# John Bernard Gilpin

Dr. John Bernard Gilpin (4 September 1810 – 12 March 1892) was an American-born Canadian physician, surgeon, naturalist, author, and artist.

## Early life and education

John Bernard Gilpin Jr. was born in Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, on 4 September 1810.
His father, J. Bernard Gilpin, originally from Vicar's Hill in Hampshire, was the British Consul for Rhode Island and Connecticut, residing at Newport before retiring to Nova Scotia in 1833.
In 1831, John Bernard Gilpin studied at Trinity College, a private college in Hartford. He studied under Dr. T.C. Gunn in Newport for a year before enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.D. from the university in 1834. Gilpin completed the rest of his education in England.

## Career

Dr. Gilpin was recorded as a medical practitioner in Annapolis County, where he also studied natural history and local wildlife.
After passing the examination for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1845, he returned to Nova Scotia as one of five physicians also qualified as surgeons. He moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1846, where he maintained a medical practice on Barrington Street for four decades. Serving as assistant health officer for the Port of Pictou in 1847, Gilpin later became a member of the Medical Society of Nova Scotia in 1854.

### Nova Scotian Institute of Science

One of the original founders of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, Dr. J.B. Gilpin, was elected as a member during its inauguration on 5 January 1863. He had the privilege of delivering the first paper, "The Common Herring of Nova Scotia," at the institute's first ordinary meeting at Dalhousie College on 19 January 1863. He was appointed as vice president of the institute on 12 October 1864. In October 1866, he served as vice president alongside Lieut. Col. Campbell Hardy with John Matthew Jones in the chair. The vice president presented a paper titled "On the Mammalia of Nova Scotia—Part 3" on 5 November 1866 and the fourth and fifth editions between 1867 and 1868. His series, "On the Food Fishes of Nova Scotia," concluded with a fifth part in December 1867, and he later presented "The Walrus" on 10 May 1869. Dr. Gilpin went on to serve as the institute's president from 1873 to 1878. After his tenure, he continued to serve as a council member. Over two decades, he wrote 34 papers published in the institute's transactions, many including his own illustrations, on topics such as birds, fish, walruses, moose, and fossils. Regularly called upon by Dr. Spencer Fullerton Baird, curator of the Smithsonian Institute, he helped classify fish species and understand their migrations.
As early as 1875, he was among the shareholders of the Bank of Nova Scotia. Upon his retirement, he took up residence in Annapolis County in 1882.

## Death

John Bernard Gilpin died at 81 years old on 12 March 1892 in Annapolis Royal, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

## Works

* Sable Island: its past history, present appearance, natural history, &c., &c. (1858)
* On the Mammalia of Nova Scotia (1866)
* On the Food Fishes of Nova Scotia (1867)
* The Walrus (1869)
* Observations on some Fossil Bones found in New Brunswick, Canada (1873-74)