, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 – 1907) was an American naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

, geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

, and traveler;

Biography

He was born on March 31, 1853 to Michael Heilprin

Michael Heilprin

Michael Heilprin was a Polish-American Jewish biblical scholar, critic, and writer, born at Piotrków, Russian Poland, to Jewish parents. His family was distinguished by its knowledge of Hebrew lore as far back as the sixteenth century. Michael Heilprin was a scholar who was familiar with more than...

, a scholar of Polish origin.

He was taken by his father to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1856. Some years later he returned to Europe, where he was educated. From 1876 to 1878 he continued his studies at the Royal School of Mines, London

Royal School of Mines

Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London.- History :The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts...

; at the Imperial Geological Institution of Vienna, and at Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, subsequently returning to the U.S. He was professor of invertebrate paleontology

Invertebrate paleontology

Invertebrate paleontology is sometimes described as Invertebrate paleozoology or Invertebrate paleobiology....

 and of geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

Academy of Natural Sciences

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World...

 (1880–1900); curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

 in charge of the museum of that institution (1883–1892); professor of geology at the Wagner Free Institute of Science

Wagner Free Institute of Science

The Wagner Free Institute of Science is a natural history museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1855 by William Wagner, a notable merchant, philanthropist, and gentleman scientist of the time, who sought to offer free educational courses to all who would seek to learn...

 in Philadelphia (1885–1890); and was the first president of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, serving for seven years.

Heilprin also demonstrated his ability as an artist, and in 1880 exhibited Autumn's First Whisper at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Forest Exiles at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1883.
In 1886 Heilprin went to Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 for the purpose of investigating the geological structure of the peninsula; in 1888, to Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 for a similar purpose. Two years later he set out on a scientific expedition to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and in pursuit of his investigations he ascended Iztaccihuatl

Iztaccíhuatl

Iztaccíhuatl , is the third highest mountain in Mexico, after the Pico de Orizaba, , and Popocatépetl, . Its name is Nahuatl for "White woman"....

, Orizaba

Orizaba

Orizaba is a city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located 20 km west of its sister city Córdoba, and is adjacent to Río Blanco and Ixtaczoquitlán, on Federal Highways 180 and 190. The city had a 2005 census population of 117,273 and is almost coextensive with its small...

, and Popocatepetl

Popocatépetl

Popocatépetl also known as "Popochowa" by the local population is an active volcano and, at , the second highest peak in Mexico after the Pico de Orizaba...

, and ascertained their altitudes by barometric measurements. While on this journey he explored the central plateau, and on his return contributed valuable additions to the geological knowledge of that region. In 1892 Heilprin led the Peary Relief Expedition to Greenland. After the eruption of Mount Pelée

Mount Pelée

Mount Pelée is an active volcano at the northern end of the island and French overseas department of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of layers of volcanic ash and hardened lava....

, by which the city of Saint-Pierre, Martinique

Saint-Pierre, Martinique

Saint-Pierre is a town and commune of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique, founded in 1635 by Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc. Before the total destruction of Saint-Pierre in 1902 by a volcanic eruption, it was the most important city of Martinique culturally and economically, being known...

, was entirely destroyed (May 8, 1902), Heilprin visited the island, and climbed to the crater of Mount Pelée while the volcano was in action; he revisited it in 1903.

Heilprin was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1897. He died in 1907.

Publications

• Contributions to the Tertiary Geology and Palæontology of the United States (1884)
• Town Geology, the Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks (1885)
• The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Animals (1887)
• The Geological Evidences of Evolution (1888)
• The Bermuda Islands (1889)
• Principles of Geology (1890)
• The Arctic Problem and Narrative of the Peary Relief Expedition (1893)
• The Earth and Its Story (1896)
• Alaska and the Klondike (1899)
• Mount Pelée and the Tragedy of Martinique (1903)
• The Tower of Pelée (1905)

He edited, along with his brother Louis Heilprin, Lippincott's New Gazetteer (1905).

Legacy

He is commemorated in the name of the Heilprin's Jay

Azure-naped Jay

The Azure-naped Jay is a species of bird in the Corvidae family.It is found in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland....

Cyanocorax heilprini.