Jean Crespon

Who is Jean Crespon?

Jean Crespon was a French zoologist and naturalist.

Born into a poor family, he worked as a barber, soldier, and poet before becoming a taxidermist and turning to natural history. In 1840 he published his Ornithologie du Gard et des pays circonvoisins, a book that covered 321 species of birds. The book earned the praise of naturalists that included Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

In 1844 Crespon published the two-volume La Faune méridionale, in which he described 27 new species.

Crespon's natural history collections passed to the Muséum d'histoire naturelle in Nîmes on his death.