Nathaniel (Southgate) Shaler

Geologist and geographer, born in Newport, Kentucky, USA. He studied at Harvard (1862), served with the 5th Kentucky Battery in the Union army, then returned to assist Jean Louis Agassiz at Harvard, studying abroad afterwards. In 1868 he returned to Harvard for good, becoming an extremely popular professor, writing magazine articles and books, such as A First Book in Geology (1884). He headed the Atlantic Coast Division of the US Geological Survey (1884–1900) and revitalized Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School while dean (1891–1906). Books that reflect his interest in conservation and the environment are Aspects of the Earth (1889) and Man and Earth (1905).

Shaler studied at Harvard under the legendary Louis Agassiz and would go on to become a Harvard fixture in his own right, as lecturer and professor of paleontology for two decades (1869-1888) and as professor of geology for nearly two more (1888-1906).

In his later career, Shaler served as Harvard's Dean of Sciences and was one of the university's most popular teachers. When his own position at Harvard was secure, Shaler gradually accepted Darwinism in principle, but viewed it through a Neo-Lamarckian lens: basic tenets of natural selection—chance, contingency, opportunism—were rejected for a picture of order, purpose and progress which saw characteristics inherited through the efforts of individual organisms.

Thus, to the extent Shaler is remembered today, it is as a conservative on the wrong side of scientific history, grudgingly accepting evolution on the one hand, but fighting a rear-guard action against it on the other.

Shaler also served as a Union officer in the U.S. Civil War.