Hall of Fame: Charles-Alexandre Lesueur

Biographical info

Name: Charles-Alexandre Lesueur

Born: 1 January 1778, in Le Havre; Died: 12 December 1846, in Sainte-Adresse

Major Accomplishments:

Lesueur became famous in a rather unconventional way. He was a cannon assistant on the Baudin Expedition to Australia (1800-1804), but was appointed as an artist after several hired illustrators left the expedition early in Mauritius. He became close friends with Peron, and together they described and illustrated many new medusan taxa; however, for reasons that are unclear, Lesueur's plates were not published with Peron's descriptions. Once back in France, Lesueur continued his artistic interest in medusae at Le Havre.

After Peron's death in 1810, Lesueur came to the U.S. to work with William MacLure at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and to accompany MacLure on expeditions to the Caribbean and North America. Lesueur then became involved in an Utopian pre-communistic society experiment, the so called "New Harmony Settlement" in Indiana with Thomas Say. After Say's death, Lesueur returned to Le Havre in 1835, where he helped to found the Natural History Museum.

Honorific taxa:
Lesueuria Milne Edwards, 1841 [Ctenophora]

Limacina lesueuri (d'Orbigny, 1836)
Pleurobranchus lesueurii Blainville, 1825
Atlanta lesueuri Souleyet, 1852
Firola lesueuri D'Orbigny, 1836
Acanthochitona sueurii H. De Blainville, 1825
Lesueurigobius sueuri (Risso, 1810)
Ancistrocheirus lesueurii (d'Orbigny, 1842, in de Férussac & d'Orbigny)
Phyllorhiza peronlesueuri Goy, 1990 [Cnidaria: Scyphozoa]