, and cycads in Wyoming, Reed was given the position as curator of the museum and instructor in geology at the University of Wyoming in 1904. He held this position until his death in 1915.
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