Henry Christopher McCook

Henry Christopher McCook (July 3, 1837 – 1911) was an American

Presbyterian clergyman, naturalist, and prolific author on religion, history, and nature. He was a member of the celebrated Fighting McCooks, a family of Ohio military officers and volunteers during the American Civil War

.

Life and work

McCook was born in

Sunday Schools. In 1869, he became pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian church of Philadelphia

, where he lived for the rest of his life.

He spent his summers studying the behavior of ants and spiders. He published his observations and discoveries in a number of journals and books, as well as in a series of well-received illustrated children's books that explained the insects characteristics and traits in language and drawings for young minds. Many of McCook's books used illustrations drawn by Daniel Carter Beard, the founder of the Boy Scouts of America.

In the summer of 1877, he travelled to Texas to study agricultural ants. Two years later, McCook wrote The Natural History of the Agricultural Ant of Texas. In 1889–93, he published his most ambitious work, American Spiders and Their Spinning Work, in three illustrated volumes. He also wrote a book on his ancestors in the Whiskey Rebellion, and delivered a number of papers on Civil War history at meetings of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States veterans organization.

McCook was Vice President of both the

Academy of Natural Sciences. In 1880, Lafayette College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity to McCook. In 1895, he designed the official flag of the city of Philadelphia. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1896.^[2] He again served as an Army Chaplain during the Spanish–American War

in 1898.