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Joseph Leidy (1823-1891) was undoubtedly one of the leading American scientists of the nineteenth-century. He was a pioneering forensic microscopist and the foremost expert in protozoology and parisitology. He was the founder of American vertebrate palaeontology and was the first person to describe a dinosaur in America. His academic life was spent as a professor at the. university of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College.

 

This specimen of Heliotrope (also known as Bloodstone) was presented to the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences by Leidy, circa 1850. The specimen is marked with a corresponding number to that on the museum card.

 

Joseph Leidy is pictured below, seated next to his Powell & Lealand No3 microscope.

 

References

Joseph Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything. Leonard Warren 1998