“H” is for Holmes, Francis Simmons

“H” is for Holmes, Francis Simmons (1815-1882). Paleontologist, museum curator. Born in Charleston, Holmes was a successful plantation manager and won prizes for his agricultural experiments. Farming gave way to his fascination with fossils and by 1845 he had amassed a huge collection. In 1847 the College of Charleston set aside a room for the display of Holmes’s fossils and in 1850 created a natural history museum—naming him as curator. In 1852 the Charleston Museum opened with Holmes as curator. The museum soon became the best natural history museum in the American South and among the best in the nation. In 1857 Holmes co-authored Pleiocene Fossils of South Carolina. He published a second volume in 1860. After the Civil War, Francis Simmons Holmes played a major role in the development of the phosphate industry in South Carolina.