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Overview Most popularly known as the Father of American Vertebrate Paleontology, Joseph Leidy was also the Founder of American Parasitology, a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, a pioneering protozoologist, an influential teacher of Natural History, a passionate microscopist, an accomplished scientific illustrator, and an expert on a variety of subjects. He published scientific papers on more than a thousand extinct and living protozoa, fungi and animals as well as an assortment...

Scope and Contents Primarily a business man with one home in Newport, Rhode Island, another in Philadelphia, Samuel Powel was once a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Pennsylvania and a great friend of Joseph Leidy. As an amateur naturalist he was interested in optics and the invention of a machine for showing microscopic slides directly on a screen. He was elected to the Academy in 1847 and for a short period was its corresponding secretary. The photographs in this collection include 67...