FROM TEXAS TO THE MOON WITH JOHN LEONARD RIDDELL

The Capital City Coin Club of Austin, Texas, enjoyed a "Quiz Bowl" for our May 3, 2012, meeting. Knowing that John Leonard Riddell of the New Orleans Mint also carried out a botanical survey expedition of Texas, I intended to put a question about him in the stack. That led me to the archives here at The E-Sylum. Searching Google Scholar, JSTOR, the ANA, the ANS, and other databases provided over 70 bibliographic citations, most of them from botanists for whom Riddell's work in Ohio but also in Louisiana is still relevant. Among the many compelling facets of his life is his being credited as the first scientist to write a science fiction story.

John Leonard Riddell published his own science fiction story Orrin Lindsay's Plan of Aerial Navigation, with a Narrative of His Explorations of the Higher Regions of the Atmosphere, and His Wonderful Voyage Round the Moon in 1847. He also delivered the account as lecture to the People's Lyceum of New Orleans.

Among the treasures I gathered while hopping through cyberspace was a PDF of Riddell's Memoir on the Nature of Miasm and Contagion (1836), in which he posited a germ theory for disease. He later advocated for this theory when serving on a blue-ribbon panel to study the typhoid epidemic of New Orleans, 1853-1854.

A Selected Bibliography for John Leonard Riddell.

Armstrong, Clara. "Plant Names Commemorative of Ohio Botanists," Ohio Naturalist. Vol. 1, No. 3 Jan, 1901.

Bailey, L. H., "Some North American Botanists. VIII. John Leonard Riddell", Botanical Gazette, Vol. 8, No. 8 (Aug., 1883), pp. 269-271.

Bleiler, Everett F. "John Leonard Riddell, Pioneer, " Science Fiction Studies Vol. 36, No. 2 (July 2009), pp. 284-299.

Breeden, James O. "A Long Ride in Texas: the Explorations of John Leonard Riddell". College Station: Texas A & M Press, 1994.

Dexter, Ralph W. "The Early Career of John L. Riddell as a Science Lecturer in the 19th Century, " Ohio Journal of Science 88 (5) 1988: pp. 184-188.

Dorr, Laurence J., "The Identity of Riddelia Raf. and Remarks on Corchorus L. (Tiliaceae), " Taxon, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 80-83.

Ewan, Joseph. "Historical Problems for the Working Taxonomist", Taxon, Vol. 18, No. 2, Smithsonian Summer Institute in Systematics 1968, Part 2(Apr., 1969), pp. 194-203.

Lambousy, Greg. "Riddell's plan for the melting room at the New Orleans Mint",Gobrecht Journal Vol. 31, no. 91 (November 2004).

Lambousy, Greg , "The mint at New Orleans: with an account of the process of coinage. by Riddell, J. L, " Numismatist Vol. 81, no. 4 (April, 1968).

Lowden, Richard M. " Riddell, Sullivant, and the Early Botanical Exploration of Franklin County, Ohio, U.S.A. (1832-1840), " Taxon, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Nov., 1997), pp. 689-703.

Schwarz, Ted. "The paper money of John Riddell," Coins, Vol. 24, no. 8 (Aug., 1977).

Walp, Russell Lee, "Riddell's Notice of Vegetable Productions Growing Spontaneously in Washington County, Ohio," The Ohio Journal of Science 51(6): 320, November, 1951.

Wilbur, Robert L. and Margaret K. Whitson, "The Identity of Riddell's Seven Validly Published but Over-looked Pteridophytic Binomials" American Fern Journal, Oct 2005 95(4), pp. 160-170.

Wilbur, Robert L. and Maggie K. Whitson. "Taxonomic Assessment of the North American Taxa Published by John L. Riddell in 1853," Rhodora, 109:938, (2007) pp. 161-186.

Winter, Douglas. Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint: 1839-1909. Irvine: Zyrus, 1992, 2006.

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