Thomas Say monument instruction.""Thomas Say was born in Philadelphia and, as a self-taught naturalist, at the age of 25 became a charter member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Living frugally in the Academy building, Say took care of the museum there and became a friend of William Maclure, President of the Academy from 1817 to 1840."" In 1818 Say accompanied Maclure and others members of the Academy on an expedition to the off-shore islands of Georgia and Florida. In 1819-20, Major Stephen H. Long led an exploration to the Rocky Mountains with Thomas Say as zoologist, and in 1823, Say served as zoologist in Long's expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. During the 1819-20 expedition, Say first described the coyote, swift fox, western kingbird, band-tailed pigeon, Say's phoebe, rock wren, lesser goldfinch, lark sparrow, lazuli bunting, and orange-crowned warbler. Thomas Say accompanied William Maclure and other scientists and educators from Philadelphia on the famous ""Boatload of Knowledge." The party arrived in New Harmony, Indiana, in January, 1826. One of the passengers was the artist Lucy Way Sistare, whom Say married secretly, near New Harmony, on January 4, 1827." (https://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/say.html) This inscription from the side of the monument reads,""Votary of Nature even from a child/He sought her presence in the trackless wild/To him the shell the insect and the flower/Were bright and cherished emblems of her power/In her he saw a spirit all devine [sic]/And worshiped like a pilgrim at her shrine."