170 Fielding Bradford Meek. 



_ His early youth was spent in the city of his birth. His educa- 

 tion was greatly interfered with bv the delicate condition of 

 his health. Upon reaching manhood, by advice of his friends 

 and against his own inclination, for he was of a studious and 

 retiring disposition, he invested his small patrimony in mercan- 

 tile business, first in his native place, and afterward in Owens- 

 boro, Kentucky. The result was financial failure and loss of 

 all he possessed. After this, while laboring for his support and 

 struggling with ill health and poverty, he continued his studies, 

 general and special, for he began earlv t<> devof.- 

 natural history. His first public work was durino- the veai- 

 1848 and 1849, and was performed as an assistant of Dr. D. D. 

 Owen, upon the United States Geological Survey of Iowa, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota. 



Having closed this work, he returned to his home in Owens- 

 boro; but soon after, in the year 1852, went to Albany, New 

 York, as assistant to Professor Hall in the paleontological work 

 of that State. He remained there until 1858, saving three sum- 

 mers. Two of these summers were spent on the Geological 

 survey of Missouri; the other, that of 1853, in exploring the 

 Bad-lands of Nebraska, together with Dr. F. V. Hayden, both 

 being commissioned by Professor Hall for that wofk. Three 

 years after this exploration, he prepared for publication, in 

 conjunction with Professor Hall, an important memoir on 

 is fossils from Nebraska. This was published, with 

 illustrations, in 1856, in the Memoirs of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences, of Boston. 



In 1858, Mr. Meek left Albany and took up his residence in 

 Washington, where he resided until his death. During all this 

 time, he made his home, and the place of his scientific labors, 

 except when in the field, at the S uion, and it 



was within its halls that the greatest part of his scientific life- 

 work was accomplished. 



The association which he formed with Dr. Hayden in 1853, 

 was tacitly continued until Mr. Meek's death. When Dr. Hay- 

 den commenced his explorations in the Western Territories, 

 zed the Geological Survey of the Eocky 

 Mountain region, Mr. Meek was entruM-d with all the Inverte- 

 brate paleontology, much of which appeared under their joint 

 If™,?^ i f 108 * im P ortant of cations was 



the Paleontology of the Upper Missouri," published bv the 

 Smithsonian Institution in 1865, and admitted by all to'have 

 been the most thorough and exhaustive work of the kind that 

 had been produced in the United States. Durino- the contin- 

 uance of this connection with Dr. Harden, Mr. Meek accom- 

 plished many other very important works. Among the more 

 noteworthy of these are, the invertebrate paleontology of the 



