Pourtalès, L. F. de (Louis François de), 1824-1880

Louis François de Pourtalès was born on March 4, 1824, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

He was a Franco-American naturalist and author. He was educated as an engineer and was an expert in mathematics, physics, and zoology, with an interest in literature, poetry, and history. In 1840, he accompanied Prof. Louis Agassiz on glacial expeditions in the Alps and, in 1847, he followed Agassiz to the United States. In 1848, he entered government service with the Coast Survey and became profoundly interested in the deep sea. In 1851, he assisted in the triangulation of the Florida Reef, and from 1854 until his resignation in 1873, he oversaw the office and fieldwork of the tidal department of the Coast Survey. In 1873, he became custodian of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and was later appointed its Keeper, working closely with curator Alexander Agassiz. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and contributor to the Journal of Science and the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He published numerous Coast Survey reports, e.g., "Deep Sea Corals" (1871), "Corals at the Galapagos Islands" (1875), and "Florida Reef" (1880).

In 1848, he married Marienne Elise Bachman (1827–1897). He died on July 18, 1880, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.