For general readers and scholarly investigators alike, Science on the Texas Frontier: Observations of Dr. Gideon Lincecum will be a treat. Carefully chosen excerpts from Lincecum's letters and other scientific writings have been placed in context and linked to provide a narrative account of this frontier naturalist's twenty-five year investigation of Texas fauna, flora, landscape, and weather. His letters to such noted scientists as Charles Darwin in England, Spencer Baird and Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian, and Elias Durand in Philadelphia, are rich in detailed observations observations of the natural world and lightened with humor and wit.

This authoritative selection from an extensive collection of Lincecum's letters and papers, with annotation for the general reader, provides a superb introduction to the extensive scientific writings of a Darwinist on the Texas frontier. Lincecum offers insight into many aspects of the natural world, including his observations on ant behavior, the diverse arthropods of Texas, birds and small mammals, geology and Texas weather. Environmentalists will appreciate his work on the conservation of native Texas grasses, while entomologists will begin to see why he was ranked as an important contributor in the mid-19th century by a recent study of early American entomology. The extent and variety of his contributions to the Smithsonian and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences are documented for the first time. His publications in both popular and scientific periodicals are sampled, from the most practical (how to control cabbage bugs) to the highly scientific (the establishment of a new colony by an ant queen).

Readers will recognize in Science on the Texas Frontier the testimony of a pioneering individual who possessed a discerning eye, an analytical mind, and the ability to express himself with clarity and vigor. This is the first attempt to make a selection from hundreds of pages of Lincecum's scientific correspondence and weave them together to create a coherent narrative, with annotation and analysis that will aid the general reader and the historian of science.

We have obtained copies of all his publications and chosen appropriate selections to blend into the narrative, as well as providing a complete bibliography of his scientific writings. The result is a very readable narrative, with chapters on Texas ants, grasses, arthropods, weather, birds and small mammals, geology and shells, plus his observations of Mexican flora and fauna during the five years he spent in Tuxpan. Science on the Texas Frontier represents a significant contribution to the history of science in America during the mid 19th century.

Audiences for the book. General readers, Texana readers, history buffs, Western historians, students of the history of ideas, social historians, historians of science, botanists, zoologists, entomologists, naturalists, ornithologists, conservationists, and environmentalists. Also naturalists with an interest in Mexican flora and fauna around 1870. Local historians in Texas.

Visit Gideon Lincecum's Gravesite at the Texas State Cemetery

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