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OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (GiBsox.) 



Mr. Gibson in later life Iris wide popularity as an 

 artist-naturalist, writer, and lecturer were shown 

 in Ms boyhood. He was a pupil at the "Gunnery"' 

 school in Washington, Conn., directed by a master 

 who wisely encouraged the individual bent of his 

 scholars, and sought to turn childish curiosity into 



beneficial channels 

 instead of following 

 a policy of insist- 

 ence upon routine. 

 As a child Mr. Gib- 

 son was keenly in- 

 terested in the plant 

 and insect life about 

 him, and he also 

 showed a talent for 

 drawing. Later, he 

 entered the Brook- 

 lyn Polytechnic In- 

 stitute, " where his 

 taste for drawing 

 was more system- 

 atically developed. 

 His education, so 

 far as schools were 

 concerned, was in- 

 terrupted by the 



failure and sudden death of his father, a Wall Street 

 broker, and the necessity for self-support. For a time 

 lie was employed by an insurance company, but the. 

 work was uncongenial and he gave it up, contrary 

 to the advice of his friends, in order that he might 

 devote himself to the particular branch of art which 

 interested him most. This was the drawing of flowers 

 and insects. His predilection for Nature subjects 

 was not that of the artist pure and simple. It was 

 not a question of color and form alone with him. 

 but rather the attraction of identifying and illus- 

 trating the various apt and beautiful phases of the 

 anatomy and physiology of plant life. For a time 

 his aims were not appreciated. He met with re- 

 buffs and disappointments, and the earlier essays 

 which were actually published were naturally of 

 minor consequence. His first work for the public 

 was a short illustrated article upon the interior con- 

 struction of the butternut, published in 1870, and a 

 little later he contributed articles to the " Youth's 

 Companion," " St. Nicholas," and " Scribner's Mag- 

 azine." He gained a temporary connection with 

 the " American Agriculturist " and " Hearth and 

 Home." He found it necessary to accompany his 

 pictures with some lines of explanation. This was 

 at the request of editors, who perceived the pri- 

 marily analytic and informing quality of his pic- 

 torial work. It must not be understood that he 

 was content with simply an external, accurate, gen- 

 eral representation. Everything in Nature was to 

 him an organism to be studied in all its minutest 

 parts. The intense, healthy curiosity which led 

 him as a boy to spend hours on the ground watch- 

 ing the habits of tiny insects became in later life a 

 spirit of alert inquiry in which the scientist's close 

 scrutiny of causes and effects, of the origin and pur- 

 poses of habits or phenomena, existed conjointly 

 with a vivid {esthetic appreciation of the beauty of 

 the adaptation of special forms to special purposes, 

 and the artistic value of Nature's work in minia- 

 ture. The diffusion of seeds, methods of fertiliza- 

 tion, the various stages in the growth of a fern, the 

 habits of the bee whatever the subject might be 

 that engaged his immediate attention, it was fol- 

 lowed up with an enthusiasm and a command of 

 expression with botli pen and pencil that imparted 

 to his work a peculiar value. It is probably safe to 

 say that the general public came to know Mr. Gib- 

 son's work through the medium of " Harper's Maga- 

 zine," although his connection with the magazine 



had been preceded by much miscellaneous work, 

 not only for the periodicals which we have men- 

 tioned, but also for Appletons' " American Cyclo- 

 p.-i'dia " and " Picturesque America" and other pub- 

 lications. Meantime he studied art and literary 

 expression and the influence of his application was 

 seen in work which made itself felt in "Harper's 

 Magazine " in the early eighties. His first book 

 was " Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of 

 Trapping and Trap-making" (1876). In 1882 he 



Rublished his "Pastoral Days: or, Memories of a 

 ew England Year," an illustrated cycle of the 

 seasons, which was followed in 1883 by his "High- 

 ways and Byways: or, Saunterings in New Eng- 

 land.'' Like others, this book was made up of col- 

 lected magazine articles, and their character is 

 indicated by such titles as "Along the Road," "The 

 Njuirrel's Highway," and "Among our Footprints." 

 His "Happy Hunting Grounds " was published in 

 1887; "Strolls by Starlight and Sunshine " (1890) 

 ' Sharp Eyes " (1891) ; " Our Edible Toadstools and 

 Mushrooms " (1895). He also edited "The Master 

 of the Gunnery " (1885). Among the more impor- 

 tant books for which Mr. Gibson furnished illustra- 

 tions only were Mr. Roe's "Nature's Serial Story." 

 " The Heart of the White Mountains," an edition of 

 Longfellow, and other collections of poems, and a 

 work upon " The New South," by Mr. C. D. Warner 

 and others associated with the Harper publications. 

 In obtaining the material for this book Mr. Gibson 

 traveled in Lousiana alone over 2,000 miles, ex- 

 ploring bayous and cypress swamps and studying 

 Acadian and Creole life as well. From this trip 

 he brought back some 600 negatives and many well- 

 filled sketch and notebooks. His photographs and 

 sketches, made at various times, must have mounted 

 high into the thousands. They served as memo- 

 randa and 'material. The final pictures which the 

 public saw were rarely drawn direct from Nature, in 

 accordance with his belief that actual contact with 

 the outdoor subject hampered the imagination in 

 completing the picture. As a rule, Mr. Gibson 

 made his drawings first in accordance with some 

 special line of thought and then wrote his text to 

 accompany them. In some respects Mr. Gibson was 

 a happy example of American versatility. He was 

 a popular lecturer, an excellent amateur photog- 

 rapher, a very apt illustrator, either of his own 

 books or the writings of others, a painter of water 

 colors, agreeable in theme and color, and a skillful 

 maker of books. His ingenuity showed itself in 

 apparatus which he devised for his lectures to show 

 the cross fertilization of plants, and his tact in the 

 arrangement of his illustrations commends itself to 

 every one familiar with his books. In the broadest 

 sense his paintings, charming as they usually were, 

 are not to be regarded as peculiarly significant from 

 the painter's point of view. His love of picturesque- 

 ness was sometimes too much in evidence. In his 

 paintings, and often in his drawings also, there is a 

 care for details and for " prettiness " which leaves a 

 certain effect of littleness, but in another sense Mr. 

 Gibson's work was far more valuable than that of 

 many a greater artist. He was a most successful 

 popularizer of Nature study. He was not an ex- 

 positor of the Huxley school, as it is unnecessary to 

 say, but, in a way like Gilbert White, of Selborne. 

 he followed and noted the phenomena of the fauna 

 and flora about him, and he made these phenomena 

 interesting to his unobservant fellows. He con- 

 stantly pointed the way to Nature study, by show- 

 ing the interest, the surprises, the curious features 

 awaiting those willing to give a little thought to 

 familiar things. In the course of his career there 

 came about certain changes in methods of education 

 which were intended to utilize and direct youthful 

 curiosity and to encourage habits of observation, 



