Simon Henry Gage (May 20, 1851 – October 20, 1944) was a professor of anatomy, Histology, and Embryology at Cornell University and an important figure in the history of American microscopy.[1] His book, The Microscope, appeared in seventeen editions. In 1931, a volume of the American Journal of Anatomy was dedicated to Gage on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.[2]
Personal life
Simon Henry Gage was born on May 20, 1851, in Milford Township, Otsego County, New York. He was the son of Henry van Tassel Gage and Lucy Ann Grover Gage.[3] His sister, Mary Gage Day, was a physician and medical writer. Simon Henry Gage attended Charlottesville Seminary and the State Normal School at Albany. In December 1881, he married Susanna Stuart Phelps[4][5] of Morrisville, New York, one of his students, who became an accomplished embryologist. They had one son, Henry Phelps Gage, who was born on October 4, 1886. Susanna died in 1915, and in 1933, Gage married Clara Covert Starrett of Interlaken, New York.[6]
University life
In 1873, Gage entered Cornell University and graduated in 1877 with a B. S. in Natural History after writing a thesis on the life history of the Cayuga Lake Stargazer (Cottus). As an undergraduate, Gage worked in the Department of Anatomy with Burt Green Wilder teaching in the newly introduced biology courses. In the fall of 1877, Gage became an instructor of Comparative Anatomy and Microscopy. In 1881, Gage became an assistant professor of Physiology and Lecturer in Microscopical Technology. In 1889, Gage became an associate professor of Physiology and Lecturer on Microscopical Technology and in 1893, Gage became an associate professor of anatomy, Histology, and Embryology. In 1895, Gage became a professor of anatomy, Histology, and Embryology. In 1908, Gage retired as Professor Emeritus of Histology and Embryology.[7] Gage came out of retirement in 1918 returning to teaching as a result of the shortage of teachers caused by World War I. In addition to his work on microscopy and optic projection, Gage did research on the newt, toad, lamprey, on fat digestion and on the pancreas.[8]
In 1893, Gage and John Henry Comstock founded the Comstock Publishing Company in order to make textbooks on microscopy, histology, and entomology available at a reasonable price to students and to publish the works of Anna Botsford Comstock on nature study. In 1931, Gage gave the company to Cornell University as a gift. Gage, along with Luzerne Corville and the architect, William H. Miller, designed Stimson Hall, which housed the Cornell Medical College. In 1915, Gage and his son started a memorial fund for Susanna Phelps Gage that was used to build a room in Clara Dickson Hall, the new dormitory for women. In 1918, they endowed the Susanna Phelps Gage Endowment for research in physics. Gage served as the faculty representative to the Cornell University Board of Trustees from 1921 to 1922. Gage was instrumental in starting the Flower Library in the Veterinary College of Cornell University in 1897. Gage served as the responsible librarian of the Van Cleef Memorial Library of medicine in Stimson Hall from 1922 to 1944. Upon his death in 1944, Gage donated his brain to the Wilder Brain Collection at Cornell University where it can still be seen on the second floor of Uris Hall. Gage's personal book collection and papers can be found in the Rare and Manuscript Collections[9] of the Cornell University Library.
Microscopy
Gage was active in the American Microscopical Society since its founding, and was elected President of the society twice, in 1895 and in 1906. Gage wrote seventeen editions of The Microscope,[10][11] a series of editions that traced the evolution of microscopy, and which included the Darkfield[12] and the Ultra-Violet[13] editions.[14][15]
Gage died at his home in Interlaken, New York on October 20, 1944.[16]
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