Loomis was born November 22, 1873, in Brooklyn, New York, to Julie R. Loomis (née Brewster) and Nathaniel H. Loomis, a businessman who ran produce warehouses in New York City.[1] In March 1877 his father died of rabies contracted from a dog bite.[2] The family later moved to Rochester, New York, where he attended Rochester Free Academy and then Canandaigua Academy,[1][3] which was then a private school for boys.[4] Loomis's interest in paleontology dates from this period, when we spent his spare time collecting invertebratefossils.[1]
After earning his Ph.D. Loomis returned to Amherst, where he remained on the faculty until his death. He was first an Instructor in the Department of Biology. He was named Associate Professor of Biology in 1903, Professor of Comparative Anatomy in 1908, and Professor of Geology in 1917. He also served as Vice President of the College and held this office at the time of his death.[1]
Loomis was chiefly a vertebrate paleontologist, and most of his published research is in this area. He was highly active in field work. Most notably, a 1911 expedition to Patagonia funded by Loomis's Amherst Class of 1896 yielded several remarkable fossils of the extinct mammal Pyrotherium. He also explored areas of the Rocky Mountains, Florida and Maine, returning to Amherst with fossils of vertebrates including Eohippus, mastodons, and mammoths. These joined the collection of Amherst's natural history museum,[1] known today as the Beneski Museum of Natural History.[5] Loomis regarded the museum as his finest accomplishment,[1] and his contributions were still exhibited there almost a century later.[6]
The Springfield Science Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts, features an exhibit which includes a bone initially collected in New Mexico in 1924 during one of 17 expeditions led by Loomis. The exhibit includes photographs of Loomis on one of his expeditions.[10]
^Beneski Museum of Natural History. Frequently asked questions. Accessed Feb. 13, 2014. "Why aren't you still called the Pratt Museum of Natural History? [...] In April of 2011 the building housing the museum and the geology department was renamed the Beneski Earth Sciences Building, and the museum is now called the Beneski Museum of Natural History".