Painter, writer, naturalist, and founder of the Boy Scouts of America, Ernest Thompson Seton was self-taught as a boy both in art and in biology before he was able to get a solid education in both subjects later in young adulthood. His father wanted him him to be an artist because he saw more future in that profession than in Ernest’s chosen vocation of naturalist. Eventually, Mr. Seton combined the two talents he had for art and scientific study of nature to paint and write about the animals he studied in the wild.

Ernest Thompson Seton’s father seems to have been rather a tyrant and an unhappy man. When Ernest turned twenty-one, his father presented Ernest with a bill for the cost of his upbringing–room, board, education, even the cost for the family doctor who attended his birth–and told him that he had a duty to repay his parents every cent that they had spent on him. Ernest eventually repaid the “debt”, and he also changed his surname to Seton, that of his grandfather, because of his desire to distance himself from his tyrannical father. He sent checks home when he could, but made them payable to his mother, whom Ernest adored.

As an adult, Ernest became first a student of nature, and then a writer and artist who chronicled his stories and studies for others. He took thousands of photographs of animals and their habitats, collected specimens of birds and animal skins, and drew detailed pictures of the animals he observed. He then wrote a number of books about birds, animals, woodcraft, and other natural history topics. His Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore became the basis for what was called the Woodcraft movement, whose aim was to “develop manhood through the proper direction of play, emphasizing the essential aspects of body and mind as well as spirit.” He influenced and gave his materials to Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts in England, and when that movement came to America Seton was invited to become Chief Scout and his Woodcrafters were incorporated into the Boy Scouts of America. (Unfortunately, there was a disagreement between Seton and the Boy Scouts leadership, and Seton was basically disinvited to be a part of the Boy Scout organization.)

This biography by Shannon and Warren Garst is an excellent introduction to the life and work of Ernest Thompson Seton. I would recommend it to boys who are involved in Boy Scouts as well as Trail Life participants and others who are interested in nature study and the history of popular biology and nature writing. I really had no idea what an influential man Ernest Thompson Seton was, and any Boy Scout or Trail Life USA member would do well to know more about the roots of their organization and its heritage.