13 November 1835 – 13 May 1866
Born: New Orleans, Louisiana
Died: Fort Nulato, Alaska
Occupation: Naturalist, Explorer. Co-Founder of the Chicago Academy of Science 1856, curator, 1863. Worked at the Smithsonian Institution 1858-59.
Education:
Research Interests: Many.
Travels: Expedition to the Canadian Arctic, 1859. Leader of the expedition to Alaska for Western Union Telegraph to Asia, 1865.
Remarks: Early pioneer of Illinois, published on fishes, mollusks, etc.
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: Tryon, G.W. 1867. Obituary. Major Robert Kennicutt [sic.]. American Journal of Conchology 3(1):107-108.
Vasile, R.S. 1994. The early career of Robert Kennicott, Illinois’ pioneering naturalist. Illinois Historical Journal 87(3):150-170.
Partial Bibliography
Kennicott, R. 1855. Catalogue of animals observed in Cook County, Illinois. Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society 1(1853-54):577-595.