William Henry Tivy, ca. 1841 - 1898

by Brian Stevenson
last updated November, 2025

William H. Tivy, of Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, was an active amateur microscopist during the last two decades of the 1800s. He was a member of the American Microscopical Society and the Academy of Science of St. Louis. He was especially interested in mounting and studying diatoms, often acquired through exchanges with other microscopists.

Figure 1. Slide of diatoms from Bowkerville, New Hampshire, USA, prepared ca. 1880s by William H. Tivy.

Figure 2. Diatoms from Bowkerville, New Hampshire, mounted by W.H. Tivy (see Figure 1). Imaged with a 10x objective lens and C-mounted digital SLR camera on a Leitz Ortholux II microscope.

Figure 3. William Tivy offered to exchange his diatom mounts for raw material or slides in popular science magazines (1881 and 1882) and in the Naturalists’ Directory (1884). These were common ways for amateur and professional scientists to connect with each other and share information and materials.

William Henry Tivy was born in Ireland ca. 1841, a son of Richard and Eliza Tivy. The family moved to Hastings County (now in Ontario), Canada during the late 1850s. The 1860 census of Canada listed father Richard as being a “farmer”. Nineteen year-old William was the eldest of the five Tivy children.

William Tivy moved to Saint Louis, USA, around 1870. He was listed in city directories from 1872 through 1885 as being a clerk / bookkeeper for William Barr & Company, a dry-goods retailer (Figure 4). The company’s shop was located on the corner of 6th and Olive Streets. Tivy routinely used Barr’s business address for his scientific correspondence, probably because he frequently changed boarding houses. There was another family named “Tivy” in St. Louis at the time, including William Nash Tivy, who owned a large grocery business. Our microscopist is not known to have been related to this other family.

Tivy evidently had a mind for science, joining the Academy of Science of Saint Louis prior to 1877. He put his expertise in microscopy for demonstrations to his Academy colleagues, such as in 1886 when, “Mr. Tivy exhibited specimens of real and bogus butter, and showed how it was possible to distinguish between them in the microscope, by the difference in the forms of their crystallization.”

He had become proficient in preparing microscope slides of diatoms by 1881, when he published nationwide offers to exchange “selected and well-mounted diatoms” for other slides or materials (Figure 3). A few years later, he asked to receive “sections of rock”.

The American Monthly Microscopical Journal published a letter from Tivy in 1881, on a home-made substitute for a parabolic mirror: “I have just made myself a parabolic illuminator, which, as it costs but a trifle, I think may be of interest to some of your readers. Taking my 1/2-inch objective (any other suitable power will do as well), I wound a clean copper wire of-inch diameter closely around the base three times, twisting and bending the ends for a length sufficient to reach a little beyond the end of the objective. I then cut a section of about half an inch from the bowl of a new, plated teaspoon, and soldered the convex side to the ends of the wire, also making the loop solid with solder, and filing it up to a good fit and figure, so that it would slip easily on and off the objective. The objective was then focussed on a slide and the reflector adjusted, by bending the wire, until it gave very good results with parallel rays. Thus I have a handy and useful piece of apparatus, at the cost of the spoon, 30 cents. Mr. E.H. Griffith, of Fairport, N.Y., gave me the notion of utilizing a spoon for this purpose.” Tivy’s printed letter was followed by this comment from the journal’s editor, “After the above article was in type we received a communication from Mr. E.H. Griffith describing the same instrument, which, as Mr. Tivy states, is original with Mr. Griffith. We regret that his description did not reach us sooner, for we would then have printed it. Another article from Mr. Griffith will be printed next month, describing his method of making cells.” The Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society paraphrased Tivy’s letter in 1882, describing it as “Griffith’s parabolic mirror”.

I identified exchange offers from Tivy only in 1881 and 1882 issues of microscope magazines, and he was listed in The Naturalists’ Directory through 1886, but not in later issues. This suggests that microscope slides such as shown in Figure 1 date from the early-mid 1880s. He did, however, remain a member of the American Microscopical Society and the Academy of Science until the end of his life.

Tivy became Secretary of the American Roll Paper Company ca. 1887, which appears to have been substantially increased his finances. He married Ann Ryall on April 30, 1887, and moved to suburban Woodland Avenue.

William H. Tivy died on October 22, 1898.

Figure 4. From 1872 through 1885, William Tivy worked as a bookkeeper for William Barr & Company, a St. Louis dry-goods retailer (Figure 4). Tivy routinely used the business' address of 6th and Olive Streets for correspondence, implying that he was a significant employee. Adapted from a ca. 1880 photograph for nonprofit, educational purposes.

Resources

The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science (1881) Exchange offers from William H. Tivy, Vol. 6, pages 44 and 168

American Monthly Microscopical Journal (1882) Exchange offers from William H. Tivy, pages 40, 60, and 80

Canada census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1867) W.H. Tivy not listed

Directory of Saint Louis (1872) “Tivy William H. clk. William Barr &Co. bds 1124 Locust”, page 752, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1876) “Tivy William H. clk. Wm. Barr &Co. bds 1646 Ashdown”, page 880, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1878) “Tivy William H. clk. William Barr &Co. r. 1646 Ashdown”, page 921, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1882) “Tivy William H. clk. Wm. Barr D.G. Co. r. 3447 Laclede av.”, page 1143, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1885) “Tivy William H. bkpr. Wm. Barr D.G. Co. r. 3447 Laclede av.”, page 1159, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1889) “Tivy William H. sec. American Roll Paper Co. 207 N. 2d, r. Woodlawn, Mo.”, page 1269, accessed through ancestry.com

Directory of Saint Louis (1895) “Tivy William H. sec. American Roll Paper Co. 215 N. 2d, r. Kirkwood”, page 1483, accessed through ancestry.com

Find-a-Grave (accessed November, 2025) www.findagrave.com/memorial/30286140/william-henry-tivy

Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society (1882) Griffith’s parabolic reflector, page 266

Missouri State Gazetteer and Business Directory (1893) “American Roll Paper Co , Joseph Franklin pres , Wm H Tivy sec , 215 N 2d”, page 894

The Naturalists’ Directory (1883) “Tivy, W.H., 6th and Olive Sts., St. Louis. Mic C. Ex. Well-mounted diatoms for good slides”, page 116

The Naturalists’ Directory (1883) “Tivy, W.H., 6th and Olive Sts., St. Louis, Mo. Mic C. Ex. Well-mounted diatoms in ex. for good diatomaceous material or for slides of general interest. Sections of rocks desired”, page 133

The Naturalists’ Directory (1883) “Tivy, W.H., 6th and Olive Sts., St. Louis, Mo. Mic C. Ex. Well-mounted diatoms in ex. for good diatomaceous material or slides of general interest. Sections of rocks desired”, page 133

The Naturalists’ Directory (1888) William H. Tivy not listed

Proceedings of the American Microscopical Society (1881) Election of new members, page 11

Proceedings of the American Microscopical Society (1896) “Tivy, W.H., ’81. 207 N. Second St, St. Louis, Mo.”, page 411

Tivy, William H. (1881) Letter to the editor, American Monthly Microscopical Journal, page 238

Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis (1877) Members, page vii

Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis (1886) Minutes of the meeting of April 5, page 1

Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis (1897) Members, page 11

US census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com