John Leonard Riddell Papers

Description

The collection consists of diaries, notebooks, newspaper clippings, and other printed material of John Leonard Riddell. John Leonard Riddell, a physician, biologist, and inventor, was born in Leyden, Massachusetts, February 20, 1807. In 1835 he was appointed professor of chemistry and botany at Cincinnati Medical College and published his "Synopsis of the Flora of the Western States." He received his medical degree in 1836 from Cincinnati Medical College. He then went to New Orleans as professor of chemistry at the Medical College of Louisiana, where he invented the binocular microscope. He continued to work at the Medical College throughout the rest of his life. In New Orleans, he also became smelter and refiner at the U.S. Mint, a member of the River Control Commission, Postmaster of New Orleans, and a member of the Board of Inquiry into causes of yellow fever.