A GROUP EFFORT; EDWARD HITCHCOCK AND HIS ILLUSTRATORS

Edward Hitchcock (1793 – 1864), gained fame for his body of work on Ichnology, Geology, and Religion. During his youth, he suffered a bout of Mumps which damaged his eyesight and as a result, later in life, often relied on others to create the illustrations for his books and articles. His wife, Orra White Hitchcock, and his daughter Mary, along with some of his students, and other professors contributed illustrations for his geological and paleontological works. His own drawings, also included in his works, were sometimes wanting, although they reflected what Hitchcock thought were the most salient details. This has sometimes resulted in a failure to synonymize some of Hitchcock’s ichnospecies with others described earlier or later. Some of the problems with the visual work may also have stemmed from the process of copying his and his illustrators’ originals into woodcuts and engravings, as remarked by Hitchcock and other contemporary observers and participants. The sometimes, imperfect rendering of tracks and traces and other geological phenomena, may have had an effect on the perceived diversity of ichnospecies and biodiversity of their tracemakers in the Connecticut valley, the extent of which is currently under study.