The mineralogist and chemist William Hypolitus Keating was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 11, 1799. The son of Baron John Keating, an Irishman by ancestry and former colonel in the French Army, William was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (AB, 1816) and studied mining in both France and Switzerland before joining the faculty at his alma mater in 1822. As the newly minted Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy (1822-1828), he rapidly immersed himself in the city's vibrant community of mineralogists and chemists.
A capable field geologist, Keating accompanied Stephen Harriman Long's second expedition in 1823 as official geologist and spent three years in mineralogical exploration in Mexico, beginning in 1827. His work with Long represented one of the first topographic and mineralogical surveys of the Great Lakes, for which he was given responsibility for compiling and publishing the results as Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River : Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, &c., &c. Performed in the year 1823 (Philadelphia, 1824). Locally, he was as leading member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia as well as one of the motive forces behind the establishment of the Franklin Institute in 1824. He was also an active member of the American Philosophical Society, serving both as Secretary (1823-1827, 1832) and Councillor (1831, 1836-1840), as well as a member of several committees.
In addition to his scientific interests, Keating studied law and was engaged in a number of business enterprises. He died in London, England, on March 17, 1840, while negotiating a mortgage loan for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co., of which he had been manager from 1835 to 1838.
The William H. Keating notebooks include three cash books (daybooks of cash expenditures, 1830-1839) and a book containing surveys of Keating lands in Potter County, most undertaken by Silas McCarty for William's father John Keating (1801-1818). The surveys associated with John Keating are an interesting record of land investment and speculation in the northern tier of Pennsylvania. William Keating's meticulous cash books provide a detailed record of his domestic expenses, philanthropic involvements (donations to the Catholic Church, the Prison Society), his reading (newspapers and books are listed individually), socializing (theatre tickets, Assembly fees), and a variety of miscellaneous expenditures ranging from purchase of a lithograph of Dugald Stewart to a table lamp from C. Cornelius. His accounts also include lists of servant's wages and wages for washerwomen. The final volume includes a loose pencil sketch of a pine tree.
Gift of Mark Willcox, February 2000 (accn. no. 2000-108ms).
Cite as: William H. Keating Notebooks, American Philosophical Society.
Catalogued by rsc, 2004.
As an active member of the APS, Keating appears frequently as a correspondent in the APS Archives, and as a correspondent of Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Film 542) and John Torrey (Film 628).
Keating, William H., Account of Jeffersonite, a New Mineral Discovered at the Franklin Iron Works (Philadelphia: Harding, 1822). Call no.: 549 P19 v.1, no.25. Keating, William H., Considerations Upon the Art of Mining, to Which are Added, Reflections on its Actual State in Europe, and the Advantages Which Would Result from an Introduction of this Art Into the United States (Philadelphia: Carey and Sons, 1821). Call no.: 622 K22. Keating, William H., Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River : Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, &c., &c. Performed in the year 1823 (Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1824). Call no.: 917.3 L85n. Keating, William H., Syllabus of a Course of Mineralogy and Chemistry, as Applied to Agriculture and the Arts (Philadelphia: s.n., 1822). Call no.: Pam. v.1147, no.8.
The William Keating collection consists of four volumes of records. Three volumes are his personal cash book, which records his financial transactions from 1830-1839. The fourth volume is a survey book. This volume contains detailed descriptions of land that the Keatings' owned in Pennsylvania, likely purchased under or associated with the Holland Land Company. Keating's surveys contain detailed descriptions of the land and area. At times, it reads like a travel narrative.
