Hermon Carey Bumpus (May 5, 1862 – June 21, 1943)[1] was an American biologist, museum director, and the fifth president of Tufts College (later Tufts University).
Early life and education
Hermon Carey Bumpus was born in Buckfield, Maine in 1862 and received a Ph.B. from Brown University in 1884, specializing in biology and science. He began graduate work at Brown before teaching at Olivet College. Bumpus received his Ph.D. from Clark University in 1891.
Bumpus joined the faculty of Brown as a professor of comparative zoology in 1890, where he emphasized active experimentation over the "didactic doldrums" of lectures.[2] In 1893, Bumpus worked with colleagues Charles V. Chapin and John Howard Appleton in establishing a premedical program, one of the first premedical programs in the United States, with Bumpus as the director.[2] Bumpus also established a Medical Association for physicians of Providence; in 1896 Bumpus demonstrated a Holtz machine to this group. He actually took the first x-ray images in Rhode Island around this time.[2] His comparison of house sparrows that survived an uncommonly severe storm in 1898 with those that did not, including their respective measurements, has been cited as a classic example of natural selection in action.[3]
Bumpus became president of Tufts University in 1915, and was the first Tufts president who was not a Universalist; he had been chosen specifically because of his educational and administrative experience. He served president until 1919.
