The Honey Ants of the Garden of the Gods, and the Occident Ants of the American Plains

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1882. First edition.

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF AMERICAN ANTS BY ONE OF THE "FIGHTING McCOOKS"--INSCRIBED BY HIS BROTHER TO NOTED PHYSIOLOGIST.

14x22.5 cm hardcover, salmon cloth binding, rebacked with original spine preserved, inscribed verso front free endpaper to Dr. John G. Curtis by A. G. McCook, author's brother. pp 1-120, plates I-X, pp 121-188, plates XI-XIII. Very good in custom archival mylar cover.

HENRY CHRISTOPHER McCOOK (1837 - 1911) was an American Presbyterian clergyman, naturalist, and prolific author on religion, history, and nature. He was a member of the celebrated Fighting McCooks, a family of Ohio military officers and volunteers during the American Civil War. He learned the printing trade as a youth, then taught school for several years. attended Jefferson College. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 41st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a chaplain with the rank of first lieutenant, and helped tend the wounded. In 1869, he became pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, where he lived for the rest of his life. He spent his summers studying the behavior of ants and spiders. He published his observations and discoveries in a number of journals and books, as well as in a series of well-received illustrated children's books that explained the insects characteristics and traits in language and drawings for young minds. McCook was Vice President of both the American Entomological Society and the Academy of Natural Sciences. In 1880, Lafayette College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity to McCook. In 1895, he designed the official flag of the city of Philadelphia.

ANSON GEORGE McCOOK (1835 - 1917) was a brevet brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, attorney, and three-term postbellum U.S. Congressman from New York. He was a member of the "Fighting McCooks," one of America's most prolific military families during the Civil War. He was one of five brothers, all of whom would serve as officers in the Civil War.

PROVENANCE: JOHN GREEN CURTIS (1844 – 1913) was an American physiologist who spent most of his career at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He attended Harvard College and received his bachelor's degree in 1866 and his master's degree in 1869. He received his M.D. in 1870 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was one of five men recognized as the key founders of the American Physiological Society, and hosted its first meeting of seventeen attendees in his laboratory space at Columbia on December 30, 1887. He served on the APS council from its founding until 1893. Along with APS co-founder Silas Weir Mitchell, he worked to study the history of physiology on behalf of the society. He also sought to improve medical education in physiology, hiring Frederic Schiller Lee as a demonstrator at Columbia to develop more practical laboratory instruction.