Felipe Poey

<h2 id="biography">Biography</h2>
<p>Poey was born in <a href="/facts/Havana/Md8Krt6E">Havana</a>, the son of French and Spanish parents. He spent several years (1804 to 1807) of his life in <a href="/facts/Pau,_Pyr%C3%A9n%C3%A9es-Atlantiques/IUFlWlj3">Pau</a> then studied law in <a href="/facts/Madrid/B63nL2DB">Madrid</a>. He became a <a href="/facts/Lawyer/SETgVQHu">lawyer</a> in <a href="/facts/Spain/bIyrB8EY">Spain</a> but was forced to leave due to his <a href="/facts/Freethought/ye8lulSv">liberal ideas</a>, returning to Cuba in 1823. He began to concentrate on the study of the <a href="/facts/Natural_science/8hg81Q2p">natural science</a> and traveled to France in 1825 with his wife. He began writing on the <a href="/facts/Butterflies/qlSgwlRx">butterflies</a> of Cuba and acquiring knowledge on <a href="/facts/Fish/fln4gH9V">fish</a>, later supplying <a href="/facts/Georges_Cuvier/4mmE7NzN">Georges Cuvier</a> and <a href="/facts/Achille_Valenciennes/6Y6VAjA5">Valenciennes</a> with fish specimens from Cuba. He took part in the foundation, in 1832, of the <a href="/facts/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_Entomologique_de_France/9l7yaxuV">Société Entomologique de France</a>.
</p><p>Poey returned to Cuba in 1833 where he founded the Museum of Natural History in 1839. In 1842, he became the first professor of zoology and <a href="/facts/Comparative_anatomy/UycBTvDH">comparative anatomy</a> at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Havana/k5Rsbj48">University of Havana</a>. He also took part in the creation of the Academy of Science (natural, physical and medical) of Havana and was a president of the Anthropological Society.
</p>
<h2 id="works">Works</h2>
<p>(selected)
</p>
<ul><li><i>Centurie de Lepidoptere de L'Ile de Cuba</i> (Paris, 1832)</li>
<li><i>Compilation of Geography of the Island of Cuba</i> (1836)</li>
<li><i>Curso de zoología, profesado en la Real Universidad de la Habana</i> (Havana, 1843)</li>
<li><i>Memories on the Natural History of the Island of Cuba</i> (1851 et 1856–1858)</li>
<li><i>Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba</i> (2 vols., 1860)</li>
<li><i>Poissons de l'île de Cuba</i> (1874)</li>
<li><i>Ictiología Cubana</i>, a 20-volume work on the fishes of Cuba</li>
<li><i>Enumeratio piscium Cubensium</i> (1875–1876)</li></ul>
<h2 id="philately">Philately</h2>
<p>Cuba commemorated the 175th anniversary of Poey's birth by issuing a series of six stamps and a stamp sheet in 1974. This same country celebrated the 200th anniversary of his birth by the issue of a series of four illustrated fish stamps in 1999.
</p>
<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li>Category:Taxa named by Felipe Poey</li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="/facts/James_Grant_Wilson/yIMEqzJI">Wilson, J. G.</a>; <a href="/facts/John_Fiske_(philosopher)/drCkszSM">Fiske, J.</a>, eds. (1900). <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Appletons%27_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_of_American_Biography/Poey,_Felipe">"Poey, Felipe" </a>. <i><a href="/facts/Appletons%27_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_of_American_Biography/tsdwGDj9">Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography</a></i>. New York: D. Appleton.</li></ul>
<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Felipe Poey.

<ul><li><a href="/facts/David_Starr_Jordan/qLNo5UIR">David S. Jordan</a> (August 1884). <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_25/August_1884/Sketch_of_Professor_Felipe_Poey">"Sketch of Professor Felipe Poey" </a>. <i><a href="/facts/Popular_Science_Monthly/dE4EBW22">Popular Science Monthly</a></i>. Vol. 25.</li></ul>

Felipe Poey open-in-new

Felipe Poey