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“G” is for Gibbes, Louis Reeve (1810-1894)

“G” is for Gibbes, Louis Reeve (1810-1894). Physician, scientist. A native of Charleston, Gibbes was educated at the South Carolina College and the Medical College of South Carolina. He also studied with prominent physicians and naturalists in Paris. In 1847 he joined the faculty at the College of Charleston. During his fifty-four year career there, Gibbes taught mathematics, chemistry, physics, and astronomy. An avid collector of specimens, he amassed large cabinets of crabs, flora, insects, mollusk shells, and minerals—most of them from South Carolina. He published numerous articles on a variety of topics. His published studies on crustacea earned him a national reputation as the leading authority on the subject in the South. Louis Reeve Gibbes was the most versatile of all the scientists in nineteenth century Charleston and received wide acclaim for his studies.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.