Hartt, Charles Frederick

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: W. Austin Squires, “HARTT, CHARLES FREDERICK,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hartt_charles_frederick_10E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Geologist and paleontologist; b. 23 Aug. 1840 at Fredericton, N.B., eldest son of Jarvis William Hartt and Prudence Brown; m. in 1869 Lucy Lynde of Buffalo, N.Y., by whom he had two children; d. in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 18 March 1878.
    • From an early age C. Fred Hartt (as he was usually known) manifested a great interest in the natural sciences, especially geology and paleontology, and he made extensive collections in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 
    • Brazil was, however, his great interest. In 1870 he organized the largest of his expeditions, taking with him another professor and 11 Cornell students. On this and a subsequent expedition he worked in the Amazonas. In 1874 he submitted a proposition to the Brazilian government for a geological survey of Brazil, and in 1875 the Geological Commission of the Empire of Brazil was organized with Professor Hartt as its chief. For the next three years he directed expeditions working in many parts of the country and set up a museum to house all the scientific specimens collected. Then in the spring of 1878, when he returned to Rio de Janeiro after an exhausting inland expedition, he died of yellow fever at the age of 38, cutting short a brilliant career.
    • Hartt’s contribution to scientific research in Brazil did not end with his own outstanding geological work. Inspired by his example the students whom he had taken to Brazil continued the research long after his death. Dr John Casper Branner, who had been personally associated with Hartt, wrote: “It is not difficult to sum up Hartt’s influence upon geological work in Brazil, for with very few exceptions all the work of this character which has been done in that country since 1874 is traceable, either directly or indirectly, to the impetus given it by Hartt . . . as he was not a narrow specialist but a broad-minded naturalist, his students have also done other than purely geological work.”
  • Grandson of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3620
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