In his boyhood, Samuel Stehman Haldeman (1812-1880) developed an intense curiosity about the natural world while investigating anything and everything among the rocks, fields, and streams of Lancaster County, Pa. One of the last of the great self- educated naturalists of the nineteenth century, Haldeman made his greatest scientific contributions in the fields of zoology and linguistics. He also cultivated a deep interest in geology, chemistry, natural history, and archaeology.
