William Petit Trowbridge

William Petit Trowbridge was a naturalist, collector, professor, and military engineer. His date of birth and date of death are variably listed. On the Smithsonian Institute website, they are listed as (1828-1892)  There appears to be perhaps a different William Petit Trowbridge, with a different place of birth and dates of birth and death. According to the Smithsonian Institute website, Trowbridge is a native of Troy, New York. Other web sites list his place of birth as Troy, Michigan.

He was a Professor of Mathematics at University of Michigan from 1856 to 1857. William Trowbridge made substantial contributions to the natural sciences.

According to a report prepared in 1854 by Spencer Baird, Trowbridge's collections added "some fifty new fishes alone to the North American fauna." Also in 1854, Charles Girard presented a paper, "Observations upon a collection of fishes made on the Pacific coast of the United States by Lieutenant W.P. Trowbridge, for the museum of the Smithsonian Institution." He entered military service at the age of 16 and graduated in 1848 from the United States Military Academy. He had an impressive military career. He then served as vice-president of Novelty Iron Works in New York City starting in 1865. He also was a professor of dynamic engineering at Yale University. At Columbia University, he was an engineering professor from 1877 until his death in 1892. The Smithsonian website details many more achievements.

Two Pacific coast fishes were named after William Trowbridge. They are the surf-perch Helconotus trowbridgii (Girard, 1854) and the whiting Homalopomus trowbridgii, (Girard, 1856). The first specimen of Trowbridge's Shrew was collected June 10, 1855, from Lt W P Trowbridge at Astoria, Oregon.