11 January 1814-18 January 1853
Born: Dorchester, Massachusetts
Died: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands of malaria (according to Dall, 1888) or yellow fever (according to Abbott & Young, 1973).
Occupation: Teacher, Geologist, Conchologist. Lecturer on Geology, Bradford Academy, 1835. Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, Middlebury College, Vermont, 1838-1847. Head, Geological Survey of Vermont, 1845-1847. Professor of Zoology, Amherst College, 1847.
Education: Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, 1829. Yale University, 1830-1832. Amherst College, Massachusetts, 1834, B.S. with high honors. Shortly after graduation he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, but left in 1836 to join Prof. Hitchcock at the Geological Survey of New York.
Research Interests: Freshwater, land and marine shells. West Indies and Panama.
Travels: Jamaica, 1843-33, 1848-49, 1851; Panama, 1850; St. Thomas via Bermuda, 1852.
Remarks: According to Dall, “Under his unremitting labors as a popular teacher in the college and his geological work in the field his naturally delicate constitution suffered, and he was obliged to seek a less rigorous climate.”
His collection, which was according to Dall “now standing third or fourth in the United States in point of interest and value, and its contained number of types” was left to Amherst College and was later transferred to ???????
Married Mary Holmes of New Bedford, Massachusetts, February 1839.
Data from: Abbott, R.T., and M.E. Young (eds.). 1973. American Malacologists: A national register of professional and amateur malacologists and private shell collectors and biographies of early American mollusk workers born between 1618 and 1900. American Malacologists, Falls Church, Virginia. Consolidated/Drake Press, Philadelphia. 494 pp.
Other References: Dall, W.H. 1888. Some American conchologists. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 4:95-134.
Johnson, R.I., and K.J. Boss. 1972. The fresh-water, brackish, and non-Jamaican land mollusks described by C.B. Adams. Occasional Papers on Mollusks, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 3(43):193-233.
Partial Bibliography
Adams, C.B. 1839. [Shells of Fresh Pond.] American Journal of Science and Arts 36(2):392-393.
Adams, C.B. 1840. Descriptions of thirteen new species of New England shells. Boston Journal of Natural History 3(3):318-332.
Adams, C.B. 1841. Catalogue of the Mollusca of Middlebury, Vt., and vicinity, with observations. American Journal of Science and Arts 40(2):266-277.
Adams, C.B. 1842. Fresh-water and land shells of Vermont. pp. 151-169 in Thompson’s History of Vermont, Part 1. 169 pp.
Adams, C.B. 1852. Catalogue of genera and species of recent shells. Collection of C.B. Adams, 1847. pp. 242-244 in Marcy’s Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana.
Adams, C.B. 1854. Shells. [in] Marcy, Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana. Washington D.C. :242-244.