Graduating with a degree in chemistry from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1862, Clarence King spent another full year preparing himself to become a geologist by studying privately and attending courses at Harvard. Recognizing that practical experience was essential, however, King signed on as a volunteer aboard Josiah Whitney's fledgling California Geological Survey from 1863, setting off across the plains and mountains on horseback for a three year stint in the far west.

While traversing the continent, King conceived of organizing a cross-country geological survey that would cut a transect across the nation parallel to the transcontinental railraod. With Whitney's assistance, the idea germinated in 1867 into the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, one of four great western geological surveys during the mid-century. For five years, King led a company of Army Topographical Engineers from the Sierra Nevadas to the Rockies, work that culminated in an influential series of publications crowned by King's own Systematic Geology.

With the success of the Fortieth Parallel survey on his side, King returned east and soon took up lobbying for the National Academy of Sciences to urge Congress to approve formation of a U.S. Geological Survey, an agency intended to supplant the existing surveys and guide future geological and topographical exploration of the country. After a brief controversy over whether he or F.V. Hayden should be appointed head, King became the first Director of the U.S.G.S. in March 1879.

King's tenure with the Survey was to be very brief. Arguing that he had accomplished his goal of placing the Survey on a firm and permanent footing, he resigned as the Hayes administration left office in April 1881, leaving the directorship in the hands of his hand-picked successor, John Wesley Powell. King retired into private practice as a mining engineer and economic geologist in 1881. His efforts to earn his fortune in mines, however, largely failed, and although he remained active behind the scenes in geological politics until almost the turn of the turn of the century, King spent much of his time as a jovial clubman, socializing at the Union League Club and Century Club in New York. His common law marriage to a Black woman, Ada Copeland, in 1888 was kept largely secret. He died of tuberculosis in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 24, 1901, leaving his wife and four children.

Although it consists of a slender cull of only a dozen letters, the King Papers offer interesting glimpses into the life of the first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Clarence King. Consisting of letters written by King between January 1873 and 1894, all addressed to his colleague, Samuel Franklin Emmons, the collection includes particularly valuable commentary on the politics of the U.S. Geological Survey. King's efforts to marshall support for his own appointment to head the Survey in 1878 reveal a politically astute side to the man that is matched in interesting fashion by his letter of April 23, 1881, informing Emmons that he should not be offended by his resignation. King's later letters suggest the extent to which he remained involved in the politics of the Survey, providing candid comments on the character of Chamberlain [T. C. Chamberlin?] and Charles D. Walcott.

A second theme running through the letters is the depth of friendship between King and Emmons, which expression, he admitted, "all sounds like an emotional uncle." On a different note entirely, one of the more interesting and unusual letters was written from Cheyenne, Wyoming, on August 26, 1877, providing a long, light hearted and detailed description of life in that town.

Provenance

Acquired from Carnegie Bookshop in 1978 (1978-1318ms).

Preferred citation

Cite as: Clarence King Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued by rsc, 2002.

Related material

Apart from the Records of the Fortieth Parallel Survey and the U.S.G.S. in the National Archives, the main body of Clarence King's Papers are located in the James D. Hague Collection at the Huntington Library.

Two letters by King and one to him are located in the Papers of J. Peter Lesley (B L56) at the APS.

Bibliography

• United States Geological Survey
• United States. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel

• Cheyenne (Wyo.) -- Description and travel

• Adams, Henry, 1813-1877
• Agassiz, Alexander, 1835-1910
• Chamberlin, Thomas C. (Thomas
• Emmons, Samuel Franklin, 1841-1911
• King, Clarence, 1842-1901
• Powell, John Wesley, 1834-1902
• Walcott, Charles D. (Charles Doolittle), 1850-1927

• Geology -- 19th century