4 November 1819 – 24 May 1877
Born: Bristol, England.
Died: Montreal, Canada of typhoid fever at age 57.
Occupation: Amateur Conchologist; English Presbyterian Minister (ordained in England in 1841); Author; Publisher. Volunteer conchologist at the British Museum 1833-58; volunteer, New York State Cabinet of Natural History, Albany, 1858-60; Lecturer, McGill University, Montreal, 1859; working conchologist, Smithsonian Institution, 1859-60; Curator, Warrington Museum, England, 1860-65; Conchologist, Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, 1867-77.
Education: Received first degree of Doctor of Philosophy granted by the Regents of the State of New York in 1860.
Research Interests: Conchology. Pandoridae, Caecidae, and Chitonidae.
Travels: Western North America.
Collection Deposition: Collection in U. S. National Museum (USNM), Redpath Mus. (McGill Univ. Montreal); State Mus., Albany (New York), Museum of Comarative Zoology (MCZ), Field Museum of natural Hostory (FMNH), University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Illinois Natrual History Survey (INHS) and British Museum (BMNH). First series of material described in Mazatlan Catalogue (1855-57), including all types, in British Museum For details of Carpenter’s types see Palmer 1945, Nautilus 58: 97-102; 1951, New York State Mus. Bull. No. 342; 1958, Geol. Soc. Amer. Mem. 76; 1963, Bull. Amer. Paleont. 46: 289-408; Keen 1968, Veliger 10: 389-439. Carpenter’s original drawings of Mazatlan shells reproduced by Brann 1966 (Ithaca, N. York); for a note on the Mazatlan Catalogue and relevant coll. see Galbraith & Dance 1961. Ann. Rep. Amer. Malacol. Union 27 (for 1960): 10-12.
Remarks: “Dr. P.P. Carpenter was educated as a clergyman, and may be said to have never left the clerical mantle, so far as a continuance of earnest labors in all matters of moral and sanitary reform may be concerned…….Personally, he worked for righteousness in all his doings; no one could know withour respecting the man, though his fiery enthusiasm was not always appreciated or understood.” (Dall, 1877).
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: Coan, E.V. 1969. A bibliography of the biological writings of Philip Pearsall Carpenter. Veliger 12(2):222-225.
Conde, V. 1961. Redpath Museum. [A memorial to Philip Pearsal Carpenter]. (Abstract). American Malacological Union, Inc. Annual Reports. 1960(27):12-13.
Dall, W.H. 1877. Dr. Philip Pearsall Carpenter. American Naturalist 11(8):504-505.
Galbraith, I.C.J., and P. Dance. 1961. British Museum (Natural History). [A memorial to Philip Pearsal Carpenter]. (Abstract). American Malacological Union, Inc. Annual Reports. 1960(27):10-12.
Gould, A.A., and P.P. Carpenter. 1856. Descriptions of shells from the Gulf of California and the Pacific coasts of Mexico and California. Part II. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1856(24):198-208.
Hanna, G.D., L.G. Hertlein, and A.G. Smith. 1961. California Academy of Sciences. [A memorial to Philip Pearsal Carpenter]. (Abstract). American Malacological Union, Inc. Annual Reports. 1960(27):9-10.
Kellogg, R., and H.A. Rehder. 1961. Smithsonian Institution. [A memorial to Philip Pearsal Carpenter]. (Abstract). American Malacological Union, Inc. Annual Reports. 1960(27):12.
Palmer, K.V.W. 1956. Philip P. Carpenter, his life and work in Pacific Coast conchology. (Abstract). American Malacological Union, Inc. Annual Reports. 1956(22):5-6.
Partial Bibliography
Gould, A.A., and P.P. Carpenter. 1856. Descriptions of shells from the Gulf of California and the Pacific coasts of Mexico and California. Part II. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1856(24):198-208.
Carpenter, P.P. 1856. Monograph of the shells collected by T. Nuttall, Esq., on the California coast, in the years 1834-5. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1856(24):209-229.
Carpenter, P.P. 1857. Report on the present state of our knowledge with regard to the Mollusca of the west coast of North America. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1856:159-368 + 4 plates.
Carpenter, P.P. 1857. Catalogue of the collection of Mazataln shells, in the British Museum: collected by Frederick Reigen. London. 552 pp.
Carpenter, P.P. 1857. Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells, in the British Museum: collected by Frederick Reigen. 2nd ed. Oberlin Press, Warrington i-viii + i-xii + 552 pp.
Carpenter, P.P. [1857] 1967. [reprint of] Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells, in the British Museum: collected by Frederick Reigen. [British Museum, London] Paleontological Research Institute, Ithaca, NY i-iv + ix-xvi + 552 pp.
Carpenter, P.P. 1860. Lectures on mollusks. Smithsonian Report 1860:117.
Carpenter, P.P. 1872. The mollusks of Western North America, 1872. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 12:1-446.