- Henry Suter
Henry Suter (born Hans Heinrich Suter) (
9 March 1841 –31 July 1918 ) was aNew Zealand zoologist, naturalist andpalaeontologist , a major influence in the study and classification of New Zealandmollusc s through the first half of the twentieth century.Early life
Henry Suter was born on 9 March 1841 at
Riesbach ,Zürich ,Switzerland , the son of Heinrich Suter, a silk manufacturer, and his wife, Susanna Mahler. He became an analytical chemist in Zürich and joined his father's silk manufacturing firm. On 1 October 1867 he married Barbara Julia Ida Naef atAltstetten , Zürich. The couple were to have 10 children, seven of whom survived childhood. The silk manufacturing business failed about 1885, and Suter emigrated to New Zealand with their seven children.The Suter family arrived in New Zealand in January 1887. After deciding that forest clearing and farming was beyond him, in November 1888 he became assistant manager at the Hermitage, Mt Cook, a temporary position arranged through the scientist F. W. Hutton. Suter collected the highly diverse fauna of tiny forest
snail s, and in 1890 he published the first of many papers describing new species of snails. This established his credentials with the New Zealand scientific community.Publishing of his "Manual"
Initially restricting his studies to forest and freshwater snails in New Zealand and to related snails in
Brazil ,Africa andTasmania , he later concentrated on the marinemollusc s of New Zealand. After being naturalised in 1890, he lived inAuckland from around 1900 to 1910 and inChristchurch from 1911.Many years work resulted in the publication of Suter's monumental "Manual of the New Zealand Mollusca" in 1913, with an atlas of plates in 1915, which had an enormous influence on Australasian molluscan
taxonomy . It was to be another 56 years before Powell's landmark "New Zealand Mollusca: marine, land and freshwater shells" was published.Later years
Suter spent the last five years of his life identifying and describing Cenozoic fossil shells for the New Zealand Geological Survey.
Henry Suter died in Christchurch on 31 July 1918, aged 77. Ida Suter had died in 1910. His collections made their way to various institutions:
* his small but important collection of snails, marine shells and fossils, are with theInstitute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences ,
* his manuscript catalogues and bound volumes of reprints are also with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences,
* his non-marine shells are in theMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington,
* his collection of European land and freshwater shells from his European period is in theAustralian Museum inSydney .References
* Powell A. W. B., "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* Beu, A. G. 'Suter, Henry 1841 - 1918'. "Dictionary of New Zealand Biography", updated 22 June 2007 URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/Bibliography
* " [http://www.archive.org/details/manualofnewzeala00sute Manual of the New Zealand Mollusca] " 1913
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