Samuel Prescott Hildreth (1783–1863) was a pioneer physician, scientist, and historian, authoring numerous scientific and historical works.

His father, Dr. Samuel Hildreth of Massachusetts, was a physician with a regiment of volunteers during the American Revolutionary War, served as surgeon aboard a privateer, and became a prisoner-of-war.

[7] In Marietta, Dr. Samuel Prescott Hildreth served as the town's doctor and pursued the study of local history, botany, and geology.

[3] "In 1808 he published in the New York Medical Repository, a history of an epidemic which had prevailed the previous year; also in 1812 a description of the American Colomba, with a figure of the plant; likewise in 1822, an article on Hydrophobia, and another on a curious case of Siamese twins, in his practice.

In 1826, he published in Silliman's Journal of Science, New Haven, a series of articles on the Natural and Civil History of Washington County.

From that time until his death, nearly forty years, he was a contributor to the Journal—such articles as descriptions and drawings of fresh-water shells found in the Muskingum and other streams, several upon geological subjects, touching upon the geology of Southeastern Ohio, the salt-bearing rock, the history of salt manufacture from the first settlement of Ohio, the coal formation, &c."[11] The first volume of Archaeologia Americana, published in 1820, contains important letters on objects of antiquarian interest in the vicinity of Marietta, Ohio, from Dr. Hildreth; and soon after he made repeated contributions to the American Antiquarian Society relating to kindred subjects.