Dunbar's Expedition to Louisiana: 1804
On President Jefferson's authorization, Dunbar explored the territory of the Washita and Red Rivers.
William Dunbar (1749-1810; APS 1800) DAB
The son of a Scottish earl, Dunbar studied mathematics and astronomy in London and in 1771 arrived at Pittsburgh with Indian trade goods. Two years later he established a plantation in West Florida and, in 1792, a second near Natchez, Mississippi, where he was appointed surveyor general of the district. A politician of note, Dunbar was also an accomplished observer of the natural world who wrote on meteorology, astronomy, fossil bones, and Indian languages. His was the first account of the Hot Springs, written in connection with his exploration of the Washita country. Accompanied by Dr. George Hunter, Dunbar carried out his explorations between 16 October 1804 and 31 January 1805.
APS: See his "Journal of a geometrical survey ... [to] the hot springs, 1804-05." Archives has his communications to the Society, including his meteorological observations.
HSP: The Josiah Stoddard Johnston Collection contains some fifty Dunbar letters (1821-32) to his son-in-law Johnston, though a cursory examination reveals no relevance to this expedition.
George Hunter (1755-?)
Born in Edinburgh, Hunter migrated to Philadelphia in 1744, served in the militia during the Revolution, then set up as druggist in Philadelphia. President Jefferson proposed him as Dunbar's companion.[
5]
APS: George Hunter Journals, 1796-1809. 4 vols. The Red River journal (107 pp.) was copied as "Journal up the Red and Washita Rivers with William Dunbar." Misc. Mss. contains a receipt, dated 31 August 1804, for a boat and other equipment for the expedition.
Lewis and Clark Expedition: 1804
Although accompanied by no trained scientists, this most celebrated of the expeditions that Congress launched in the course of the century was, by virtue of President Jefferson's detailed instructions (supplemented by the expert advice of members of the APS), very much a scientific exploration. Led by Jefferson's private secretary Meriwether Lewis and Lewis's army friend William Clark, the thirty-man party ascended the Missouri, crossed the mountains, reached the mouth of the Columbia in November 1805, and returned to St. Louis in September 1806 with a great variety of natural history specimens and data.
APS: The holdings richly document the expedition. The Peale Sketchbooks have sketches by Charles Willson Peale of the birds returned by the expedition. On the bird specimens, see William Cooper's letter in the Bonaparte Correspondence (Film no.542 of originals in Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Paris). For C.S. Rafinesque's descriptions of the botanical collections, see Rafinesque Letters and Papers. Also pertinent are extracts from the journal on the Northwest (917.3 L58) that the fur trader James McKay (1770-1838) furnished the expedition; Nicholas Biddle's Notes of Queries to William Clark; and Biddle's Correspondence concerning the Lewis and Clark expedition (Film no.1319 of originals in the Princeton University Library), of which he was to write the first history. The manuscript minutes of APS Meetings (e.g., 17 June 1807) may prove useful. The Library also has the copper plates of Lewis and Clark's maps made for the 1814 edition of the history of the expedition. Of peripheral interest are the Documents Concerning the William Clark Papers discovered in 1953.
HSP: For an "Outline of what our government understands by Louisiana," including the Lost River and Salt Mountain ("no fable"), see the letter of 30 November 1803, by the contemporary panjandrum of American science, Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell, to [Jedediah] Morse. Simon Gratz Collection.
Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809; APS 1803) DAB
A Virginian, Lewis joined the army in 1795, was promoted captain five years later, and, between 1801 and his taking command of the expedition, served as President Jefferson's private secretary. Appointed governor of Missouri Territory on his return, he died under mysterious circumstances while on the way to Washington.
APS: Journal, 30 August-12 December 1803. 1 vol. journal of the trip by river from Pittsburgh to the winter camp at St. Louis. About one-quarter of the 126 leaves contain Nicholas Biddle's questions and Clark's replies, 1810.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has Lewis's letter to Andrew Ellicott about a chronometer for the expedition, and the Daniel Parker Papers has Lewis's letter to Jefferson regarding efforts to obtain Spanish permission to ascend the Missouri.
**APS, HSP
William Clark (1770-1838) DAB
Like Lewis a Virginian, Clark joined the army in 1792 and was second lieutenant when appointed to the expedition, the success of which owed much to his intimate knowledge of Indian cultures. He afterward served successively as Indian agent, governor of Missouri Territory, and superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis.
APS: The William Clark Journal, 6-10 January 1806, contains notes on distances covered and suggestions for fur-trade routes. For mention of Clark's plan to publish a work on the expedition, see Joel Barlow's letter to Benjamin Rush in Misc. Mss.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has two relevant Clark letters: to Andrew
Ellicott regarding a chronometer and to William D. Meriwether about getting out the narrative and the problem of lost specimens and drawings.
Lewis and Clark
APS: Journal of travels to the source of the Missouri River and across the American continent to the Pacific Ocean, 1804-1806. Eighteen bound codices and 12 loose-leaved codices. From the source of the Missouri River to the Pacific. The journal contains interlineations by Nicholas Biddle.
HSP: The H. D. Gilpin Collection has an 1835 letter by the APS librarian, John Vaughan, politely but firmly declining to dispatch the Lewis and Clark manuscripts to Europe for the use of Mr. Audubon.
John Ordway (ca. 1775-ca. 1817) DAB
A New Hampshireman, Ordway entered the army about 1800 and served the expedition as sergeant. A trusted lieutenant, he was often left in command in the leaders' absence. He afterward established a plantation in Missouri's New Madrid-district.
APS: John Ordway Journal, 1804-1806, 3 vols.
HSP: The Simon Gratz collection contains a letter from A. Campbell introducing Ordway as a member of the expedition and proposing publication of his journal.
ANSP: On deposit from the APS, some of the expedition's dried plants are in the Lambert Herbarium and the Barton Herbarium.
The Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains: 1819
In an expedition lasting eighteen months, Lt. Stephen H. Long explored the region between the Mississippi and the Rockies. He was accompanied by Lt. J. D. Graham, William Baldwin, Thomas Say, Edwin James, T.R. Peale, A. E. Jessup, and the Philadelphia landscapist Samuel Seymour. Benjamin Edwards, about whom nothing is known, also accompanied the party. For reasons given in his letter to Amos Eaton of 16 February 1819 (Simon Gratz Collection, HSP), John Torrey declined to join but in Society publications reported on the plants collected.
Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864- APS 1823) DAB
A New Hampshireman and 1819 graduate of Dartmouth, Long joined the army in 1814 and taught mathematics at West Point before transferring to the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Promoted major in 1838, he became chief of the Corps in 1861. After his expedition of 1823 Long surveyed various railroad routes and became an authority in the field.
APS: Manuscript Communications has Secretary of War John C. Calhoun's instructions to the expedition and Robert Patterson's for making astronomical observations.
HSP: See Long's letters to William Darlington in the Conarroe Papers and to Baldwin and John Torrey in the Simon Gratz Collection. His letters in the Daniel Parker Papers may also prove of interest.
ANSP: The William H. Keating Papers (Coll. 515) has Keating's geological notes from Long's report on the expedition.
**APS, HSP, LCP
James Duncan Graham (1799-1865; APS 1840, ANSP 1841) DAB
A Virginian and West Point graduate of 1817, Graham early displayed a talent for topography and, as major, joined the Corps of Topographical Engineers on its formation in 1838. In 1839-1840, he was astronomer to the surveying party that established the boundary line between the United States and the Republic of Texas, then commissioner for the exploration of the northeast boundary of the United States and for the
U.S. and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848). Graham was assistant topographer to this expedition.
APS: Of the many of Graham's letters in the Archives and in the J.F. Frazer Papers, none concerns this expedition.
**APS, HSP
William Baldwin (1789-1819; ANSP 1817) DAB
Born at Newlin, Pennsylvania, Baldwin took an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1807. After serving as surgeon on a merchant ship to Canton, he practiced medicine at Wilmington, Delaware, and between 1812 and 1818 as a naval surgeon in Georgia, where he collected widely. His projected botanical publication on Georgia and East Florida was interrupted by the Long expedition, on which he hoped to recoup his health but which killed him instead. Serving the expedition as botanist and surgeon, Baldwin was the first American trained in botany to collect plants west of the Mississippi.
APS: Linnaean Society of London Correspondence of American Scientists (H.S. Film #6 of originals at Linnaean Society of London) has Baldwin's letter of 4 February 1819 to his fellow botanist and mentor William Darlington describing preparations for the expedition and expressing concern for the welfare of the Indians.
ANSP: Zaccheus Collins Correspondence (copy at APS, Film no.880) has Baldwin's 1819 reports to Collins on the journey to Pittsburgh ("continually enveloped" in coal smoke) and St. Louis, with hard words for the steamboat with which the expedition was afflicted.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has Zaccheus Collins's letter of I November 1818 informing Baldwin that "many persons are coming to join the steamboat government expedition," which, pledging his support and that of Joseph Francisco Correa da Serra, he hopes Baldwin will accompany; and also relevant letters from Long to Baldwin and from Baldwin to various correspondents. In the Ferdinand J. Dreer Collection, see Baldwin's letter from Pittsburgh to his friend H.M. Brackenridge.
Thomas Say (1787-1834; APS 1817, ANSP 1812) DAB
Son of a Philadelphia physician, Say is known as the founder of entomology in America and was among the first Americans to emphasize the use of fossils to date geological strata. A charter member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, he was professor of natural history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1822 to 1828. Say served as zoologist to the expedition.
APS: Among the many Say manuscripts, few if any concern this expedition. But see his sketches in the T. R. Peale Sketchbooks, noted below.
ANSP: The seventeen items in Thomas Say's Letters to the Melsheimers (Coll. 13) offer disappointingly little, but see his letters of 13 March 1819, describing plans for the expedition, and 29 August 1821, giving a brief account of it.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has Say's letter to Benjamin Say of 10 October 1819, written from winter quarters.
LCP: The Samuel George Morton Papers has S. S. Haldeman's extracts from Say's letters of 1816, 1823, 1827 to J.F. Melsheimer. A fruitful source for the history of early American science, the Morton Papers at the LCP (as well as another large collection at the APS and a smaller at the ANSP) contain correspondence from some forty of the scientists associated with these explorations and surveys.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
Edwin James (1797-1861; APS 1833, ANSP 1823) DAB
A Vermonter, James took his B.A. at Middlebury College in 1816 and during the next four years studied botany with John Torrey and Amos Eaton. Replacing Baldwin as botanist (and serving as geologist and surgeon, as well), he dispatched specimens to John Torrey for determination. James was the first American to collect alpine flora above the timberline. As compiler of the expedition's report, it was he who popularized, though he did not conceive, the concept of the West as the "Great American Desert." Highly regarded by his scientific contemporaries, he was appointed to
Long's second expedition (1823) but failed to receive notice in time to reach the rendezvous and for the next ten years was posted as army surgeon at various frontier locations. After yeoman service in the New York temperance crusade of the 1830s, he fled the fleshpots to live as a recluse on an Iowa farm.
APS: Writing to Eaton, 7 March 1820, Torrey rejoiced for their protégé. ". . . the pay is comfortable -- $2 per day & rations & 10 cents per mile for travelling, where the U.S. do not find a conveyance. The money he will save as there will be nothing to buy." John Torrey Papers. James's two volumes, on the Chippewa language (497 J23) and an account of the Menominees (970.l J23), may derive in part from observations made on this expedition.
Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885; APS 1833, ANSP 1817) DAB
One of the many talented offspring of the Philadelphia artist and pioneer paleontologist Charles Willson Peale, Titian, elected to the Academy at eighteen and appointed assistant naturalist to the expedition at twenty, came to enjoy sufficiently high esteem as an artist-naturalist that he won appointment to the
United States Exploring Expedition (1838). Very much the field man, he participated in three of these expeditions before specialization supplanted the field investigator with the collector and monographer. After 1849 Peale served as patent office examiner in Washington.
APS: The Titian Ramsay Peale Papers has Peale's Journal, 3 May-1 August 1819, of 43 pp. (Film no.694 of original in Library of Congress), in which Peale provides, among other things, a fine description of the troublesome steamer
Western Engineer. Of the large collection of Peale sketches in the Library, well over a hundred derive from the Long Expedition. Manuscript Communications has Peale's watercolor of the pronghorn antelope painted in the course of the expedition. The Peale-Sellers Papers has a letter from William Lee of the Treasury Department concerning compensation for Peale's services to the expedition.
ANSP: Alexander Lawson Scrapbooks has original Peale drawings (1808-1832), some of which may derive from the expedition. Coll. 60 has a photograph of a modem rendering of the steamboat.
LCP: The Samuel George Morton Papers has Peale's attempt of 14 July 1846 to clarify ownership of a Pawnee skull collected on the expedition that was once deposited at Peale's Museum and was currently on loan to Morton's celebrated collection of crania.
**APS, ANSP, HSP, LCP
Augustus Edward Jessup (1796-1859; ANSP 1818)
Philadelphia paper manufacturer, geologist, and energetic supporter of the ANSP, Jessup remained with the party one season.
**ANSP
Benjamin Edwards (fl. 1820-1830)
APS: The Benjamin Edwards Letters has six of Edwards's letters (1819-1827) to his father about the expedition, of which he was a member.
The Cass Expedition to the Great Lakes: 1820
Though regarded as an authority on the languages and customs of the northern Indian tribes, Michigan governor Lewis Cass declared himself "not competent to speculate upon the natural history of the country through which we may pass" and asked Secretary of War J.C. Calhoun to appoint to the expedition "some person acquainted with zoology, botany, and mineralogy." Accordingly, Calhoun appointed Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Captain D.B. Douglass, Charles C. Trowbridge (**HSP), and Dr. Alexander Wolcott (**HSP). John Torrey reported unofficially on the plants Douglass collected.
Lewis Cass (1782-1866; APS 1826, ANSP 1831) DAB
A New Hampshireman and son of an officer of the Revolution, Cass practiced law in Ohio, served in the legislature, managed Indian affairs in Michigan, and persuaded Congress to dispatch this expedition. He later served as secretary of war, minister to France, and U.S. senator and in 1848 was Democratic candidate for the presidency.
**ANSP
David Bates Douglass (1790-1849) DAB
Born in Pompton, New York, Douglass graduated from Yale and in 1813 entered the army engineers. At the time of his appointment to the expedition, he was professor of mathematics and civil engineering at West Point. Resigning from the army, he later distinguished himself as a civil engineer.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has Douglass's letters of 1820-1821 to Amos Eaton, Benjamin Silliman, and S.L. Mitchell on Michigan geology and on his disagreement with Schoolcraft. In the Dreer Collection see his 1820 letter to Mitchell.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864; APS 1833, ANSP 1820) DAB
A native of Albany County, New York, Schoolcraft studied at Middlebury and Union Colleges. Primarily a geologist when appointed to the expedition, he became for some years the leading authority on Indian ethnography. Schoolcraft served as mineralogist and geologist.
APS: The DuPonceau Letters to Albert Gallatin (Film no.541 of originals in New York Historical Society) contain some frank appraisals of Schoolcraft and of Cass. In Letters of Scientists see Schoolcraft's 1822 letter to Benjamin Silliman regarding publication of his journal and report. Gerard Troost (16 May 1828, Parker Cleaveland Letters) thought his observations on the western country not to be relied on.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
The Long Expedition to the St. Peter's River: 1823
With Long on his second expedition (30 April-26 October) were Thomas Say, William H. Keating, Samuel Seymour again, and the Italian linguist Giacomo Constantino Beltrami (1779-1855), who, quarreling with Long, departed to explore the Mississippi on his own. Midshipman James Edward Calhoun (1796-1889; **ANSP), cousin of John C. Calhoun, served as astronomer. Edwin James, originally chosen as physician, botanist, and geologist, failed to make the rendezvous. The distinguished preacher-botanist L.D. de Schweinitz described the plants Say collected.
Thomas Say
APS, ANSP: The Say letters in these collections have little bearing on the expedition.
**HSP, LCP
William H. Keating (1799-1840; APS 1822, ANSP 1816) DAB
A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Keating was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, then studied geology, chemistry, mineralogy, and mining engineering in England and Europe. Professor of mineralogy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania at the time of his appointment, he joined the party as geologist and historiographer and reported on geology, mineralogy, and Indian cultures. Keating also enjoyed careers as lawyer, legislator, mining engineer, and railroad executive, and helped organize Philadelphia's Franklin Institute.
APS: Few of the dozen or so Keating letters refer to the expedition, but those in the Bonaparte Letters may repay close examination.
ANSP: The William H. Keating Papers, 1822-1836, contains 50 pp. of notes on the expedition. His letters in John Torrey Letters (Coll. 365; copy at APS, Film no.628) may repay examination.
**HSP, LCP
Lewis David de Schweinitz (1780-1834; APS 1817, ANSP 1822) DAB
A native of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Schweinitz was educated at a Moravian college and theological seminary in Germany. Though he spent his career in the church, he was an enthusiastic botanist. specializing in fungi, of which, publishing prolifically from the age of twenty-five, he described many new species. Schweinitz bequeathed his large herbarium to the ANSP.
**APS, ANSP
North Carolina Geological Surveys: 1823
Denison Olmsted proposed and launched this first of the state geological surveys. In his proposal he stated frankly that, "as respects myself personally," its object would be "the promotion of science."[
6] Perhaps legislators saw matters otherwise, for as Olmsted recalled to Parker Cleaveland, 24 January 1828, his "observations were not scientific-the objects were economical and the information collected was such as suited that purpose well enough... (APS: Parker Cleaveland Letters). With an appropriation from the legislature of $250 annually for four years, and the assistance of the mining engineer Charles E. Rothe and Elisha Mitchell, he conducted the survey until joining the Yale faculty in 1825. Mitchell continued the work during academic vacations. In 1851 Ebenezer Emmons became State Geologist and resumed the survey the next year. Among his assistants before the Civil War were Ebenezer Emmons, Jr., and Moses Ashley Curtis. Edmund Ruffin reported on agriculture and fertilizer. In 1860 Emmons was appointed state geologist.
Denison Olmsted (1791-1859; ANSP 1828) DAB
Born in Hartford, Olmsted studied with Benjamin Silliman at Yale, graduating in 1813. He was professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina, 1818-1825, then of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy at Yale. Though the pioneer among state geologists, Olmsted would distinguish himself as astronomer and meteorologist. With his colleague Elias Loomis, he was the first American to observe the return of Halley's Comet in 1835.
APS: For Olmsted's amusing description of his machinations for extracting appropriations from the legislature, see the Parker Cleaveland Letters, especially his letter of I 1 December 1827.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Elisha Mitcbell (1793-1857; ANSP 1832) DAB
A native of Washington, Connecticut, Yale graduate and longtime professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at the University of North Carolina, Mitchell busied himself measuring the elevation of the mountains of the state, finally determining that North Carolina boasted the highest east of the Rockies. While measuring the highest of these, Black Dome (now Mt. Mitchell), he was blown into a pond and drowned.
**APS, ANSP
Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863; ANSP 1840) DAB
Born in Middlefield, Massachusetts, Emmons studied under Chester Dewey at Williams College and then at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he assisted Amos Eaton. He taught natural history at Williams for many years and acted as custodian of the natural history collections of the New York Survey. Emmons came to the North Carolina Survey after having served on both the
Massachusetts Survey (1830) and that of
New York (1836), where he had created a furor among geologists by broaching his stratigraphic sequence, the "Taconic System."
APS: In the Misc. Mss. Collection, see Edward Hitchcock's letter recommending Emmons for the survey.
ANSP: Several of Emmons's letters in Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1) deal with the survey and reveal the extent to which Emmons, like other geologists, came to depend on the advice of specialists: in the 1850s he was consulting Leidy, J.H. Redfield, Isaac Lea, and others. In the same collection James Dwight Dana criticizes Emmons's North Carolina paleontology.
**APS, HSP
Moses Ashley Curtis (1808-1872) DAB
A native of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Curtis studied under Amos Eaton at Williams College, then in 1835 went to North Carolina as Episcopal missionary. He served as botanist and zoologist on the survey in 1860-1862 and his report (1867) on the botany has been called "probably the most complete and scholarly state flora that had been published." A mycologist, Curtis discovered many new species and contributed to the reports of three expeditions.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Edmund Ruffin (1794-1865) DAB
A Virginia planter and the South's leading champion of scientific agriculture, Ruffin discovered the value of marl as a fertilizer.
**APS, HSP
South Carolina Geological Surveys: 1824
Projected as an agricultural survey, the enterprise was first headed by Edmund Ruffin (
North Carolina Geological Survey, 1823). On Ruffin's departure at the end of the first year, Lardner Vanuxem took over and was succeeded in turn by Michael Tuomey and Oscar M. Lieber. John Lawrence Smith and C.U. Shepard performed soil analysis, L.R. Gibbes catalogued the fauna, and Joseph Leidy described the vertebrate fossils.
Lardner Vanuxem (1792-1848; A-PS 1822) DA-B
A highly talented naturalist who concentrated on geology, Vanuxem is remembered primarily for his work on the
New York Survey (1836), for which see below.
HSP: See Gerard Troost's letter to John Torrey of 27 December 1824 in the Simon Gratz Collection.
ANSP: The Isaac Lea Correspondence has Vanuxem letters of 1825 describing his work on the survey.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Michael Tuomey (1808-1857)
The Irish-born Tuomey came to the United States at an early age, graduated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1835, and taught school in Maryland for a time. In 1847 he was appointed professor of mineralogy, geology, and agriculture at the University of Alabama and conducted the
Alabama Geological Survey (1848).
LCP: There are relevant Tuomey letters, mostly on fossils, in the Samuel George Morton Collection.
ANSP: See his undated letter in Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B), where he echoes the complaint of many another naturalist. He had sent South Carolina fishes and reptiles to Louis Agassiz five years before and "there they remain."
**APS, ANSP
Oscar Montgomery Lieber (I 830-1862)
Born in Boston to the distinguished political philosopher Francis Lieber, the son grew up in South Carolina, where he accompanied Tuomey on excursions in the field. Having studied at the universities of South Carolina, Berlin, and Göttingen and assisted the state surveys of Mississippi and Alabama, Lieber conducted the South Carolina Survey between 1856 and 1860. When his family moved to New York on the eve of the Civil War, he elected to remain in South Carolina, joined the Confederate army as private, and died of wounds received in the retreat from Williamsburg.
HSP: The E.C. Gardiner Collection contains many Lieber letters to H.C. Baird, a few of which touch on this survey.
**APS
John Lawrence Smith (1818-1883) DAB
Born near Charleston, South Carolina, Smith studied at the University of Virginia, took up in succession civil engineering, medicine, and, after study in France and Germany, chemistry, the field to which his many published papers were exclusively devoted. He taught variously at the Charleston Medical College and the universities of Virginia and Louisville, but for most of his career was associated with a chemical company. He was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**HSP, ANSP
Charles Upham Shepard (1804-1886; ANSP 1828) DAB
A native of Little Compton, R.I., and a graduate of Amherst, Shepard studied with Amos Eaton, Thomas Nuttall, and Benjamin Silliman. Primarily a mineralogist and authority on meteorites, he taught variously at Yale, Amherst, and the Medical College of South Carolina.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Lewis Reeve Gibbes (1810-1894; ANSP 1844)
Professor of mathematics, astronomy, and physics at the College of Charleston and an all-round naturalist, Gibbes catalogued the fauna.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has Gibbes's 1858 inquiry to W.C. Bond regarding magnetic observations made for the survey.
**LCP, ANSP
Joseph Leidy (1823-1891; APS 1849, ANSP 1848) DAB
A lifelong Philadelphian, Leidy took a medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania but avoided practice to become the nation's premier comparative anatomist and one of its foremost paleontologists. He published over eight hundred scientific papers, many of them in Society transactions, and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Leidy wrote the paleontological report for this and eight other expeditions.
APS: Though none of the Leidy letters in various collections bears on this survey, the Library has a list of the abundant Leidy material deposited at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the ANSP.
ANSP: The three collections of Leidy correspondence, like the J.P. Lesley and J.L. LeConte Papers at the APS, contain information on many of the explorations and surveys of the century. Time has not permitted detailed investigation.
**APS, HSP, LCP
Massachusetts Geological Survey: 1830
First proposed as a geographical survey, this evolved into a geological survey "for the advancement of domestic prosperity," and finally into a zoological and botanical survey as well. Edward Hitchcock was placed in charge. Associated with him in writing the reports were T.W. Harris, Ebenezer Emmons, J. V. C. Smith, Joseph G. Totten, Nicholas M. Hentz, and Augustus A. Gould.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has a letter (22 May 1841) about the survey from Chester Dewey to Benjamin Silliman.
Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864; APS 1841, ANSP 1832) DAB
Professor at Amherst College of most scientific subjects (including natural religion) from 1825 until his death, and its president as well, Hitchcock was famous for his study of what he believed to be fossil bird footprints, actually dinosaur prints. (On which see his 1858 letter in Joseph Leidy Correspondence, Coll. 1, ANSP.) He later headed the
Vermont survey and served briefly on that of
New York. Hitchcock would be the first president of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists and an original member of the National Academy of Sciences. He maintained a voluminous correspondence on scientific and religious matters and his letters are full and revealing.
APS: In Misc. Mss. Collection see Hitchcock to the governor of New York, 21 June 1836, regarding the survey (photocopy of original at University of Amsterdam Library). Several of his letters to Samuel George Morton, whom he greatly esteemed and to whom he dispatched survey fossils for determination, appear in the Morton Papers; see also Letters of Scientists.
ANSP: See in John Torrey Letters (Coll. 364; copy at APS, Film no.628) his 1835 letter to Torrey.
HSP: See his letters to Benjamin Silliman in the Simon Gratz Collection.
**APS, ANSP
Thaddeus William Harris (1795-1856; ANSP 1826) DAB
A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Harvard graduate, Harris was Librarian at Harvard, where he also taught botany. His considerable scientific reputation rests on his entomological report for the survey (1841), a classic which was several times reprinted.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Ebenezer Emmons
APS: Misc. Mss. has Emmons's letters and also Edward Hitchcock's letter recommending Emmons for the survey.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Jerome Van Crowninshield Smith (I 800-18 79)
Born in Conway, New Hampshire, Smith took an M.D. from Brown in 1818 and thereafter lived life to the full-as biographer, travel writer, sculptor, editor of medical journals, Know-Nothing mayor of Boston, and professor of anatomy and physiology at New York Medical College. He also wrote with an air of authority on ichthyology. Of Smith's
Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts (1833), an ichthyologist of the next generation who focused his energies more narrowly recorded his own first impression: "The author was an irresponsible idiot who had not intelligence enough to appreciate elementary facts."[
7] And Smith's colleague, A.A. Gould, proffering advice on one of S. S. Haldeman's forthcoming publications in 1840, cautioned, "Don't mention Dr Smith in the way of Ichthyology. . ." (Samuel S. Haldeman Correspondence, Coll. 73, ANSP.)
**APS, HSP, LCP
Joseph G. Totten (1788-1864; APS 1836, ANSP 1830) DAB
A native of New Haven and West Point graduate, Totten was colonel and chief engineer in the army. He was also an able conchologist and mineralogist, an original member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a regent of the Smithsonian Institution.
**HSP, LCP, ANSP
Nicholas M. Hentz (1797-1856- ANSP 1810)
Arriving in the United States with his parents in 1816, the French-born Hentz was a painter of miniatures, professor of modern languages at the University of North Carolina, founder of a scattering of female academies in the southern states, and the country's first authority on spiders.
APS: The several Hentz letters in Misc. Mss. concern only his wife's literary pursuits.
**ANSP
Addison Augustus Gould (1805-1866; APS 1849, ANSP 1840) DAB
A Boston physician, Gould distinguished himself as a conchologist. He was a founder of the Boston Society of Natural History and an original member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was associated with six of these explorations.
ANSP: See his letters, full of affection, good humor, wit, and sense, in the Samuel S. Haldeman Correspondence. In the 1840s he and Haldeman were exchanging shells in order to compare those from the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania surveys.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Tennessee Geological Surveys: 1831
The legislature appointed Dr. Gerard Troost to head the survey and reappointed him every two years until his death, expending during his tenure some $4500. Dr. James M. Safford supervised the operation from 1854 until the outbreak of the Civil War.
Gerard Troost (1776-1850; APS 1816, ANSP 1812) DAB
Born in Holland and educated at Amsterdam and Leiden, Troost was stranded in Philadelphia while on a scientific expedition en route to Java. He remained to help found the ANSP and serve as its first president. After a two-year stint at Robert Owen's New Harmony community, he settled at the College of Nashville as professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. Troost carried on a wide correspondence on geological subjects.
APS: Troost letters of 1837-1838 in the Samuel George Morton Papers describe fossils and skulls collected.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
James Merrill Safford (1822-1907) DAB
Geologist and chemist, Safford was born in Zanesville, Ohio, graduated from Ohio University, then studied at Yale. At the time of his appointment to the survey, he was professor of the natural sciences at Cumberland University in Tennessee. He later became professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt and in 1854-1860, 1871-1900, was state geologist of Tennessee.
APS: See Safford's letters in the J.P. Lesley Papers.
**ANSP
Schoolcraft and Allen's Expeditions to the Source of the Mississippi River: 1832
Intended primarily to examine the cultures of the Indian tribes of the Old Northwest, the expedition was to be a natural history survey as well. Lt. James Allen (1806-1846) accompanied the party as military representative. Congress in a fit of economy having furnished him with no more than a compass, Allen nonetheless was able to chart the source of the Mississippi and so provide a map for use by explorers who came later. Douglas Houghton went along as surgeon. A Prussian botanist, Karl Beyrich, accompanied the party at his own expense.
Henry R. Schoolcraft
APS: In the Benjamin Silliman Correspondence, see Schoolcraft's letter of 6 March 1836.
Douglas Houghton
ANSP: See Houghton's 1832 letter in John Torrey, Collector (APS Film no.628).
Heinrich Carl Beyrich (d. 1834)
A Prussian botanist, Beyrich had collected plants in Brazil before coming to the United States to collect in the Carolinas and Georgia in 1833. Joining Col. Henry Dodge's doomed regiment of U.S. Dragoons the next year as a freelance collector, he died of cholera in Arkansas Territory.[
8]
APS: Alexander von Humboldt recommended Beyrich to Stephen Elliott in 1833 as gardener. Alexander von Humboldt Miscellaneous Correspondence (Film no.870 of originals from British, European, and American collections).
Maryland Geological Surveys: 1833
Originally a cartographic and geologic venture, the survey added an agricultural chemist in 1858. J. H. Alexander was appointed topographic engineer; J.T. Ducatel, geologist; and P.T. Tyson, chemist.
John Henry Alexander (1812-1867; APS 1852) DAB
Born at Annapolis and a graduate of St. John's College, Alexander submitted a plan for the survey to the legislature. Primarily a topographer and regularly in the employ of the Coast Survey, he was also an authority on coinage and weights and measures and an amateur philologist. Alexander was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.
APS: Misc. Mss. Collection: In 1840 Alexander wrote to request a copy of Mason and Dixon's report for use on the survey.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Julius Timoleon Ducatel (1796-1849; APS 1832, ANSP 1812)
The son of Baltimore's leading druggist (for whom the botanist Elias Durand clerked for a time), Ducatel studied chemistry at Paris, 1818-1822, then moved into geology. He remained with the survey until 1841, afterward holding chairs in chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at the University of Maryland and St. John's College.[
9]
HSP: See Ducatel letters in the Dreer and the Simon Gratz Collections.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Philip Thomas Tyson (1799-1877; APS 1869)
A native of Baltimore, Tyson was state agricultural chemist, 1856-1860, and first president of the Maryland Academy of Sciences. In 1849 he conducted a topographical and geological survey of California.
**ANSP
New Jersey Geological Surveys: 1835
H.D. Rogers headed the survey until 1840. On its resumption in more ambitious form in 1855, William Kitchell (1827-1861) took charge, and in 1863, George H. Cook. They were variously assisted by J.C. Smock (1842-1926; APS 1897; **ANSP), J. Morris (**ANSP), C.C. Abbott, David Murray, Samuel Ashmead, Henry Wurtz, E.L. Viel, and P.D. Knicskern. Spencer F. Baird and James Hall contributed to the reports.
Henry Darwin Rogers (1808-1866; APS 1835, ANSP 1833) DAB
Born in Philadelphia, Rogers studied at William and Mary and in London. One of four brothers distinguished in science, all of whom served on one or more of these explorations, he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Pennsylvania in the same year he was chosen to head the survey, and in 1836, his career clearly ascendant, was appointed State Geologist of Pennsylvania. Monomaniacal in his approach to survey work, he rarely enjoyed comfortable relations with associates. Though the first American scientist to be appointed to a university chair in Europe (Glasgow, 1858), Rogers failed to live up to his early promise.
APS: For Bache's recommendation of Rogers for the survey, see the Alexander Dallas Bache Papers.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
George Hammell Cook (1818-1889; APS 1864, ANSP 1869) DAB
A Jerseyman and graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where Amos Eaton encouraged his interest in geology, Cook was professor of various of the sciences, first at his alma mater, then at Rutgers. In 1864 he became state geologist of New Jersey and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
ANSP: Cook sent fossils to Leidy and informed him on preparations for the survey report: Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B).
**APS
Charles Conrad Abbott (1843-1919; APS 1889) DAB
A native of Trenton, New Jersey, and nephew of the paleontologist T. A. Conrad, Abbott studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania but never practiced. He wrote many semi-popular works on natural history and archaeology and deeply resented the rise of the laboratory specialist.
**ANSP
David Murray (1835-1905) DAB
Born in Bovina, New York, and a graduate of Union College, Murray was professor of mathematics and astronomy at Rutgers, 1863-1873, and regent of the University of the State of New York.
**HSP, ANSP
Samuel Ashmead (d. 1864; ANSP 1839)
Ashmead was a Philadelphia algologist.
**ANSP: Ashmead donated his collection of algae to the Academy, which has his manuscript Index of Marine Algae, 1839-1857.
Henry Wurtz (1827-1910) DAB
Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Princeton, where he studied under Joseph Henry and John Torrey, Wurtz also attended Lawrence Scientific School. He operated a private laboratory in New York City for general consulting work and edited a number of chemical publications. He was geologist and chemist to the survey, 1854-1856.
**APS
Egbert Ludovikus Viel (1825-1902) DAB
A West Pointer from Waterford, New York, Viel resigned from the army in 1853 to enter the practice of civil engineering in New York, where he became chief engineer of Central and Prospect Parks. After service in the Civil War, he returned to his profession and was a member of Congress, 1884-1886. He published a topographical atlas of New York City and articles on engineering, sanitation, and physical geography.
**APS, HSP
Pete D. Knieskern (1798-1871; ANSP 1865)
A native of Berne, New York, Knieskern practiced medicine and botanized at Oriskany and assisted John Torrey in preparing the latter's
Flora of the State of New York (1843). Attracted by the region's botany, he moved to New Jersey's Pine Barrens in 1841. Knieskern reported on botany for the survey.[
12]
ANSP: In Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1), see his 1857 letter on the Survey and its fossils.
Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887; APS 1855, ANSP 1842) DAB
A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, and graduate of Dickinson College, Baird was professor of natural history and chemistry at Dickinson when, at the age of twenty-three, he was appointed assistant secretary of the Smithsonian. In 1878 he became secretary. Though he published much on birds and mammals, his specialty was ichthyology. In official publications and society transactions he reported on the collections of seventeen expeditions and surveys. For this one he catalogued the fishes. Baird was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**APS, ANSP
James Hall
Virginia Geological Survey: 1835
William B. Rogers headed the survey until its conclusion in 1841. Three of his brothers, including the chemist Robert E. Rogers, assisted, as did W.E.A. Aikin, Samuel Lewis (**ANSP), Thomas S. Ridgway (**APS), M. Wells (**HSP), and Dr. George W. Boyd, Jr. (d. 1840, **HSP, **ANSP), librarian at the New York Lyceum of Natural History.
APS: The John L. LeConte Papers of 19 boxes of letters, mostly incoming, contains abundant correspondence by members of the scientific community about this and many other of these explorations. Much the same may be said of the 29 boxes of J.P. Lesley Papers, which have letters of perhaps seventy of the explorers and surveyors.
William B. Rogers (1804-1882; APS 1835, ANSP 1834) DAB
The Rogers family was one of a number of American families (the Gibbs and LeContes also come to mind) distinguished in science. William and his brothers were a self-assured, close-knit lot, jealous for one another's honor and, as the cast of this survey indicates, little concerned with considerations of nepotism. (See the correspondence between J.P. Lesley and Leo Lesquereux in the J.P. Lesley Papers, APS.) While William and Henry were each in charge of a state survey, they worked together to formulate a theory of mountain building on the basis of their observations of the Appalachian chain. Most influential of the four, William saw to the founding of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and with others the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Social Science Association; and he was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences. He became professor of natural philosophy and geology at the University of Virginia the same year he took charge of the survey.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Henry D. Rogers
Robert E. Rogers (1813-1884; APS 1855, ANSP 1837) DAB
A chemist like his brother James, Robert afterwards became professor of chemistry at the universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania and an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**HSP, ANSP
William E. A. Aikin (1807-1888)
An upstate New Yorker, Aikin studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under Amos Eaton. He abandoned the practice of medicine to take up professorships in natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Maryland.[
13]
HSP: For John Torrey's esteem for Aikin, see his letter of 13 July 1836 to William L. Marcy in the Simon Gratz Collection.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Back to the 