Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/339

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MAYNARD


MAYNARD


MAYNARD, Charles Johnson, naturalist, was born in West Newton, Matis., May 6, 1845 ; son of Samuel and Emaline (Sanger) Maynard ; grand- son of Samuel and Suza (Maynard) Maynard, and a descendant of John Maynard, a native of Cam- bridge, England, who settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1638, and Mary Axdell, his wife. He was educated in the public schools, engaged in farm- ing and made a study of natural history from his youth. He maile extensive investigations of the vocal organs of birds, discovered the vocal organs of the American bittern, and also made a specialty of the land shells of the West India genus Stro- phia, now known ns Cerion. He began his work of the introduction of nature study into schools in 1875 and was instrumental in introducing a new method of instruction whereby children are taught to observe facta in nature and to reason about those facts and form their own conclusions. He was vice-president of the Nuttall Ornithologi- cal club of Cambridge, Mass., in 1875, and an original member and president of the Newton Natural History society in 1891. He was origi- nator and editor of NuttalV 8 Ornithological Bulle- tin (1881) ; editor of Nature Study in Schools (1899) ; and the author of Naturalist's Guide (1870) ; Birds of Eastern North America (1881) ; Manual of Taxidermy (1883) ; Butterflies of New England (1886) ; Eggs of North American Birds (1889) ; Contributions to Science (3 vols., 1889-96) ; Bahama Fruit Finch ; Manual of North American Butterflies (1891) ; Sparroivs and Finches of New England (1896) ; Monograph of the Oenus Stro- phia (1896) ; Nature Studies, No. 2, Sponges (1898); Warblers of New England (1901) ; and contribu- tions to scientific publications.

MAYNARD, Edward, inventor, was born in Madison, N.Y., April 26, 1813 ; son of Moses and Chloe (Butler) Maynard ; grandson of Lemuel and Sarah (Wright) Maynard, and a descendant of John Maynard, Sudbury, Mass., 1638. He received his primary education at Hamilton academy ; entered the U.S. Military academy in 1831, but resigned the same year on account of delicate health. He then studied anatomy, architecture, drawing and civil engineering, and practised dentistry in Washington, D.C., 1836-90. He was professor of the theory and practice of dentis- try in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1857-90, and of the same in the dental depart- ment of the National university at Washington, D.C. He discovered the great diversity of form, situation and capacity of the maxillary antra ; announced the existence of dental fibrils before their discovery by use of the microscope, and was one of the first if not the first (in 1838) to fill thoroughly with gold foil the nerve cavity, in- cluding the nerve canals in molar and bicuspid teeth, which operation he introduced in Europe


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in 1845. He declined the position of court den- tist offered by Emperor Nicholas I. of Russia in 1845. He in%'ented, besides many instruments used in dental surgery, firearms and ammuni- tion, and patented a priming to take the place of percussion -caps in firearms (1845) ; a breechloading rifle, called the Maynard rifle (1851), second patent (1859), which resulted in great in- crease in precision and was adopted by the U.S. government, by all American manufacturers of breech-loading arms and for military ri- fles of nearly all the nations of the world. He also invented a

method of converting muzzle-loading into breech- loading arms (1860) ; a method of joining two barrels (rifle or short) by a device that per- mits either barrel to expand or contract, end wise, independently (1868), and a contrivance for indicating the number of cartridges in the magazine of a repeating firearm at any time (1886). He received honors from Prussia and Sweden for his inventions in fire-arms. He was first mar- ried, Sept. 3, 1838, to Sophia Ellen, daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Pike) Doty, and in 1869, to Nellie, daughter of William Long, of Savannah, Ga. He died in Washington, D.C, May 4, 1891.

MAYNARD, George Willoughby, artist, was born in Washington, Ti.Q., March 5. 1843 ; son of Edward and Sophia Ellen (Doty) Maynard. He began the study of art in the National Academy of Design, New York city, in 1868, and studied under Van Lerius at the Royal Academy at Ant- werp and travelled and studied in France, Ger- many, Austro-Hungary, Turkey, Greece and Italy, 1869-74. He became an assistant of John La Farge, with St. Gaudens, Millet and Lathrop, in the interior decoration of Trinity church, Bos- ton, in 1875 ; engaged in painting portraits ; and in 1877 made a special study of mural painting in England, France and Italy. He opened a studio in New York city in 1878 ; was elected a member of the Society of American Artists in 1880 ; an associate of the National Academy in 1883, and an Academician in 1885. and was a meml>er of the American W^ater Color society and presi- dent of the Salmagundi Sketch club. He taught drawing in the Cooper institute and the National Academy, and designed parts of the interior dec- oration for the Metropolitan opera-house. New York ; Keith's theatre, Boston ; the Ponce de Leon