George W. Schwab

George W. Schwab (1876–1955) was a Presbyterian minister and a missionary. He and his wife Jewel Huester Schwab were appointed to the West Africa Mission in 1905.[1] He also did scientific work in the fields of anthropology and zoology.

Early life and education

George W. Schwab was born in 1876[1] in Clinton, Massachusetts.[2] He graduated from Amherst College for both a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Science.[3] He also had a Master of Arts from Harvard University,[3] which he received in 1919.[2]

Career

Missionary

Schwab was a missionary in the West African country of Cameroon.[4] His appointment began in 1905 when the Presbyterian Church of the USA designated him and his wife to its West Africa Mission.[1] By 1922, he was the superintendent of the American Presbyterian Mission Schools.[5] His career as a missionary ended in 1941.[3]

Scientist

For more than thirty years, Schwab was affiliated with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University, becoming an Honorary Research Fellow for West Africa.[4] Shortly after officially becoming affiliated with the Peabody Museum in 1918, he collaborated with Earnest Hooton to create a linguistic and tribal map of Africa on behalf of the U.S. Peace Commission.[2] In 1922, he held the Hemenway Fellowship from the Peabody Museum.[5] In 1924, he was appointed a Research Associate in Anthropology for Liberian Ethnology for the Peabody Museum, a position he held until his retirement in 1949.[2]

Schwab collected the holotype of the short-tailed roundleaf bat (Hipposideros curtus) in 1920.[6] He also collected the holotype of a species of rove beetle, Dorylophila schwabi, which was named after him by William Morton Wheeler.[7] Glover Morrill Allen attempted to name a species of dormouse after Schwab, Graphiurus schwabi,[8] but it was determined to be a junior synonym to an existing scientific name, Graphiurus surdus.[9] Additionally, Schwab is presumed the collector of the holotype of a species of fungus of the genus Autophagomyces, A. kamerunensis.[10]

Schwab published two works about his time in Cameroon:[3]

  • The Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland
  • Field Notes on the Basa Tribe of the Cameroons

Personal life

Schwab was married to Jewel Huester Schwab.[1]

Later life and death

Schwab died on 3 October 1955 in Orlando, Florida at the age of 79.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Guide to the George W. Schwab Papers". Presbyterian Historical Society. 5 May 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Browman, David L.; Williams, Stephen, eds. (2013). Anthropology at Harvard. Harvard University Press. pp. 357–358. ISBN 9780873659130.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Dr. Schwab dies at 79". The Orlando Sentinel. 4 October 1955. p. 17.
  4. ^ a b Dop, Henk; Robinson, Phillip, eds. (2012). Travel Sketches from Liberia: Johann Büttikofer's 19th Century Rainforest Explorations in West Africa. BRILL. p. XXXII. ISBN 9789004233478.
  5. ^ a b "PEABODY MUSEUM HAS NEW AFRICAN COLLECTION". The Harvard Crimson. 16 December 1922. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  6. ^ Allen, G. M. (1921). "A new horseshoe bat from West Africa". Revue zoologique africaine. 9: 193–196. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.24480.
  7. ^ Wheeler, W. M. (1922). "Ants of the American Museum Congo Expedition : a contribution to the myrmecology of Africa". Bulletin of the AMNH. 45: 626–627.
  8. ^ Allen, G. M. (1913). "New African Rodents". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. 54 (14).
  9. ^ "Graphiurus schwabi G.M. Allen, 1912". ITIS. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  10. ^ Benjamin, Richard (2000). "Autophagomyces, Bordea, and a New Genus, Rossiomyces, (Laboulbeniales)". Aliso. 19 (2): 99–138. doi:10.5642/aliso.20001902.02.