Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tree to tree). He was also a medical doctor, and an entomologist, specializing in Diptera (flies).
Williston was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Samuel Williston and Jane A. Williston née Turner. As a young child, Williston's family traveled to Kansas Territory in 1857 under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to help fight the extension of slavery. He was raised in Manhattan, Kansas, attended public high school there, and graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in 1872, afterwards receiving a Magister Artium from that institution.
In 1874, he went on his first field fossil hunting expedition for Othniel Charles Marsh at Yale University under the mentorship of Benjamin Franklin Mudge, and led his first Yale expedition in 1877. With Mudge, Williston discovered the first fossils of the Allosaurus and Diplodocus dinosaurs. He was noted for painstakingly illustrating the finds. In 1880, he matriculated to Yale University, for several years was a post-graduate student and faculty member. Around this time, he proposed the first explicit model for the terrestrial origin of bird flight (i.e., that dinosaurs developed flight by running along the ground rather than jumping from trees).
On Dec 20, 1881, Williston married Annie Isabelle Hathaway. They were the parents of 5 children: Ruth Williston 1882-1961; Hyla Williston 1889-1916; Dorothy Hathaway Williston 1891-1971; Eugenia Williston 1893-1979, and; Samuel Hathaway Williston 1899-1972. Annie Williston lived to the age of 103.
Williston returned to Kansas in 1890, to take a position on the faculty at the University of Kansas as a professor of geology and anatomy. In 1899, he was named the first Dean of the new School of Medicine at KU. He was also a member of the state boards of health and medical examiners. In 1902, Williston left Kansas again, and took the chair of paleontology at the University of Chicago.
Williston was a fellow of the Geological Society of America and foreign correspondent for the London Geological and Zoölogical societies. He was president of the Kansas Academy of Science in 1897, and in 1903 was elected president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists of America (SVPA). He was the author of several books, and the Smithsonian Institution now administers an endowment fund in his name.
Samuel Williston died of cancer on August 30, 1918 in the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago.
Williston was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Samuel Williston and Jane A. Williston née Turner. As a young child, Williston's family traveled to Kansas Territory in 1857 under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to help fight the extension of slavery. He was raised in Manhattan, Kansas, attended public high school there, and graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in 1872, afterwards receiving a Magister Artium from that institution.
In 1874, he went on his first field fossil hunting expedition for Othniel Charles Marsh at Yale University under the mentorship of Benjamin Franklin Mudge, and led his first Yale expedition in 1877. With Mudge, Williston discovered the first fossils of the Allosaurus and Diplodocus dinosaurs. He was noted for painstakingly illustrating the finds. In 1880, he matriculated to Yale University, for several years was a post-graduate student and faculty member. Around this time, he proposed the first explicit model for the terrestrial origin of bird flight (i.e., that dinosaurs developed flight by running along the ground rather than jumping from trees).
On Dec 20, 1881, Williston married Annie Isabelle Hathaway. They were the parents of 5 children: Ruth Williston 1882-1961; Hyla Williston 1889-1916; Dorothy Hathaway Williston 1891-1971; Eugenia Williston 1893-1979, and; Samuel Hathaway Williston 1899-1972. Annie Williston lived to the age of 103.
Williston returned to Kansas in 1890, to take a position on the faculty at the University of Kansas as a professor of geology and anatomy. In 1899, he was named the first Dean of the new School of Medicine at KU. He was also a member of the state boards of health and medical examiners. In 1902, Williston left Kansas again, and took the chair of paleontology at the University of Chicago.
Williston was a fellow of the Geological Society of America and foreign correspondent for the London Geological and Zoölogical societies. He was president of the Kansas Academy of Science in 1897, and in 1903 was elected president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists of America (SVPA). He was the author of several books, and the Smithsonian Institution now administers an endowment fund in his name.
Samuel Williston died of cancer on August 30, 1918 in the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago.
Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tree to tree). He was also a medical doctor, and an entomologist, specializing in Diptera (flies).
Williston was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Samuel Williston and Jane A. Williston née Turner. As a young child, Williston's family traveled to Kansas Territory in 1857 under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to help fight the extension of slavery. He was raised in Manhattan, Kansas, attended public high school there, and graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in 1872, afterwards receiving a Magister Artium from that institution.
In 1874, he went on his first field fossil hunting expedition for Othniel Charles Marsh at Yale University under the mentorship of Benjamin Franklin Mudge, and led his first Yale expedition in 1877. With Mudge, Williston discovered the first fossils of the Allosaurus and Diplodocus dinosaurs. He was noted for painstakingly illustrating the finds. In 1880, he matriculated to Yale University, for several years was a post-graduate student and faculty member. Around this time, he proposed the first explicit model for the terrestrial origin of bird flight (i.e., that dinosaurs developed flight by running along the ground rather than jumping from trees).
On Dec 20, 1881, Williston married Annie Isabelle Hathaway. They were the parents of 5 children: Ruth Williston 1882-1961; Hyla Williston 1889-1916; Dorothy Hathaway Williston 1891-1971; Eugenia Williston 1893-1979, and; Samuel Hathaway Williston 1899-1972. Annie Williston lived to the age of 103.
Williston returned to Kansas in 1890, to take a position on the faculty at the University of Kansas as a professor of geology and anatomy. In 1899, he was named the first Dean of the new School of Medicine at KU. He was also a member of the state boards of health and medical examiners. In 1902, Williston left Kansas again, and took the chair of paleontology at the University of Chicago.
Williston was a fellow of the Geological Society of America and foreign correspondent for the London Geological and Zoölogical societies. He was president of the Kansas Academy of Science in 1897, and in 1903 was elected president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists of America (SVPA). He was the author of several books, and the Smithsonian Institution now administers an endowment fund in his name.
Samuel Williston died of cancer on August 30, 1918 in the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago.
Williston was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Samuel Williston and Jane A. Williston née Turner. As a young child, Williston's family traveled to Kansas Territory in 1857 under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to help fight the extension of slavery. He was raised in Manhattan, Kansas, attended public high school there, and graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in 1872, afterwards receiving a Magister Artium from that institution.
In 1874, he went on his first field fossil hunting expedition for Othniel Charles Marsh at Yale University under the mentorship of Benjamin Franklin Mudge, and led his first Yale expedition in 1877. With Mudge, Williston discovered the first fossils of the Allosaurus and Diplodocus dinosaurs. He was noted for painstakingly illustrating the finds. In 1880, he matriculated to Yale University, for several years was a post-graduate student and faculty member. Around this time, he proposed the first explicit model for the terrestrial origin of bird flight (i.e., that dinosaurs developed flight by running along the ground rather than jumping from trees).
On Dec 20, 1881, Williston married Annie Isabelle Hathaway. They were the parents of 5 children: Ruth Williston 1882-1961; Hyla Williston 1889-1916; Dorothy Hathaway Williston 1891-1971; Eugenia Williston 1893-1979, and; Samuel Hathaway Williston 1899-1972. Annie Williston lived to the age of 103.
Williston returned to Kansas in 1890, to take a position on the faculty at the University of Kansas as a professor of geology and anatomy. In 1899, he was named the first Dean of the new School of Medicine at KU. He was also a member of the state boards of health and medical examiners. In 1902, Williston left Kansas again, and took the chair of paleontology at the University of Chicago.
Williston was a fellow of the Geological Society of America and foreign correspondent for the London Geological and Zoölogical societies. He was president of the Kansas Academy of Science in 1897, and in 1903 was elected president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists of America (SVPA). He was the author of several books, and the Smithsonian Institution now administers an endowment fund in his name.
Samuel Williston died of cancer on August 30, 1918 in the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago.
Inscription
SAMUEL WENDELL
WILLISTON,
1852 - 1916,
HYLA
DAUGHTER OF
SAMUEL W. & ANNIE H.
1889 - 1916
ANNIE H.
WILLISTON
1858 - 1961
RUTH WILLISTON
1882 - 1961
Family Members
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