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46-694: The Garden was established in 1899 when paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh , an 1860 Yale College graduate, bequeathed his estate and plant collections to the university. The Garden was designed by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand during the 1920s and 1930s as part of her design for the Yale campus. Today, the Garden supports research and instruction, and is a public greenspace . Only remnants of Farrand's design remain, although restoration work has begun. The greenhouses contain collections of cacti , insectivores , and orchids . This article related to

92-548: A biographer, "during an afternoon spent on Dracut Heights [Lowell]. I resolved that I would return to Andover, take hold, and really study." Marsh applied himself to his studies and graduated valedictorian of his class in 1856. In the summers off of school, he prospected for minerals in New York, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia. Upon gradation, Marsh decided to attend Yale, rather than Harvard, where many of his relatives had attended. He ran his letter to George Peabody asking for

138-466: A farm in Lockport when Marsh was twelve. As the eldest son, Othniel was expected to assist his father on the farm, and the two had a contentious relationship. Othniel much preferred excursions in the woods to his chores. Among his childhood influences was Ezekiel Jewett, a former military officer and amateur scientist who influenced Othniel's interest in the sciences. Jewett had been drawn to the area by

184-645: A garden in the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences . He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among his legacies are the discovery or description of dozens of new species and theories on

230-522: A legacy, and each was a distinguished researcher. But really it seems impossible to say one name without the other. Cope and Marsh." Marsh's names for three dinosaur groups, and nineteen genera, have survived, and though only three of Cope's named genera are still in use, he published a record 1400 scientific papers. Marsh named the following dinosaur genera : He named the suborders Ceratopsia (1890), Ceratosauria (1884), Ornithopoda (1881), Stegosauria (1877), and Theropoda (1881). He also named

276-605: A period of frenzied Western American expeditions known as the Bone Wars . Marsh's greatest legacy is the collection of Mesozoic reptiles, Cretaceous birds, and Mesozoic and Tertiary mammals that now constitute the backbone of the collections of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution . Marsh has been called "both a superb paleontologist and the greatest proponent of Darwinism in nineteenth-century America." Othniel Charles Marsh

322-582: A professorship at Yale and instead took a tour of Europe; it is possible the trip was to avoid being drafted into the American Civil War , although he might have also been disqualified from service on account of his eyesight. Marsh traveled through England, France, Germany, and Switzerland, studying with or making the acquaintance of prominent scientists such as Heinrich Ernst Beyrich , Wilhelm Peters , Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and Henry Woodward . In discussions with his uncle, Marsh convinced

368-509: A salmon fishing excursion with Peabody in Ireland, Marsh returned to America in July or August 1865. Marsh had expected Peabody's gift would have resulted in a position at Yale, but it took until 1866 when Yale established a chair of paleontology at the university. Marsh was given the position, but no salary was attached; biographer George Grinnell suggested that this suited Marsh just fine, as he

414-520: A scholarship he won for the best examination in Greek to finance a masters degree from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School , as he developed an interest in becoming a professor of science. While in graduate school, Marsh published his first scientific papers on minerals and vertebrate fossils from his Nova Scotia trips, which possibly inspired Marsh's interest in vertebrate paleontology. He obtained his masters degree in 1862. Following school, Marsh declined

460-623: A tour of the marl pits in New Jersey where he was finding fossils; unbeknownst to Cope, Marsh would later pay the pit operators to divert their finds to him instead of Cope. Marsh later noted that Cope's reconstruction of his newest find, the aquatic reptile Elasmosaurus , was flawed: Cope had placed the head of the animal where its tail should have been. Marsh's criticism wrankled Cope, and threatened his nascent career; he responded by critiquing errors in Marsh's work, and moving in on areas Marsh

506-808: The Chandler Scientific School in 1852. The stage was set at Yale for the transition in education beginning in 1846, when professorships of agricultural chemistry ( John Pitkin Norton ) and practical chemistry ( Benjamin Silliman Jr. ) were established. In 1847, the School of Applied Chemistry became part of a newly created Department of Philosophy and the Arts (later, the Yale Graduate School ). Classes and labs were hosted in

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552-916: The Morrill Act starting in 1863 and an agricultural course was begun. Land grant status, however, was transferred to the Storrs Agricultural School in 1893 after arguments by the state grange that the school was not a proper "farm school". A series of lectures, later known as the Sheffield Lectures was instituted by the school in 1866. Professor Othniel Charles Marsh of the school led four Yale scientific expeditions in search of fossils in 1870-3. The Sheffield School innovated with an undergraduate course offering science and mathematics as well as economics, English, geography, history, modern languages, philology and political science. Sheffield also pioneered graduate education in

598-564: The U.S. Geological Survey from 1882 to 1892. Thanks to John Wesley Powell , head of the USGS, and Marsh's contacts in Washington, Marsh was placed at the head of the consolidated government survey in the late 1880s. In 1880, Marsh caught the attention of the scientific world with the publication of Odontornithes: a Monograph on Extinct Birds of North America, which included his discoveries of birds with teeth. These skeletons helped bridge

644-549: The Yale Alumni Weekly ) who "took control out of President Hadley 's hands and forced a radical reorganization of Yale". In 1956, the Sheffield Scientific School was terminated as an active school. The Board of Trustees still exists to oversee the Sheffield Scientific School property and meet legal requirements. The school's faculty is defined as teachers of science to graduate students under

690-756: The families Allosauridae (1878), Anchisauridae (1885), Camptosauridae (1885), Ceratopsidae (1890), Ceratosauridae , Coeluridae , Diplodocidae (1884), Dryptosauridae (1890), Nodosauridae (1890), Ornithomimidae (1890), Plateosauridae (1895), and Stegosauridae (1880). Marsh dubbed many additional species of dinosaur as well, notable taxa including Allosaurus fragilis , Triceratops horridus , Stegosaurus stenops , Ornithomimus velox , and Brontosaurus excelsus . Dinosaurs named by others in honour of Marsh include Hoplitosaurus marshi (Lucas, 1901), Iaceornis marshi (Clarke, 2004), Marshosaurus (Madsen, 1976), Othnielia (Galton, 1977), and Othnielosaurus (Galton, 2007). Marsh's finds formed

736-587: The Colony Club, 1848 (now Berzelius ), the Cloister, 1863 (now Book and Snake ), St. Anthony Hall , 1867 (now a 3-year society, also called Delta Psi), St. Elmo , 1889 (also a senior society), as well as Franklin Hall, 1865 ( Theta Xi ), York Hall, 1877 (Chi Phi), Sachem Hall, 1893 ( Phi Sigma Kappa ), and Vernon Hall, 1908 (now Myth and Sword ). The Yale Scientific Magazine was founded at Sheffield in 1894,

782-530: The Law of brain growth, which states that, during the tertiary period, many taxonomic groups presented gradual increase in the size of the brain. This evolutionary law remains being used due to its explanatory, and to a certain extent, predictive potential Prior to Marsh's efforts, the entirety of fossil remains known in North America was quite small. As a result of the generosity of George Peabody , Marsh

828-906: The Peabody fossil hall. He donated his home in New Haven, Connecticut, to Yale University in 1899. The Othniel C. Marsh House , now known as Marsh Hall, is designated a National Historic Landmark . Marsh Hall serves as the home of the Yale School of Forestry at the Yale School of the Environment . The grounds are now known as the Marsh Botanical Garden . Marsh was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1877. Marsh formulated

874-579: The Second President's House on Yale's Old Campus until funding and a suitable facility could be found. Norton died in 1852 and was replaced by John Addison Porter . Applied chemistry was followed in 1852 by a professorship of civil engineering ( William Augustus Norton ) establishing a school of engineering. These programs made up the Yale Scientific School. In 1853 and 1854, science and engineering courses were listed in

920-559: The Sheffield Scientific School resumed its original function of graduate level instruction in science. Undergraduate courses for the Bachelor of Science degree were transferred to Yale College, and undergraduate courses for a Bachelor of Science in industrial administration were transferred to the School of Engineering. This transition occurred gradually, through the influence of "aggressive, powerful alumni" (including Edwin Oviatt, editor of

966-500: The United States, granting the first Ph.D. in the United States in 1861 as well as the first engineering Ph.D. to Josiah Willard Gibbs in 1863, and the first geology Ph.D. to William North Rice in 1867. Unlike Yale College students at the time, Sheffield students had "no dorms, no required chapel, no disciplinary marks and no proctors". The Academical Department of Yale ( Ac ) and Sheffield ( Sheff ) became rivals. Loomis Havemeyer , alumnus and registrar at Sheffield, stated: "During

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1012-488: The Yale College course catalog as offered by the Yale Scientific School. Porter elicited help from his father-in-law, Joseph Earl Sheffield , and in 1858, Sheffield donated over US$ 100,000 to purchase the old Medical Department building for the scientific school. This gift included two newly-renovated wings within the building. The old Yale Medical School building on the northeast corner of Grove and Prospect Streets

1058-467: The businessman to fund a natural history museum at Yale . While studying at the University of Berlin in late 1863, the 32-year-old Marsh first met 25-year-old Edward Drinker Cope , who was also on a scientific tour of Europe. Cope had much less formal schooling than Marsh, but had already published thirty-seven papers. The two Americans spent a few days together and would become friends. After

1104-588: The first student magazine devoted to the sciences. In 1872–73, Sheffield Scientific School's first new building, North Sheffield Hall was built, designed by Josiah Cleaveland Cady , on what had been the gardens of the Town-Sheffield mansion. This was followed by Winchester Hall (1892) and Sheffield Chemical (1894-5, J. Cleaveland Cady). Of these, only the latter, Sheffield Chemical, is still standing, renovated and renamed Arthur K. Watson Hall. Becton Laboratory (designed by Marcel Breuer , 1970) now stands on

1150-632: The fossils unearthed by the enlargement of the Erie Canal , and the two would hunt and prospect for specimens together. By 1847, Othniel was attending school at the Wilson Collegiate Institute , and later attended the Lockport Union School. Othniel was undecided as to what he would do for a living, but the course of his future was dramatically changed due to the intervention of his uncle George Peabody , who

1196-587: The funds by Aunt Judith first, who disapprovingly noted it contained two spelling errors. Peabody agreed to cover Marsh's expenses and give him an allowance for spending money, and Marsh moved to New Haven in September. Marsh was a good student, but not a thrifty one; Aunt Judith, who was in charge of monitoring Marsh while Peabody was in Europe, regularly upbraided her nephew for his lax accounting habits and large expenses. Marsh graduated eighth in his class, using

1242-401: The gap between dinosaurs and birds, and provided invaluable support for Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin wrote to Marsh saying, "Your work on these old birds & on the many fossil animals of N. America has afforded the best support to the theory of evolution, which has appeared within the last 20 years" (since Darwin's publication of Origin of Species). Between 1883 and 1895, Marsh

1288-501: The original core of the collection of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History . The museum's Great Hall is dominated by the first fossil skeleton of Brontosaurus that he discovered, which was reclassified as Apatosaurus for a time. However, an extensive study published in 2015 concluded that Brontosaurus was a valid genus of sauropod distinct from Apatosaurus . Some other Marsh taxa like Camarasaurus lentus , Nanosaurus agilis , and Camptosaurus dispar are also represented in

1334-416: The origins of birds. Born into a modest family, Marsh was able to afford higher education thanks to the generosity of his wealthy uncle George Peabody . After graduating from Yale College in 1860 he travelled the world, studying anatomy , mineralogy and geology . He obtained a teaching position at Yale upon his return. From the 1870s to 1890s, he competed with rival paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in

1380-536: The prospecting groups composed of Yale students or recent graduates. The first of these uncovered more than a hundred new species of vertebrate fossils. After 1876, Marsh employed bone hunters who shipped specimens back to him; he did not return west himself until 1879. When Cope began prospecting for fossils in the Bridger Basin, which Marsh considered "his" territory, their relationship deteriorated into hostility. Marsh served as Vertebrate Paleontologist of

1426-540: The sciences and the liberal arts. Following World War I , however, its curriculum gradually became completely integrated with Yale College. " The Sheff " ceased to function as a separate entity in 1956. After technological developments in the early nineteenth century, such as the electric telegraph , an interest was fostered in teaching applied science at universities. Harvard established the Lawrence Scientific School in 1846 and Dartmouth began

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1472-402: The second half of the nineteenth century Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School, separated by only a few streets, were two separate countries on the same planet." The Ac students studied liberal arts and would look down on the practical Sheff students. Sheffield had its own student secret societies (aka final clubs or senior societies, some also known by their Greek letters) including

1518-596: The site of North Sheffield and Winchester Halls (demolished in 1967). Further expansion brought Kirtland Hall (1902, Kirtland Cutter ), Hammond Laboratory (1904, W. Gedney Beatty), Leet Oliver Hall (1908, Charles C. Haight ), Mason Laboratory (1911, Charles C. Haight) and Dunham Laboratory (1912, Henry Morse; addition 1958, Douglas Orr), all still standing except Hammond which was razed in 2009 to make way for two new residential colleges. The Vanderbilt-Sheffield Dormitories and Towers were built by Charles C. Haight from 1903 to 1906, and Haight's chapter house St. Anthony Hall

1564-456: The study of the natural, physical, and mathematical sciences." Sheffield was one of Yale's greatest benefactors and continued to support the school throughout his life, giving a total of about US$ 500,000. Yale also received US$ 591,000 from his will as well as his house, the Sheffield mansion, designed and originally owned by Ithiel Town (demolished in 1957). The school also benefited from

1610-530: The understanding of extinct reptiles, birds and mammals are unequaled in the history of paleontology." Marsh Butte , located in the Grand Canyon, was officially named in his honor in 1906. On December 15, 2023, McSweeney's published the piece “IT’S A COMEDIAN’S JOB TO MAKE FUN OF EVERYBODY, AND THAT’S WHY MY ACT IS ENTIRELY ABOUT 1880s PALEONTOLOGIST OTHNIEL MARSH”, by Anthony Scibelli. Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School

1656-638: Was President of the National Academy of Sciences . The pinnacle of Marsh's work with dinosaurs came in 1896 with the publication of his two quartos, Dinosaurs of North America and Vertebrate Fossils, which demonstrated his unsurpassed knowledge of the subject. On December 13, 1897, Marsh received the Cuvier Prize of 1,500 francs from the French Academy of Science . According to Peter Dodson , Cope and Marsh "[have] left

1702-465: Was a successful banker. With Peabody's financial assistance (spurred by Marsh's aunt, Judith), Marsh enrolled in Phillips Academy in 1851. Older than most of the other students, he was nicknamed "Daddy" by his peers. He was initially an unremarkable student, devoting much of his time to leisure and games, but the next year decided to focus on his studies. "I changed my mind," he later told

1748-496: Was able to keep discovery teams in the field almost continuously from 1870 until his death. The material recovered in his 30 years of collection was simply astonishing to the scientific community. At the Peabody Museum, Marsh was the first to create skeletal displays of dinosaurs, which are now common in countless museums of natural history. Marsh biographer Mark J. McCarren summed it up this way, Marsh's "contributions to

1794-537: Was born on October 29, 1831, near Lockport, New York. He was the third of four children born to Mary Gaines Peabody (1807–1834) and Caleb Marsh (1800–1865). The Marsh (nee Marshe) family and Peabody families immigrated to America from England in the 1630s. Mary died shortly after the birth of her fourth child in 1834. Caleb remarried in 1836 and Othniel moved with the family to Bradford, Massachusetts . Soon after, Caleb's business fortunes soured, and Othniel's early years were marked by financial struggles. Caleb purchased

1840-602: Was built in 1913. Byers Hall, designed by Hiss and Weekes and built in 1903, served as a center for social and religious life. These buildings are now incorporated into Silliman College , and St. Anthony Hall still owns its building, which completes the College and Wall Street corner of the Silliman College Quadrangle. In 2006-7, Silliman underwent a major renovation. Also, in 1913, land in East Lyme

1886-474: Was celebrated in 1947 with the Silliman lectures given by Ernest O. Lawrence , Linus Pauling , W. M. Stanley and George Wells Beadle . The first degree of Bachelor of Science was awarded in 1922 to the graduating class of the Sheffield Scientific School. In 1932, the School of Engineering was reestablished and Sheffield Scientific School engineering classes were transferred to the new school. In 1945,

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1932-573: Was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut , for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School , it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield , a railroad executive. The school was incorporated in 1871. The Sheffield Scientific School helped establish the model for the transition of U.S. higher education from a classical model to one which incorporated both

1978-495: Was more interested in research than teaching. Marsh's interests shifted entirely to paleontology, and after 1869 his other scientific contributions mostly ceased. While teaching, Marsh toured the country, visiting museums to inform the planning of the Yale Museum. In 1868, he visited Cope; since their meeting, they had expressed warm wishes in letters to each other and even named species after each other. Cope took Marsh on

2024-517: Was prospecting in. Their relationship began to sour. Marsh was looking further afield than New Jersey for fossils. After visiting Chicago for a meeting of the American Association, Marsh elected to join other members to Omaha on a "geological excursion"; it was Marsh's first trip to the far western United States, and it inspired him to return to prospect. Marsh organized a series of private expeditions starting in 1870 to 1874, with

2070-724: Was purchased for a field engineering camp (now the Yale Outdoor Education Center). During the 1918-1919 reorganization of the educational structure of Yale University, the three years "select" course at Sheffield Scientific School was eliminated and a four-year course of study for those studying "professional science" and "engineering" was approved, while graduate courses were transferred to the Graduate School, leaving only undergraduate courses taught at Sheffield Scientific School from 1919 to 1945, coexisting with Yale College's science programs. The centennial

2116-435: Was renovated and renamed (South) Sheffield Hall. (It was demolished in 1931 and was on the current site of Sterling Tower, Sheffield Hall and Strathcona Hall (SSS).) Sheffield's building reinforced the division of Hillhouse Avenue into an upper, residential section, and a lower section devoted to education. In 1861, the school became the Sheffield Scientific School in recognition of his generosity devoted to "the promotion of

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