| Activity | Gill's was in many respects the archetype of a life devoted to science. Though not an unsociable sort he never married, preferring to apply all his energies to his researches: to the extent of actually living for many years in a room at the Smithsonian Institution, with which he began a lifelong association in 1861. Not a field biologist, he spent his time in the lab studying morphology, especially bone structure, of fishes and birds (he also worked on mammals and mollusks), producing over five hundred scientific papers (but no books). Gill was one of the master taxonomists of his time and historically rates among the front rank of ichthyologists. He was especially known for his extraordinary memory ("in his special field he read everything and forgot nothing") and how it aided him in interrelating the literature on every subject he took up.
1858 participated in a collecting expedition to the West Indies. From 1860 - 1861 he was adjunct professor of physics and natural history at Columbian College (Now George Washington University). 1862 - 1866 he was the librarian at the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1864 he returned to Columbian College as a lecturer until 1866. In 1866 he took up the post of assistant librarian at the Library of Congress, in 1873 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1874 he left Library of Congress to take up a post as lecturer in Zoology at Columbian College and in 1884 he was promoted to professor of Zoology. He became vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1897 he became its president. |