Natural History

In 1858, at the urging of Cyrus Thomas, the Illinois Natural History Society is established at Illinois State Normal University at Bloomington. Its constitution states its mission: the “field of observation and research shall comprise Geology, Meteorology, Botany, Zoology, Comparative Anatomy, and Vegetable and Animal Physiology.” Any resident of the state can join the Society. In 1861, Cyrus Thomas calls for a systematic, statewide natural history survey, without state funding. These surveys are conducted by unpaid volunteers, and therefore are “extremely irregular in amount and unequal in value” (Hayes 1980).

The most famous member of the Society, Major John Wesley Powell, arrives to lobby the legislature and to elevate the status of the Society. In 1867, he convinces the legislature to appropriate funds to provide a salary for a curator - and he is selected for the position shortly thereafter. However Powell’s greatest interest lies in exploring the American West, so he spends little time in Illinois after being named the curator of the Natural History Society’s museum.

The Society’s museum is transferred to the state in 1871, and the Society is no longer an effective organization. But it accomplished much in its short life. Stephen A. Forbes, Powell’s successor in 1872, says of the Society,

There is no doubt that this short-lived society brought a body of influential public opinion to the aid of state scientific and educational enterprises appearing during its existence, and that it did much to stimulate a general interest in scientific knowledge and research, and this to hasten the introduction of the sciences into the public schools - influences which did not cease when its own organic life ended.

Figure 10: Stephen A. Forbes (Illinois Natural History Survey)

Stephen A. Forbes (Figure 10) is twenty-eight when he succeeds Major Powell in 1972 as Curator of the Natural History Society’s museum. He is to have a profound impact to the study of the state’s natural history, including the Illinois River.

In 1877, the Natural History Society Museum becomes the State Laboratory of Natural History. This Laboratory is to provide specimens for the State Natural History Museum in Springfield, and other educational institutions, and is to carry out surveys of plants and animals, which includes studies in economic entomology. In 1882, Stephen Forbes is also named State Entomologist.