- Jacob Boll
Jacob Boll (
28 May 1828 -29 September 1880 ) was a Swissnaturalist andentomologist especially noted for his exploration ofTexas .Boll was born 1828 in
Würenlos ,Switzerland , and educated in Switzerland andGermany . Established as a naturalist he turned his attention tomicrolepidoptera and established contact withPhilipp Christoph Zeller . Around 1860 the Boll family travelled to Texas and joined the La Réunion socialist utopian community.They returned to Switzerland after a few years.In 1869 he met with
Louis Agassiz at Harvard, proceeding to Texas to collect animals for theHarvard Museum of Comparative Zoology . Returning to Switzerland he became a professional collector, working forEduard Dämle and the Swiss government. Similar arrangements were made with Agassiz and in 1870 he collected insects inNew England .Boll settled permanently in the U.S.A. after his wife Henriette (Humbel)s' death in 1873. He lived in
Dallas .In 1878 he collectedPermian vertebrate fossils in northwest Texas forEdward Drinker Cope of Philadelphia.These collections are now in theAmerican Museum of Natural History .Boll published a number of papers in botany, entomology, and geology. He was a Member of the
Boston Society of Natural History and the Academia Caesarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturae Curiosorum.In 1880, Boll died in
Wilbarger County ,Texas , United States.He is not to be confused with
Ernst Friedrich August Boll (1817 –1868) also an entomologist and also specialising inLepidoptera .References
*Geiser, S. W. "Naturalists of the Frontier". Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, 1937; 2d ed. 1948. Includes Bibliography
*"Dictionary of American Biography" New York: Scribner, 1929.External links
*Handbook of Texas|id=BB/fbo7|name=Jacob Boll
* [http://www.dallaspioneer.org/stories/pioneers.php?ID=412 Dallas Pioneers]
*HDS|28783|Jakob Boll|author=Therese Steffen Gerber|date=2004-08-11
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