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Show NEGRO WINS FAME IN SCIENCE. John W. Widgeon, scientist, is one of the most interesting negroes in the United States. He holds a position at the Maryland Academy of Sciences in Baltimore, directly under the eyes of Dr. Philip R. Uhler, head of the institution, insti-tution, which gives him a place of distinction dis-tinction among his race. He has accomplished a wonderful amount of sclentiflo work without any other training than that given him by Dr. Uhler, whose protege he has been for several years, and he is engaged at present upon the arrangement of a collection col-lection of coral which he gathered last summer in and near Jamaica. . which is said to be the best In the East. Widgeon's life has been such an interesting in-teresting one that, at the suggestion of his patron, he has begun to write out the whole of it. He Is the only negro In Maryland, or, for that matter, in the East, who haa seriously attracted the attention of scientific men. and what he is doing now bids fair to make him more widely known that before. Widgeon was born of slave parents on the eastern shore of Virginia In 1850. Vfter the Civil war he went to Baltimore Balti-more and got a position in the estab-!;shment estab-!;shment of Kuhn & Cummlngs, photographers, pho-tographers, where he learned a' great deal about photography. Then he went to work for Sharp & Dohme, where he remained sixteen years. During his service with this firm he learned much about chemistry, for he was employed In the laboratory ten years. Dr. Uhler gave him a position as a helper on one of his scientific corps after he left the druflg firm', and he showed such marked ability In this line of field work that it was not long before he was sent out on expeditions by himself to gather geological geo-logical specimens for collections or for study In the laboratory. Widgeon has been engaged upon this sort of work for eighteen years, and in that time he has gotten together a valuable val-uable collection of fossils, rocks, minerals, min-erals, Indian relics and bird and snakes, all of which are on, exh'.'on at the Maryland Academy of Sciences. |