May 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 22

Community Center

The Preservation of a Naturalist
By Samantha Bartram

ne of the first things you notice about Robert Kennicott is his teeth.
Gleaming white and slick, his frozen rictus grins eternally from inside a
custom-made glass case, like an extremely goth version of Sleeping Beauty. Unlike that Disney princess, however, no kiss is likely to revive the 19th
century naturalist - Kennicott has been dead for more than 150 years.
Still, the Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History
is giving Kennicott a revival of sorts,
as one of the main attractions of its
" Objects of Wonder " exhibit. His remarkably well-preserved skeleton is just
one of hundreds of artifacts - some
collected by Kennicott himself - that
museum guests will pour over as they
contemplate our natural world and its
incredible array of flora, fauna, rocks,
minerals and other items.
It is fitting that Kennicott's skeletal remains are part of the exhibit - not to
mention satisfying, too, for the handful

of park professionals and scientists who
passionately examined the life of one
of America's original citizen scientists.
This insatiably curious group went well
past the heart of the matter, deep into
the bones - literally - to learn more
about Kennicott's life and solve the mystery surrounding his untimely death. In
the process, they reconnected to a legacy
that began with an innate curiosity and
love of nature.
The Accidental Naturalist
Robert Kennicott was born in northeastern Illinois in November 1835, the son

of John Kennicott, a doctor and farmer.
A chronically sickly child, Robert was
often unable to attend school and was
ill suited for the fields. Accordingly, his
father set out to home-school the boy
and connected him with naturalist Jared
Potter Kirtland, convincing Kirtland of
his need for an understudy. It wasn't long
before young Robert began collecting
all sorts of natural specimens from the
approximately 250 acres that originally
comprised the Kennicott estate, thenknown as Kennicott Grove.
Eventually, Kennicott began sharing
his acquisitions with Spencer Fullerton
Baird, yet another naturalist/scientist,
and the first curator ever named to the
Smithsonian Institution. For the better
part of Kennicott's scant 30 years of life,
he traveled North America collecting
natural artifacts, as well as art, clothing
and even the languages of native populations. " In the 19th century, many of the
animals and plants he collected were yet
to be identified as scientifically studied, "
says Kari Bruwelheide, a forensic anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History. " [Robert's] collecting was
so comprehensive that he has specimens
in every department of our Natural History museum. He also recruited others to
collect for the Smithsonian. Perhaps he
was the first to enlist citizen scientists in
helping collect data! "
Kennicott's demise on the banks of
the Yukon River while on expedition
in Alaska had since become fodder for
historical speculation Some thought he
committed suicide, while others wonThe Gothic Revival Kennicott House, boyhood
home of Robert Kennicott, was built in Cook
County, Illinois, in 1856 by his father, John,
who was also a horticulturalist and journalist.

Parks & Recreation

| M AY 2 0 1 7 | W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G

May 2017 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2017 - Parks & Recreation