William Harper Pease (1824–1871) was a 19th-century American conchologist, shell collector and malacologist. He described many species of Indo-Pacific marine mollusks from the Cuming collection.

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William Harper Pease
circa 1860
Born	1824
Died	1871  (aged 46–47)
Occupation	Zoologist, malacologist

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He moved in 1849 to Honolulu, from where he continued his research

One of the genera he described and named was the sea slug genus: Philinopsis Pease, 1860

Several species were named in his honor : Favartia peasei (Tryon, 1880), Conus peasei J. Brazier, 1877, Amygdalum peasei W. Newcomb, 1870 and Hypselodoris peasei (Bergh, 1880)

For many years, no image of Pease was known, until a 2021 paper revealed that two cartes-de-visite (one shown above) had been discovered in the Bishop Museum Archives, Honolulu.^[1]

• Pease, W. H. (1860). Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the Sandwich Islands. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, pt. 28, pp. 18–36.
• Pease, W. H. (1861). Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the Pacific Islands. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1861 pp. 242–247.
• Pease, W. H. (1863). [Letter. On errors and omissions in former communications.]. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1863 p. 510.
• Pease, W. H. (1866). Remarks on nudibranchiata inhabiting the Pacific islands, with descriptions of two new genera. American Journal of Conchology 2(2): 204-208.
• Pease, W. H. (1871). Descriptions of new species of Nudibranchiate Mollusca inhabiting Polynesia. No.2. American Journal of Conchology. 7 (1): 11-19

• H. Crosse & P. Fischer, 1873. Nécrologie. Journal de Conchyliologie 21(1): 99.
• Anonymous, 1960. Pease’s catalogue of books on Hawaii. Hawaiian Shell News 8(7): 4-5.
• K. W. Greene, 1960. William Harper Pease – 100 years later. Hawaiian Shell News 8(6): 1, 4-5; 8(7): 4-5; 8(8): 1, 3-4, 8; 8(9): 5, 8; 8(10): 5, 8; 8(12): 5-6.
• K. W. Greene, 1961. Additional data for your Pease file. Hawaiian Shell News 10(2): 2.
• E. A. Kay, 1965. Marine mollusks in the Cuming collection, British Museum (Natural History) described by William Harper Pease. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology, Supplement 1: 96 pp., 14 pls.
• E. A. Kay, 1975. A biobibliography of William Harper Pease, malacologist of Polynesia. Part I. A biography of William Harper Pease. Nemouria 16: 1-21.
• W. E. Clench, 1975. Catalogue of the species and bibliography of William Harper Pease. Nemouria 16: 21-50.
• R. I. Johnson, 1994. Types of shelled Indo-Pacific mollusks described by W. H. Pease. Harvard University, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 154(1): 61 pp., incl. 10 pls
• R. I. Johnson, 2002. On the cunning character of a couple of conchologist collectors, Wesley Newcomb and William Harper Pease. Occasional Papers on Mollusks 6(81): 164-173.