Robert Parr Whitfield: Hall's Assistant Who Stayed too Long

Abstract

R. P. Whitfield was born near Utica in 1828. He had no formal education. He was deeply committed to natural history and joined a Utica society at 17 and bought a microscope and soon became well known as a naturalist illustrator. At 20 years of age he began working in a scientific instrument business at Utica and within a year became a partner. He caught the attention of Col. Jewett, a curator of the State Cabinet and joined the Hall paleontology group in 1856. He was Hall's chief illustrator for 10 years, gradually learning the trade and becoming Hall's chief assistant. In 1869, trouble developed over the authorship of a paper on Devonian clams and their relationship quickly deteriorated to the point that Whitfield looked for a position elsewhere, securing such at the American Museum of Natural History in 1877. Even when he left, Hall accused him of breach of contract but evidence indicates that Hall knew that he had the job in New York following the purchase of Hall's collection by the American Museum of Natural History. Whitfield became an active producer of papers on a wide variety of paleontology averaging 3-4 per year and became a major influence in Paleontology in the 1880-1900 period. He died shortly after he was retired at the age of 82 in 1910.