Ant Communities and How They are Governed: A Study in Natural Civics

New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1909. First edition.

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED STUDY OF ANT SOCIETY COMPARED TO HUMAN CULTURE.

13 x 20.5 cm hardcover, green cloth binding, title to cover, small signature of Robert Stebbins to front free endpaper, otherwise unmarked. i-xvii, [2], 321 pp, many fine illustrations. Light spine fading, corners bumped, 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. After graduation in 1859, he studied theology privately and in the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 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. As a minister in Clinton, Illinois, St. Louis, and Steubenville, Ohio, McCook became known for his compassion and intellect, and for his leadership in the movement to create Sunday Schools. 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. Many of McCook's books used illustrations drawn by Daniel Carter Beard, the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. 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. He again served as an Army Chaplain during the Spanish-American War in 1898.