In conjunction with James H. Dana, Dr. Pickering read, Feb. 20, 1838, before the
Yale Natural History Society, of which he was a member, a “ Description of a Crus-
taceous Animal belonging to the genus Caligus, C. Americanus,” which occupies
forty pages of vol. xxxviii. of Silliman’s “ Journal.”
Dr. Pickering was appointed a member of the scientific corps attached to the
United States Exploring Expedition, under command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.
He was placed on board of the flag-ship “ Vincennes.” The expedition sailed from
Hampton Roads Aug. 19, 1838, and arrived off Sandy Hook, N. Y., June 10, 1842,
after an absence of nearly four years. He is recorded among those present at the
stated meeting of the Academy July 5, and frequently afterwards until he again
went abroad. The first record of his presence after his return is May 20, 1845, and
from that date he occasionally attended meetings every year. He was last present
Nov. 7, 1876.
Oct. I I , 1843, Dr. Pickering left Boston and visited Egypt, Arabia, India, and
the eastern part of Africa, for the sake of extending and verifying observations made
while attached to the United States Exploring Expedition. Upon his return he
settled in Boston, and prepared his “ Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution,”
quarto, pp. 447, published by Charles C. Little and James Brown, Boston,
1848, being vol. ix. of the Exploring Expedition.
In 1850 he contributed a paper. Enumeration of the Races of Man, to the
“ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,” vol. xlviii.
His work entitled “ The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants,”
quarto, pp. 212, being vol. xv. of the Exploring Expedition, was published by Little
& Brown, Boston, 1854.
In the “ Proceedings ” of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are recorded
his observations on the Egyptian computation of time, October, 1849 ; on
the Egyptian Astronomical Cycle, May, 1850; on Sulphur Vapor, Dec. 9, 1856; on
the Coptic Alphabet, March 8, 1859; on the Geographical Distribution of Species,
March 22, 1859, and Dec. 11, i860; and on the Jewish Calendar, Oct. 11, 1864. A t
the request of the Secretary of the Institution he prepared a paper on the Gliddon
Mummy Case in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, in June, 1867, which
is published in vol. xvi. of the “ Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge.”
The “ Geograjihical Distribution of Animals and Plants. Part II. Plants in their
Wild State,” quarto, was published by the Naturalists’ Agency, Salem, 1876. It is
preceded by a note : “ The following 524 pages comprise about one-half of a prepared
volume, the printing of which was suspended in i86o. — Charles Pickering.”
The great work of Dr. Pickering’s life, “ The Chronological Plistory of Plants,”
to which he had devoted sixteen years of laborious research, was only recently completed,
and is now passing through the press.
This imperfect summary of work completed is sufficient evidence of his unremitting
industry, and suggests that he fully utilized his opportunities to qualify
himself for research during the ten years he zealously wrought in the offices and on
l i ■
the committees of the Academy. He was certainly a distinguished alumnus of the
Institution.
Dr. Pickering was characterized by imperturbable firmness of purpose, and by his
loyalty to truth, and integrity in every sense. He was extremely modest, averse to
parade, and remarkably free from pretension of every kind. His acquirements were
extensive, varied, and minutely accurate. His friends loved him for his unaggressive,
always tranquil temper, and his obliging disposition.
To this imperfect outline of Dr. Pickering’s scientific career, though a thing apart,
may be added a few words on his heredity.
Colonel Timothy Pickering, his grandfather, was a native of Salem, Mass., but his
active participation in the Revolution brought him to Philadelphia. He served in the
army, took part in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and was present at
the surrender of Yorktown. He was appointed postmaster-general, August, 1792,
secretary of war, January, 179S, and secretary of state, December, 179S, from which
office he was removed May 12, 1800, by President John Adams. His son, Timothy
Pickering, jr., the father of Dr. Pickering, was born in this city Oct. i, 1779. He
graduated at Harvard College; was appointed a midshipman in the navy Jan. 17,
1799 ; served creditably one cruise under command of the famous Stephen Decatur,
and resigned May 2, 1801.
His father. Colonel Pickering, had acquired extensive tracts of “ wild lands ” in
western Pennsylvania. Finding himself in restricted circumstances when removed
from office by President John Adams, he determined to transfer his family to those
lands with a view to their settlement. Timothy Pickering, jr., joined his father, and
settled at Starucca, now in Susquehanna County, Pa. There he married Lurena
Cole, Dec. 29, 1804, and there Dr. Charles Pickering was born Nov. 10, 1805. His
father died May 14, 1807, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. A few years prior
to this date, Colonel Pickering had changed his place of residence to a farm at
Wenham, near Salem, and thither he took the widow and her son to remain members
of his own household. There Dr. Pickering was raised and educated, under the immediate
direction of his mother and the supervision of his distinguished grandfather.
I .
[The following article, b j Dr. A sa G r ay, is reprinted from the “ Proceedings
Ac.ademy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xiii.]
of the American
C h a r l e s P ic k e r in g , M. D., died in Boston, of pneumonia, on the 17th of March,
1878, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was of a noted New England stock,
being a grandson of Colonel Timothy Pickering, a member of Washington’s military
family and of his first Cabinet as President ; and he was elected into this Academy
under the presidency of his uncle, John Pickering. He was born on Starucca Creek,
on the Upper Susquehanna, in the northern part of Pennsylvania, at a settlement