Talk:Alpheus Hyatt

Lamarckist
Alpheus Hyatt believed in neo-lamarckism which I think has caused his contributions to science to be downplayed a bit. Needs a little beefing up.

note:
He lived in a house in Annisquam, now 704 Washington Ave (route 127) which is where he started the laboratory and school which became the MBL. I think he moved there in 1880. (It also may have been called River Road back then but that is on the other side of Lobster Cove which is where he may have moored the sloop which went out to collect samples) The house has a plaque on it predating the Civil War stating it was an old house then. It may have been 1635 the house was built. The owner in the 1980s was the editor of Antique magazine and I believe was related to Hyatt but all of this is stories and memory. Needs to be confirmed. At that time the attic was stuffed with artifacts including Hyatt's original copy of the "Origin of the Species" with his notes written in the margins. I think some of this as well as the bust of Hyatt which was in the upstairs hallway went to the Woods Hole Historical Society. MBCF (talk) 21:22, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

House historical landmark
noted from the national historic registry states first significance was 1875-1899. I think the 1875 was when Hyatt moved there. But I believe the plaque on the house states some significance prior to that. I'll try and stop by in the next month and snap a photo of the plaque. The other striking thing about the surrounding land was a Beechnut tree to the NE of the house (100 feet.) It reminded me of the tremendous size of the beechnut trees in the Ashumet Holly Reservation on Cape Cod. One of the few trees that were not chopped down.

Following pasted from National Historic Register. From the sketch it is obvious the research facility aspect of the house is known.:

Norwood--Hyatt House (added 2000 - Building - #00001272) 704 Washington St., Gloucester Historic Significance: 	Architecture/Engineering, Event, Person Architectural Style: 	Georgian, Federal Historic Person: 	Hyatt, Alpheus Area of Significance: 	Architecture, Art, Education, Science Period of Significance: 	1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949 Owner: 	Private Historic Function: 	Domestic, Education Historic Sub-function: 	Research Facility, Single Dwelling Current Function: 	Domestic Current Sub-function: 	Single Dwelling MBCF (talk) 22:10, 21 July 2008 (UTC)


 * another note from: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/4805/capeann.htm


 * On March 23, 1664, the town clerk of Gloucester wrote in the records in gnarled handwriting:

...
 * "Given unto ffrancis Norwood att the Towne meeting, six akers of upland liinge bye Goose Cove."
 * The law required that anyone who received a grant of land must build on it within six months on pain of losing the grant. This dates the foundation of the house before August 1664.

...


 * The bank foreclosed the mortgage and the house was on the market for several years until Prof. Alpheus Hyatt bought it in 1878. He started there the first marine biological laboratory in the country. It later moved to Woods Hole.

...


 * "I, Alfred Mayor, am the great grandson of Alpheus Hyatt, who bought the Norwood house in Annisquam in 1879. The house has been in my family since then. I have placed a conservation restriction on the house and the 3 1/2 acre lot it sits on. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities holds the restriction in perpetuity, meaning that future owners may not sell off parcels of land or alter the historic aspects of the house. The house is now listed on the National Register. As I have no heirs, the house will eventually be sold....

Alfred Mayor." —Preceding unsigned comment added by MBCF (talk • contribs) 19:02, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Racial Senescence
Hyatt is probably best known for his unique but long-forgotten theory of "racial senescence"- and it's not mentioned here. In his early works he argued that the evolutionary "progress" and "decline" of higher taxonomic groups in the fossil record resembled the progress and decline of individual organisms (youthful morphology - > old age morphology). He derived these ideas from observations on the fossil record of the nautiloid and ammonoid cephalopods. Hyatt's subsequent, more forced adoption of Lamarckian ideas are less interesting from a historical perspective.

Hyatt's unique evolutionary ideas derived some inspiration from his mentor Louis Agassiz as well as Haeckel's Biogenetic Law. His idea of directional evolution was later connected to early 20th century theories of orthogenesis.

Peter Bowler and Steven Jay Gould remain the most informed published sources on Hyatt's ideas. I wrote an unpublished manuscript while a bio grad student= it remains online and may be useful as a literature reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dosware (talk • contribs) 22:53, 27 May 2012 (UTC)