McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Worthen, Amos Henry, 1813-1888
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1813-1888
History
Amos Henry Worthen was born on October 31, 1813, in Bradford, Vermont.
He was a geologist and paleontologist. He attended Bradford Academy. He moved to Ohio and taught school at Cumminsville, near Cincinnati. He returned to his boyhood interest in natural science and studied the forests of the Mississippi valley, collecting fossils and minerals. In 1858, he became the second State Geologist of Illinois. From 1877 to 1888, he served as the first Curator of the Illinois State Museum. Worthen was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Philosophical Society (1863), and the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1834, he married Sarah Burnham Kimball (1814–1887). He died on May 6, 1888, in Warsaw, Illinois.