IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB354774746

Albert Koch’s Hydrarchos: A Hoax or A Bona Fide Collection of Bones (2023)

McMillan, R. Bruce (Author)

Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society
Volume: 42
Issue: 1
Pages: 84-101

URI: https://doi.org/10.17704/1944-6187-42.1.84

DOI: 10.17704/1944-6187-42.1.84

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Bone and bones Biographies Fossils Geology Paleontology Collectors and collecting Deceptions; hoaxes; frauds 19th century United States Germany Koch, Albert C.

This is the second essay of a two-part series on the life and collecting activities of Albert Koch. After Koch traveled to England where he sold his Missourium to the British Museum, the American mastodon that now stands in the Natural History Museum of London, he then went to his homeland in Germany. Koch left his family in Dresden, when he again departed for the United States to pursue some additional paleontological adventures. Following several weeks of travel, he arrived in Alabama where he excavated the remains of a large, archaeocete whale, that he named the Hydrarchos. Koch displayed the skeleton in New York, and several other eastern cities before taking it to Europe. When in Berlin, Koch was able to sell the skeleton to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia who placed it in the Royal Museum. Soon thereafter, Koch returned to the United States and Alabama to discover a second whale skeleton. He took this skeleton to Europe where it was exhibited in several cities but, having received no offers, Koch returned with his second Hydrarchos to the United States where it was initially displayed in New Orleans, then St. Louis, and eventually Chicago. In his later years, Koch turned his attention to the Academy of Science of St. Louis where he became an active member and curator, as well as a prospector for minerals. This essay examines the final chapters of Koch’s life and his entrepreneurial showmanship tendencies versus contributions he may have made to science. This narrative is a sequel to an article published in Volume 41 Number 2 of Earth Sciences History that focused on Albert Koch’s Missourium. Together, the two essays capture the life and career of Albert C. Koch.

...More

Associated with

Article R. Bruce Mcmillan (2022) Albert C. Koch’s Missourium and the Debate over the Contemporaneity of Humans and the Pleistocene Megafauna of North America. Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society (pp. 410-439). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB354774746/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article R. Bruce Mcmillan; (2022)
Albert C. Koch’s Missourium and the Debate over the Contemporaneity of Humans and the Pleistocene Megafauna of North America (/isis/citation/CBB483731737/)

Article Morris, Amy; (2013)
Geomythology on the Colonial Frontier: Edward Taylor, Cotton Mather, and the Claverack Giant (/isis/citation/CBB001320743/)

Book Freeman, Michael J.; (2004)
Victorians and the Prehistoric: Tracks to a Lost World (/isis/citation/CBB000520147/)

Article Hernick, Linda VanAller; (2003)
Edwin Bradford Hall: Devonian Sponge Collector Extraordinaire (/isis/citation/CBB000470493/)

Book Tom Sharpe; (2021)
The Fossil Woman: A Life of Mary Anning (/isis/citation/CBB900889395/)

Article Newell, Julie R.; (2005)
The Troost Crinoids: Lost, Found, and (Finally) Published (/isis/citation/CBB000630866/)

Thesis Daniel Francis Zizzamia; (2015)
Making the West Malleable: Coal, Geohistory, and Western Expansion, 1800–1920 (/isis/citation/CBB915846070/)

Book Dingus, Lowell; Norell, Mark A.; (2010)
Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus Rex (/isis/citation/CBB001023269/)

Book Gowan Dawson; (2016)
Show Me the Bone: Reconstructing Prehistoric Monsters in Nineteenth-century Britain and America (/isis/citation/CBB200052380/)

Article Dietz, Linda F.; Sarjeant, William A. S.; Mitchell, Trent A.; (1999)
The Dreamer and the Pragmatist: A Joint Biography of Walter Wetzel and Otto Wetzel, with a Survey of Their Contributions to Geology and Micropaleontology (/isis/citation/CBB000110999/)

Article Nair, Savithri Preetha; (2005)
“Eyes and No Eyes”: Siwalik Fossil Collecting and the Crafting of Indian Palaeontology (1830--1847) (/isis/citation/CBB000651665/)

Book Robert T. McMaster; (2021)
All the Light Here Comes from Above: The Life and Legacy of Edward Hitchcock (/isis/citation/CBB424786586/)

Book Johnson, Rebecca L.; (2013)
Battle of the Dinosaur Bones: Othniel Charles Marsh vs. Edward Drinker Cope (/isis/citation/CBB001213250/)

Article Barry J. Cooper; James B. Jago; (2018)
Robert Bedford (1874-1951), the Kyancutta Museum, and a unique contribution to international geology (/isis/citation/CBB114084262/)

Article Adelman, Juliana; (2007)
Eozoön: Debunking the Dawn Animal (/isis/citation/CBB000850046/)

Article Edward P.F. Rose; (2021)
British military contributions to the geology of Malta, Part 1: Nineteenth century (/isis/citation/CBB294782668/)

Article Branagan, David F.; (2004)
The Desert Sandstone of Australia a Late Nineteenth-Century Enigma of Deposition, Fossils, and Weathering (/isis/citation/CBB000502322/)

Book Donald R. Prothero; (2018)
The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution (/isis/citation/CBB293277728/)

Article Thomas Sharpe; (2022)
Henri De la Beche's 1829-1830 litograph, duria antiquior (/isis/citation/CBB971607561/)

Article C.G.M. Paxton; D. Naish; (2019)
Did Nineteenth Century marine vertebrate fossil discoveries influence sea serpent reports? (/isis/citation/CBB528039835/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}