AGASSIZ, ALEXANDER EMANUEL (1835-1910), American man of '
science, son of J. L. R. Agassiz, was born in Neuchatel, '
Switzerland, on the 17th of December 1835. He came to the '
United States with his father in 1846; graduated at Harvard '
in 1855, subsequently studying engineering and chemistry, '
and taking the degree of bachelor of science at the Lawrence '
scientific school of the same institution in 1857; and in '
1859 became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey. '
Thenceforward he became a specialist in marine ichthyology, '
but devoted much time to the investigation, superintendence '
and exploitation of mines, being superintendent of the Calumet '
and Hecla copper mines, Lake Superior, from 1866 to 1869, and '
afterwards, as a stockholder, acquiring a fortune, out of '
which he gave to Harvard, for the museum of comparative zoology '
and other purposes, some $500,000. In 1875 he surveyed Lake '
Titicaca, Peru, examined the copper mines of
Peru and Chile, '
and made a collection of Peruvian antiquities for that museum, '
of which he was curator from 1874 to 1885. He assisted Sir '
Wyville Thomson in the examination and classification of the '
collections of the "Challenger" exploring expedition, and '
wrote the Review of the Echini (2 vols., 1872-1874) in the '
reports. Between 1877 and 1880 he took part in the three '
dredging expeditions of the steamer "Blake," of the United '
States Coast Survey, and presented a full account of them '
in two volumes (1888). Of his other writings on marine '
zoology, most are contained in the bulletins and memoirs of '
the museum of comparative zoology; but he published in 1865 '
(with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, his step-mother) Seaside Studies '
in Natural History, a work at once exact and stimulating, '
and in 1871 Marine Animals of
Massachusetts Bay. '
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Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed