Did George Give Aid and Comfort to the Enemy?

In 1782, General George Washington sent a dozen men with wagons and tools north from West Point.  What was their mission?

1.  Collect dinosaur fossils.

2.  Build a bridge over the Fish Kill River.

3.  Dig up mastodon bones.

4.  Capture, hang, and bury the traitor Benedict Arnold.

And the answer is:

Making the First Great Evolutionary Sensation

Who was “Mr. Vestiges” who first shook the world with his evolutionary thinking?

1.  The celebrated biological thinker Charles Darwin

2.  The Edinburgh journalist Robert Chambers

3.  The Engish mathematician and philosopher Charles Babbage

4.  Botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker

And the answer is

The Species Seekers Quiz: A Movement to Make Museums New

What spurred the 19th-century “new museum” movement?

1.  Generous donations from American “robber baron” railroad magnates 

2.  The British urge to out-compete the museums of rival nations

3.  Dermestid beetles, which ruined many old museums

4.  Advances in taxidermy

And the answer is

The Species Seekers Quiz: A Different Kind of Precious

Who or what is The Precious Wentletrap?

1.  An orchid once regarded as a remedy for syphilis.

2.  An audacious neo-punk  Trapp Family tribute band.

3.  A bird so rare that a half-dozen biological explorers lost their lives in the search for it.

4.  An unusually ornate shell.

And the answer is

The Species Seekers Quiz: Not Just a Naturalist

Stephen Maturin, played by Paul Bettany, in "Master and Commander"

In Britain, naturalists typically hitchhiked on military expeditions of discovery and conquest (like Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle), and often also served their country in what other role?

1.  Musical entertainer.

2.  Interpreter.

3.  Spy.

4.  Guide.

And the answer is

The Species Seekers Quiz: Inside Jefferson’s White House

What did Thomas Jefferson keep in the East Room of the White House?

1.  A collection of mastodon bones.

2.  Silver crafted by Paul Revere.

3.  The largest library of natural history books in North America.

4.  A conference table made of petrified wood.

And the answer is

The Species Seekers Quiz: Wallace’s House of Rest

After spending a dozen years in the tropics and making his reputation as the greatest field biologist of the nineteenth century, Alfred Russel Wallace later gave this name to a house he built:

1.  Darwinia, to honor his co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection (though his wife Annie had suggested Wallacea).

2.  Umbraculum, from the Latin word for a place of quiet retirement.

3.  Tulgey Wood, after a nonsense verse by Lewis Carroll.

4.  Birdwing, for his discovery of the spectacular Wallace’s golden birdwing butterfly.

And the answer is:

The Species Seekers Quiz: What Lies Beneath the Lid? Love or Loss

British naturalist William J. Burchell found something astounding when he took the lid off his collection of vultures.  What was it?

1.  A new type of Silphidae, or carrion beetle.

2.  A skull and bones.

3.  An egg in a vulture’s stomach.

4.  A love letter from the woman who had spurned him.

And the answer is:

The Species Seekers Quiz: Edgar Allan Poe’s Only Bestseller?

What was Edgar Allan Poe’s only bestseller during his lifetime?

Authors can look gloomy when books don't sell.

1.  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, a sea adventure and his only novel.

2.  The Conchologist’s First Book, a textbook.

3.  The Balloon Hoax, an account of an astounding trans-Atlantic balloon trip.

4.  Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, a collection of his stories, in which “terror has been the thesis.”

And the answer is

The Species Seekers Quiz: Mark Twain’s Mighty …????

On what river did young Samuel Clemens (later Mark Twain) hope to make his reputation when he lit out from home in 1857?

1.  The Mississippi

2.  The Ohio

3.  The Congo

4.  The Amazon

And the answer is