Herbert Huntingdon Smith

Who was Herbert Huntingdon Smith?

Herbert Huntingdon Smith was an American naturalist who worked on the flora and fauna of Brazil. He wrote Brazil, the Amazons and the coast and Do Rio de Janeiro a Cuyabá: Notas de um naturalista.

He first went to Brazil in 1870 on the Morgan expedition led by Charles Frederick Hartt. He returned to stay in Santarém from 1874 to 1876, and then spent a year exploring the Amazon and Tapajós Rivers.

Back in the United States, he began working for Scribner's Magazine, writing on Brazil and frequently returning, once with the artist James Wells Champney. In 1880 he married Amelia "Daisy" Woolworth, also a naturalist. They lived in Brazil until 1886, travelling widely and visiting Paraguay but spending most time at Chapada dos Guimarães, where intensive collecting resulted in the discovery of many new species. After a few months in Rio de Janeiro, they returned to the United States.

The insect collections were purchased by William Jacob Holland and Frederick DuCane Godman. In 1889 Smith collected in Mexico for Godman, the results appearing in Biologia Centrali-Americanum. He was then commissioned by the Royal Society to collect in the West Indies.