Edward Drinker COPE

Birthdate: 28 July 1840

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Died: Philadelphia 12 April 1897

Biographies: (1) Osborn, "Cope: Master Naturalist," 1931, Princeton U Press; Copeia, 1932, #1, pp. 39-41; (2) Copeia, 1940, #2, pp. 60-69; Davis, W.H. "Edward Drinker Cope, Herpetologist," Bull. of the Antivenin Inst. of America, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 71-80, May 1932.
BIOGRAPHY (by Aldemaro Romero) -- Edward Drinker Cope is one of the most famous American paleontologist and evolutionist. He was born to a wealthy Quaker family. His interest for natural history was sparked when he was just six years old. He did not start going to school until the age of nine and continued intermittently until he was 19, being frequently taught by private tutors. His father wanted him to become a farmer. He was sent to the farms of relatives during the summer months, an experience that would actually further his interest in natural history, to the point that in 1858 he began working for free at the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia. He published his first paper when he was 18. He attended Westtown School and by the time he entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1860 he had published 30 papers. It was between 1860 and 1861 that he had his only formal university education. He decided to enter the University of Pennsylvania to take just one class: comparative anatomy taught by Dr. Joseph Leidy (1823-1891), the founder of American paleontology. To keep him out of the Civil War, Cope's father (a sincere Quaker with pacifist and abolitionist leanings) sent him to study in Europe in 1863. There he studied the natural history collections of the most important museums in Berlin, Leyden, Munich, Vienna, Paris, and London. On his return to the U.S. in 1864, Cope became Professor of Comparative Zoology and Botany in Haverford College, a position he kept until 1867 when he resigned due to poor health.