Alexander Agassiz

Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910), American zoologist, an authority on jellyfish, echinoderms, and corals. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and educated at Harvard University. His father was the renowned Swiss-American naturalist Louis Agassiz. Alexander Agassiz became curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard in 1873 and held the post until 1885, when poor health forced him to resign. As administrator of the Calumet and Hecla copper mines on Lake Superior (1865-69) and as a stockholder in the mines, Agassiz acquired a fortune. His gifts to the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and to other institutions for biological research totaled over $1 million. In 1874-75 he explored Lake Titicaca, between Bolivia and Peru, and in 1875 established an aquarium at Newport, Rhode Island. From 1877 to 1904 he made annual expeditions to study the marine life of the western Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.