Mississippi Geological Surveys: 1850
The legislature authorized the survey at the instigation of agricultural interests and appointed Professor John Millington of the University of Mississippi state geologist. Burdened with years and teaching duties, Millington turned the field work over to Oscar M. Lieber (South Carolina Geological Survey, 1824) and on the latter's resignation, to B.L.C. Wailes. On Millington's resignation in 1853, Lewis Harper briefly took charge, to be supplanted by E.W. Hilgard. The Civil War put an end to the survey. T. A. Conrad (New York Natural History Survey, 1836) determined the fossils, Louis Agassiz and Spencer F. Baird the fauna, and W.D. Moore (**ANSP) reported on hydraulic limestone.
John Millington (1779-1868; ANSP 1832) DAB
An engineer and science writer, Millington was born near London, the son of an attorney. He studied law and medicine but practiced neither. The friend of Faraday, Herschel, and Davy, from 1815 to 1829 he delivered annual lectures before the Royal Institution of London on natural philosophy and astronomy and taught chemistry at Guy's Hospital. At age fifty he journeyed first to Mexico, then to Philadelphia, where he joined the Geological Society of Pennsylvania and retailed scientific apparatus. In 1835 he took up the chair of chemistry, natural philosophy, and engineering at the College of William and Mary, and in 1848 the first professorship of natural science at the University of Mississippi. At age eighty he retired to his farm in Tennessee. Reduced to poverty by the Civil War, he fled to Philadelphia, and afterward to Richmond, where he died.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
Benjamin Leonard Covington Wailes (1797-1862) DAB
Cotton planter, naturalist, surveyor, and antiquarian, Wailes was born in Georgia and grew up in Mississippi, where he studied at Jefferson College and founded the Mississippi Historical Society.
ANSP: Wailes despatched fish specimens to Agassiz in 1854 (John Torrey Letters [Coll. 364; copy at APS, Film no.628], and, in 1852, to Leidy as well, offering to do anything to "aid in the prosecution of your researches that may be in my power. Any new and rare remains which may be obtained in the course of our Survey shall be at your service." He also hoped to provide duplicates for the ANSP. Leidy Papers (Coll. 1).
**APS, LCP, ANSP
Lewis Harper [Ludwig Hafner] (fl. 1850)
A native of Hamburg, Germany, and a law student, Harper fled to the United States for political reasons. As professor of geology at the University of Mississippi, he was ex-officio state geologist. He worked in the field with Hilgard until quarrels with the president, trustees, and students of the university resulted in his dismissal from both the university and the survey. Thereafter, charged with evading customs duties, Harper hid from federal authorities and seemingly from history.[
34]
**ANSP
Eugene Woldemar Hilgard (1833-1916) DAB
One of three brothers (cousins of George Engelmann) distinguished in science and medicine, Hilgard was born in Bavaria and came to the United States with his parents at the age of two. He joined the survey upon receiving the Ph.D. at Heidelberg and remained with it until 1857 when he went to the Smithsonian Institution as chemist. He was Mississippi state geologist, 1858-66, and afterward professor of geology and natural history at the University of Michigan and of agricultural chemistry and botany at the University of California. Hilgard was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**APS, ANSP
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873; APS 1843, ANSP 1836) DAB
Emigration to the United States in 1846 of the Swiss naturalist, leading a train of students and colleagues, flattered and heartened the American scientific community. Agassiz had won a distinguished reputation in Europe, largely by his researches on fossil fishes and elucidation of the processes of glaciation. Though his most significant scientific achievement lay behind him, in America he continued to do important work in descriptive zoology and at Harvard trained a generation of Americans in natural history. Of unimpeachable scientific as well as social standing and a lecturer of distinctive charm, Agassiz may be said to have fathered American grantsmanship when, to the great benefit of science, he persuaded New York and Boston merchants to become its patrons. The founding in 1859 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard was his crowning achievement in this line. Agassiz was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.
APS: The many Agassiz letters scattered in various collections (but chiefly in Misc. Mss., Royal Society of London Collection, the John F. Frazer, J.L. LeConte, J.P. Lesley, and John Warner Papers) have mostly to do with his own multifarious projects and are signally lacking in substantive references to these explorations.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
Spencer F. Baird
APS: Like Agassiz's, Baird's letters are distributed through many collections. Those most likely to reward search are the J.L. LeConte, J.P. Lesley, and E.K. Kane Papers.
LCP: Baird's 1850 letter in the Samuel George Morton Papers may refer to fossils found on this survey.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
Illinois Geological Survey: 1851
J.G. Norwood headed the survey during its first six years, assisted by Henry Pratten (
Owen's Survey of Wisconsin, 1848) and Willis H. Barris (1821-1901; **ANSP), geologist, paleontologist, and theologian. After the legislature threatened to repeal the authorizing legislation, his successor, A.H. Worthen, reorganized the survey and directed it until his death. He employed as specialists J.D. Whitney (
New Hampshire Geological Survey, 1839), Leo Lesquereux, F.B. Meek (
Owen's Survey, 1848), and J.S. Newberry.
J. G. Norwood
APS: Norwood's letter of 30 December 1859 in the J.P. Lesley Papers bears on the survey.
ANSP: Norwood dispatched Illinois fossils to Leidy for examination. Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1).
**LCP, ANSP
Amos Henry Worthen (1813-1888; APS 1863) DAB
Born in Vermont, Worthen taught for a time in Kentucky, then moved to Warsaw, Illinois, where he engaged in business and studied the local minerals. Taking up paleontology, he reported on that of Iowa. His appointment as Illinois state geologist perhaps owed something to the support of J.D. Dana, Louis Agassiz, and James Hall. Meek knew "no living man better acquainted with all the details of western geology..." Worthen was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[
35]
APS: The J.P. Lesley Papers has four Worthen letters, 1863-1872, bearing on the survey, and one of 4 April 1860 from Lesquereux pronouncing Worthen "a good man but [he] does not know much out of practical geology, I think."
ANSP: Asking Leidy in 1871 to describe fossil skulls from the survey, Worthen complained of the difficulty of obtaining appropriations from the legislature and blamed "fossilized members of the Senate who are members of the orthodox churches, and are afraid of the infidel tendencies of Geology." Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B).
**ANSP
C. L. Lesquereux
APS: The John L. LeConte Papers and especially the J.P. Lesley Papers have many Lesquereux letters of the 1850s and 1860s concerning the survey and his study of the coal measures.
HSP: In the Society Collection, see Lesquereux's letter of 7 November 18 5 7.
John Strong Newberry (1822-1892; APS 1867, ANSP 185 3) DAB
Born in Windsor, Connecticut, Newberry graduated at Western Reserve College, took a medical degree, and studied for two years in Europe. Having abandoned a large practice in Cleveland, he was an experienced field investigator by the time of his appointment to the survey, though Lesquereux in 1860 thought him "entirely ignorant of palaeontology" (J.P. Lesley Papers, APS). In 1869 Newberry was appointed Ohio state geologist, and in 1884 paleontologist to the U.S. Geological Survey. He participated in ten surveys and explorations, was active with the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, and in 1866 became professor of geology and paleontology at Columbia. Newberry was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences. He contributed to the paleontological report.
APS: In the J.L. LeConte Papers, see his letter of 12 December 1847 on the geology of the West. For his later sharp disagreement with Lesley on the coal measures of Pennsylvania and Ohio, see his long letter of 23 October 1876, in J.P. Lesley Papers.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Henry Engelmann (1831-1899)
Engelmann, geologist and younger brother of St. Louis' George Engelmann, participated in three other surveys and explorations.
**ANSP
Samuel Hubbard Scudder (1837-1911; APS 1877, ANSP 1867) DAB
A native of Boston and graduate of Williams College and the Lawrence Scientific School, Scudder was active in the Boston Society of Natural History and in 1886 became paleontologist to the U.S. Geological Survey. An entomologist of distinction, he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He contributed to the reports of five surveys and expeditions and reported on the fossil insects of this survey.
APS, ANSP: The many Scudder letters in various collections extend only from 1862 through the 1880s.
**HSP, ANSP
Frank Howe Bradley (1838-1879; ANSP 1870) DAB
Born in New Haven, Bradley graduated from Yale in 1863 and immediately set off to explore Panama. He assisted on the Indiana Geological Survey in 1869, served with the U.S. Geological Survey, and was professor of geology at the University of Tennessee.
**ANSP
Garland C. Broadbead (1827-1912) DAB
Born near Charlottesville, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Missouri, Broadhead was Missouri state geologist, 1873-1875.
**APS, ANSP
Edward Travers Cox (1821-1907)
A Virginian, Cox was educated at Robert Owen's New Harmony schools, where he studied geology under David Dale Owen, whom he then assisted on the Kentucky and Arkansas surveys. He was state geologist of Indiana, 1868-1880, and professor of geology at Indiana University. Cox reported on the coal beds.
**APS, ANSP
Orestes Hawley St. John (1841-1921)
A geologist whose main interest was the fossil fishes of the Paleozoic, in the 1870s St. John served on the Iowa Geological Survey, and on Hayden's survey of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming before leading his own expedition in the Wind River Mountains and the Snake River Valley.[
36]
ANSP: St. John wrote Leidy in disgust in 1872 that fish species "first recognized by you have been redescribed under different names in the Illinois reports." Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1).
**ANSP
Charles Wachsmutb (1829-1896; ANSP 1886) DAB
Born in Hannover, Germany, the son of a lawyer and member of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848, Wachsmuth was dispatched to New York in 1852 as agent for a mercantile company. Two years later he moved to Burlington, Iowa, and entered the grocery business, collecting fossils on the side; then in 1865 he retired from business to devote his time entirely to collecting. When Agassiz purchased his collection for the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Wachsmuth joined him at Cambridge. An expert on crinoids, he studied collections all over the world for twenty-five years, publishing widely.
**ANSP
Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897; APS 1866, ANSP 1861) DAB
A Philadelphian, Cope studied at the University of Pennsylvania and in Europe and, after serving for a time as professor of the natural sciences at Haverford College, became paleontologist to the U.S. Geological Survey. Cope won fame for his discovery of (and rapacious searches for) new species of extinct vertebrates. He published widely and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
APS: The Archives abounds with Cope's testy communications to the Society's secretary. Nearly all his many letters in other collections date from a later period, but see those in the Jacob Stauffer Correspondence.
**ANSP
Hiram A. Prout (d. 1862; ANSP 1854)
A physician and dedicated member of the St. Louis Academy of Science, it was Prout, who, as Asa Gray put it, discovered at the Mauvalses Terres "that vast mausoleum of Palaeotherial remains, since become so famous." Prout reported on fossil invertebrates.[
37]
**ANSP
Kane's Expedition to the Arctic Pegions: 1852
Elisha Kent Kane received orders, diligently solicited, to sail to Baffin Bay in search of Sir John Franklin's missing vessels. Though not a government enterprise and only incidentally in pursuit of science, the expedition is included here simply because the APS collections are extensive on this as on other polar explorations. Kane's party did make small botanical collections, which Elias Durand and George M. Justice described in Kane's unofficial narrative and in Society publications. The expedition sailed in May 1853, and continued its explorations through 1855. Isaac Israel Hayes accompanied the expedition as surgeon and naturalist.
Elisha KentKane (1820-1857; APS 1851, ANSP 1843) DAB
A native Philadelphian, Kane studied briefly at the University of Virginia before taking a medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania and entering the navy as assistant surgeon. An eager explorer, he saw service in various parts of the world and in 1850 joined Lt. Edwin J. DeHaven's expedition to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin. When that failed of its purpose, he organized his own, sailing under the auspices of the Navy Department with the aid of substantial private donations.
APS: The Archives has material concerning subscriptions to finance astronomical observations in the Arctic and Secretary of the Navy J.P. Kennedy's letter of appreciation to the Society.
Kane's journal kept aboard the brig Advance is on film (Film no.1244 of original at Stanford University), as is his and his father's (J.K. Kane's) correspondence with Secretary Kennedy (Film no.1296 of originals in the Kennedy Papers, Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore). In the latter collection Kane appeals to the secretary to permit his boatswain, a man notoriously fond of the bottle, to remain with the expedition and arranges to collect zoological specimens for the Smithsonian and instruments for the National Observatory.
The W.P. Foulke Papers has a copy, in the hand of I. I. Hayes, of John Wall Wilson's diary (1853-1854) kept aboard the Advance, and correspondence relating to the expedition.
The E.K. Kane Papers of some 5000 items contains notebooks of polar exploration, many sketches of Arctic scenes, lists of supplies, receipts, lectures, correspondence about the expedition and a poignant letter in which John Cleves Symmes, [Jr.], Lt. U.S. Ordinance, introduces himself as the son of the man who, thirty-four years earlier, had propagated "The Theory" of the hollow earth and thereby launched the United States Exploring Expedition in the popular imagination, and expresses the desire to brief Kane and his officers on polar matters. In the same collection William Stimpson is concerned to find a naturalist for Kane's expedition. Other correspondents include Agassiz, Baird, De Haven, Henry Grinnell, I. I. Hayes, Joseph Henry, Lynch, T.R. Peale, and William P. Smith. With the collection is Henry Goodfellow's "Facts relating to the separation of the ships company of the Brig Advance in the Fan of 1854," which concerns unrest in Kane's command.
The John Kintzing Kane Papers has family material concerning E. K. Kane; in typescript, J. K. Kane, Jr.'s diary (May-Sept., 1856) kept while on the relief expedition in search of his brother Elisha; and Robert P. Kane's request to Leidy, 28 May 1855, about taxidermy materials J.K. Kane, Jr., should carry "with him to the North."
The George W. Corner Papers holds some 200 items pertaining to Corner's biography of Kane. Finally, the Library has a copper plate for a calling card bearing the inscription "E. K. Kane, M.D.," Kane's uniform buttons, watch, sword, and scabbard.
HSP: The E.K. Kane Papers has a letter from Kane to C. Grinnell, containing a vivid account of hardships suffered. Kane Family Letters has another of similar nature to his brother Thomas. The Simon Gratz Collection has a letter of Kane's to his financial sponsor, Henry Grinnell, concerning Kane's book on the expedition. The Dreer Collection has a logbook (1853-1855), which concludes with a long eulogium of Kane (dated 1862) by Henry Goodfellow; and letters to James Hamilton regarding sketches and to Elias Durand about plant collections. A letter in the James Buchanan Papers reports Kane's safe arrival at Greenland. In the Society Collection, see A.D. Bache's letter to J.R. Tyson.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Isaac Israel Hayes (1832-1881; APS 1863, ANSP 1856) DAB
Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Hayes took an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1853. He would enter the Arctic Circle again in 1860 and 1869. Hayes was a popular author and lecturer.
APS: The E.K. Kane Papers has Hayes's 1852 application to Kane: "I am twenty one years of age, expect to be graduated in Medicine this spring -- and should you wish one so young. . ."
**ANSP
Perry's U.S. Japan Expedition: 1852
The expedition to open commercial relations with Japan accorded only secondary importance to science, but its collections, especially the botanical, proved to be of first importance. In addition to those listed below, specialists reporting on the collections included John Cassin on birds, W.H. Harvey on algae, W.S. Sullivant on lichens (all of the
United States Exploring Expedition, 1838), D.C. Eaton (
Vermont Geological Survey, 1844) on ferns, and John C. Jay (1808-1891; **APS, HSP, ANSP), founder of the New York Yacht Club, on shells.
HSP: See the transcript of the Hamilton Patterson journal of the expedition, May 1852 to March 1855, which contains two watercolors by Patterson and several natural history plates from the narrative of the expedition.
Commodore Matthew Calbraitb Perry (1794-185 8) DAB
Born in New York City into a family distinguished in the navy, Perry entered the service at age fifteen, in time to see action in the War of 1812. Ever concerned with the navy's improvement, he organized its apprenticeship system and its first steam service and reformed the system of lighthouse illumination. On this expedition Perry saw to the collection of fishes and shells.
HSP: The library has many Perry items in various collections. Possibly worth consulting are the Commodore John Rodgers Papers, which has a letter detailing the cannon most desirable, presumably for the expedition; and the Etting Collection, which contains letterbooks, logbooks, and correspondence.
**ANSP
Collections were made by:
Samuel Wells Williams (1812-1884) DAB
The son of a Utica, New York publisher, Williams studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before sailing to Canton to take charge of a missionary printing office. In 1855 he was appointed secretary and interpreter to the U.S. legation in China. A popular lecturer and the country's foremost sinologist, in 1877 Williams became professor of Chinese language and literature at Yale. On the expedition he served as interpreter and plant collector.
APS: See Williams's letters in the Asa Gray Correspondence (H.S. Film no. 35 of originals at Yale University Library).
George Jones (1800-1870) DAB
A native of York, Pennsylvania, Jones graduated at Yale and served as navy chaplain for nearly forty years. He reported on the zodiacal light, agriculture, and geology.
**HSP, ANSP
Joel Abbot (1793-1855) DAB
A native of Westford, Massachusetts, Abbot had distinguished himself in the War of 1812. He commanded the Macedonian on this expedition.
**HSP
Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) DAB
Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Taylor became the most popular American travel writer of the century. On his tour of the East he met Perry at Shanghai and spent the summer of 1853 as master's mate, writing an account of the expedition, which the rules of the service forbade him to publish.
**APS, HSP
The following specialists reported on the collections:
Asa Gray
APS: See Gray's letters to Sir Joseph Hooker in Royal Botanic Gardens (H.S. Film no. 7) and Asa Gray Correspondence (H.S. Film no. 35 of originals at Yale University Library).
James Carson Brevoort (1818-1887; ANSP 1847)
Born to wealth in New York City, Brevoort was that rare American, a thorough dilettante: traveler, collector of books (especially scientific), medals, manuscripts, coins, insects, fish, and, as well, positions of public service: the Brooklyn board of education, water commission, the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania historical societies, and superintendency of the Astor Library, to name a few. Brevoort reported on the fishes.
**APS, HSP, LCP, ANSP
Francis Boott (1792-1863; ANSP 1862) DNB
A native of Boston, Boott graduated from Harvard, then studied in England and Edinburgh, taking an M.D. in 1824. He practiced in London until an inheritance permitted him to spend the last thirty-five years of his life cultivating his varied tastes, particularly botany. Boott reported on plants.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
California Geological Surveys: 1853
John B. Trask undertook the first survey of the state and made his final report in 1856. Appointed state geologist in 1860, J.D. Whitney engaged William Ashburner and W.H. Brewer as his initial assistants and at various times others, both paid and volunteer. For a short time the survey had the services of Edward Pahner (1830?-1911; **ANSP), who as a prolific collector ranked with Charles Wright. Whitney issued his final report in 1876. William Ashburner (1831-1887; **ANSP), Baird, Brewer, Cooper, Gabb, Gray, Meek, and Watson contributed to the official reports. Other specialists reported unofficially or after the Civil War.
John Boardman Trask (1824-1879)
Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, Trask took an M.D. at Yale, and in 1850 went to California, where he helped found the California Academy of Sciences and was the first to describe California's fossil shells. He served as surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War and afterward practiced medicine in California.[
39]
ANSP: In 1862 J.D. Whitney introduced his friend Trask, "one of the scientific pioneers of California," to Leidy. Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B).
Josiah Dwight Whitney
APS: See Whitney's letters in the J.P. Lesley Papers.
William Henry Brewer (1828-1911; ANSP 1867) DAB
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Brewer graduated at Yale and after study at Heidelberg and Munich became professor of chemistry and geology at Washington College. He was Whitney's first assistant from 1860 to 1864 as well as professor of chemistry at the University of California. In 1864 he took up the chair of agriculture at Yale. Brewer was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He reported on botany.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has Brewer's announcement to L. Tucker of his departure to join the survey.
**ANSP
James Graham Cooper (1830-1902; ANSP 1867) DAB
Born in New York City, the son of one of the founders of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, Cooper graduated from New York's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Serving as zoologist and geologist to the survey, 1861-1874, he reported on Crustacea, Mollusca, botany, mammals, birds, and reptiles, and later Joined the Pacific Railroad Surveys as physician and naturalist. Friend of Asa Gray, F. V. Hayden, and George Gibbs, he was well respected in scientific circles, Spencer Baird particularly esteeming his work on birds. Cooper published on conchology, botany, ornithology, mammalogy, and paleontology.
APS: In an 1854 letter Cooper wrote about the insects collected: J.L. LeConte Papers.
**APS, ANSP
William More Gabb (1839-1878; APS 1869) DAB
A lifelong Philadelphian, Gabb remained with the survey until 1865 and wrote the long paleontological report. He later investigated the geology of Santo Domingo and engaged in a geological survey of Costa Rica, during which he made ethnological and natural history collections for the Smithsonian. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
APS: Of his several letters in the John L. LeConte Papers, none bears specifically on this survey. In the J.P. Lesley Papers, see James Hall's appraisal of Gabb's qualifications.
ANSP: W.S.W. Ruschenberger Correspondence (Coll. 207) has Ruschenberger's biographical sketch of Gabb.
**ANSP
Theodore Nicholas Gill (1837-1914; APS 1867, ANSP 1860) DAB
A native New Yorker, Gill studied law without enthusiasm, and at age nineteen published a paper on New York fishes in the Smithsonian Annual Report. Visiting Washington the next year he met Joseph Henry and Spencer Baird and thereafter devoted himself solely to zoology. Though he collected in the West Indies in 1858 and participated in the Northwest Boundary Survey, Gill was less a field worker than a taxonomist. He assisted J.C. Brevoort in arranging the latter's entomological and ichthyological collections, and in 1861 joined the staff of the Smithsonian, where he retained a workplace for fifty years. An outstanding ichthyologist and prolific writer of articles, he participated, officially or unofficially, in seven expeditions and surveys. Gin was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**APS, ANSP
Clarence King (1842-1901; APS 1872, ANSP 1877) DAB
Born in Newport, Rhode Island, King upon graduation at the Sheffield Scientific School joined the survey as volunteer, traveling on horseback from Missouri. He remained with it until 1866 and his paleontological work there helped determine the age of gold-bearing rock. King was the first head of the U.S. Geological Survey and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
APS: A description of the Huntington Library's James D. Hague Papers includes a list of King Papers at the Huntington.
J. S. Newberry
ANSP: Newberry letters in Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1) may repay close examination.
Sereno Watson (1826-1892; ANSP 1877) DAB
Born in East Windsor Hill, Connecticut, Watson graduated from Yale. Though he showed no interest in botany before joining the survey as topographer and published nothing until he was forty-five, Watson later served as botanist to the U.S. Geological Survey and curator of the Harvard Herbarium. Brewer, with whom he and Asa Gray collaborated on
The Botany of California, pronounced Watson's report on this survey "the most complete and extensive botanical report of any of the exploring expeditions on the Pacific slope." Watson was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[
40]
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Spencer F. Baird
APS: See Baird letters in J.L. LeConte Papers, J.P. Lesley Papers, and Letters of Scientists.
HSP: See Baird's letters of 1849 in the Conarroe Papers and those of 1861 and 1862 in the Society Collection.
Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1802-1877; ANSP 1862) DNB
Brother of the distinguished English physiologist and naturalist, William B. Carpenter, Carpenter studied at Edinburgh, London, and Manchester, and visited the United States in 1859 to survey the shell collections at the Smithsonian and elsewhere. His report on the shells of this expedition, as on those of the
Northwest Boundary Survey (1857), appeared in society publications.
APS: Though none is obviously related to the survey, see Carpenter's letters on shells in Letters of Scientists.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Asa Gray
APS: See Gray's letters to the Hookers in Royal Botanic Gardens Correspondence. Asa Gray Correspondence (H.S. Film no. 35 of originals in Yale University Library) and the J.L. LeConte Papers may repay careful search.
Joseph Leidy
APS: Search of Leidy's letters in College of Physicians of Philadelphia Misc. Letters may yield results.
ANSP: The three collections of Leidy Papers contain correspondence from most of the personnel of this survey -- and from perhaps a hundred of those who participated in all the surveys and explorations listed here -- but as most of the letters deal with specimens from unspecified surveys, establishing their relevance to this one would require more extended research than time has permitted.
HSP: In the Society Collection, see D.D. Owen's letter, 9 October 1859, to Leidy.
F. B. Meek
ANSP: The forty-four Meek letters in Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Colls. 1, 1-B) may repay examination.
Pacific Railroad Surveys: 1853
To determine the most feasible of the four routes proposed for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific, the War Department organized separate parties to carry out this most ambitious of the Topographical Engineers' explorations. I. I. Stevens explored the 47th and 49th parallels; Lts. J.W. Gunnison (killed by Indians in 1853) and E.G. Beckwith (1818-1881; **HSP), the 38th, 39th and 41st parallels; Lt. John Pope (1822-1892; **HSP), the 32d parallel; Lt. J.G. Parke (
Sitgreaves's Expedition, 1851), the 32d parallel and California; Lt. A.W. Whipple, the 31st parallel; Lt. R.S. Williamson (U.S. Surveys in California and Oregon, 1849), the connection between the 35th and 32d parallels; and Williamson and Lt. Henry L. Abbot, the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River. G.W. Stevens (**APS) served as assistant astronomer to I. I. Stevens's party. Dr. [Michel?] Dieffenderfer (**APS) accompanied Pope as collector, and the artist R.H. Kern (
Simpson's Survey, 1849) joined Beckwith's party.
The Smithsonian saw to the appointment of naturalists and collectors and to the preparation of apparatus. The final report was published in 1860.
APS: In the J.P. Lesley Papers, see James Hall's comments of various dates on these surveys.
ANSP: Samuel Ashmead's Index of Marine Algae, 1839-1857, may derive in part from this exploration.
47th & 49th Parallels:
Isaac Ingalls Stevens (1818-1862) DAB
Governor of Washington Territory at the time of his appointment, Stevens was born in Andover, Massachusetts, graduated at West Point, served in the Mexican War, and in 1849-53 had charge of the office of the Coast Survey. He served two terms in Congress and, a brigadier general in the Union Army, died in the Battle of Chantilly. Leading the largest of the parties -- over 200 men -- Stevens surveyed the northern route for the railroad, in the course of which the party established the navigability of the upper Missouri and Columbia Rivers for steamers.
APS: In Letters of Scientists, see Stevens's letters and also those of F. W. Putnam and Spencer Baird to George Suckley about the controversial Stevens. American Indian Linguistic Materials (Film no.1276 of original at University of Washington Libraries), assembled by R.L. Olson and I. I. Stevens, may derive in part from this survey. And see Cooper below.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has one letter of Stevens's and one of Richard Arnold's that bear on the survey.
**APS, HSP
James Graham Cooper
APS: Letters of Scientists has informative (and irate) exchanges among Cooper, Suckley, S.F. Baird, and F. W. Putnam about publication of the report, with much abuse heaped on Stevens. J.L. LeConte Papers has Cooper's letter about insects collected.
George Gibbs (1815-1873; ANSP 1856) DAB
Born on Long Island, Gibbs took a law degree at Harvard, practiced in New York City, wrote histories, went West with the Gold Rush, and joined this survey as geologist. Fascinated by the anthropology of the Northwest Coast and anticipating assistance from the Smithsonian, he determined "to fathom the Indian mind." He participated also in the
Northwest Boundary Survey (1857) and became an authority on Indian ethnology and philology. Gibbs reported on geology.
APS: See Gibbs's letters in the J. L. LeConte Papers. His Chemakum vocabulary in the Boas Collection of American Indian Linguistics may derive in part from his work on the survey.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
John Evans
ANSP: For Spencer Baird on Evans, see his 1853 and 1855 letters in Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll.1-B).
George Suckley (1830-1869; ANSP 1855)
A native New Yorker, Suckley graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and served as assistant surgeon with the army. On this, as on the
Northwest Boundary Survey (1857), he served as surgeon and assistant naturalist. Suckley reported on mammals, birds, and fishes. He and Cooper collected specimens in Panama and collaborated on
The Natural History of Washington Territory (1860).
APS: Letters of Scientists has several letters of 1860 and 1861 to, from, and about Suckley and the survey. See Cooper above.
HSP: See Richard Arnold's 1853 letter about the survey.
**HSP
32d Parallel & California:
Dr. Thomas Antisell (1817-1893; ANSP 1852)
Born in Ireland, where he published a volume on Irish geology, Antisell came to the United States in 1848. He practiced medicine, served as examiner in the Patent Office, as surgeon in the Union army, and after the Civil War was chief chemist in the Department of Agriculture. Antisell reported on geology and botany.
**HSP
Albert H. Campbcll (1826-1899; ANSP 1867)
A native of Charleston, Virginia, and graduate of Brown University, Campbell was an accomplished artist. As assistant engineer and surveyor, he served under both Whipple and Parke. During the Civil War he headed the Confederacy's Topographical Bureau.
APS: In the J. L. LeConte Papers, see Campbell's letter of 23 September 1858 concerning the government specimens and publications; see also his letters in the J.P. Lesley Papers.
35th Parallel:
Amiel Weeks Whipple (1817-1863) DAB
Born in Greenwich, Massachusetts, Whipple studied at Amherst, graduated at West Point, and was employed on one or another army survey until the coming of the Civil War. He took particular interest in the work of the scientists and was much esteemed by them. A brigadier general in the Union Army, he died of wounds received at Chancellorsville. Whipple reported on the Indian tribes encountered.
HSP: In the Simon Gratz Collection see his 1856 letter to Parke, and in the Dreer Collection his 1853 letter regarding apparatus for the survey.
**APS
John M. Bigelow
ANSP: John Torrey, Letters (Coll. 364; copy at APS, Film no.628), has Bigelow's four-page letter to Torrey about the coming survey.
Jules Marcou (1824-1898; ANSP 1860) DAB
A French protégé of Agassiz, Marcou came to the United States in 1847 and assisted Agassiz in founding the Museum of Comparative Zoology. As a member of the survey he became the first professional geologist to run a survey across the continent. Marcou reported on geology.
ANSP: For F. B. Meek's unflattering view of Marcou, see his letters in the Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B).
**APS, ANSP
Connecting 35th & 32d Parallels:
William Phipps BIake (1825-1910; APS 1870, ANSP 1856) DAB
The son of a prominent New York City dentist, Blake graduated from the Yale Scientific School in 1852. Setting up as mining engineer, he explored in Japan, China, and Alaska, and in 1864 became professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of California. He participated in three western expeditions. Blake reported on geology.
APS: In the J.P. Lesley Papers, see James Hall's fulminations against Blake (with passing swipes at Henry D. and William B. Rogers) in 1856 and 1857, followed, as Hall's fulminations often were, by remorse and apology in 1859.
ANSP: John Torrey, Letters (Coll. 364; copy at APS, Film no.628), has Blake letters about the fossils and the geological report.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
Sacramento Valley to Columbia River:
Henry Larcom Abbot (1831-1927; APS 1862)
A native of Beverly, Massachusetts, and a West Point graduate of 1824, Abbot's first service was with the Topographical Engineers on this survey. In the course of his long career he published widely on engineering subjects. Abbot was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**HSP, ANSP
J. S. Newberry
ANSP: See Newberry's letters in Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B).
William Petit Trowbridge (1825-1892; APS 1872) DAB
A native of Michigan and an 1848 graduate of West Point, Trowbridge served with the Coast Survey before joining this venture, in the course of which he conducted tidal and magnetic observations. He resigned from the army in 1856, served briefly as professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan, then rejoined the Coast Survey for some years before accepting professorships first at Yale, then at Columbia. Trowbridge was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
In addition to the official collectors, freelancers collected specimens which were afterward deposited at the Smithsonian:
William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900; APS 1859, ANSP 1854) DAB
Born in Annapolis, Hammond was an army surgeon and amateur entomologist. After the Civil War, in which he served as surgeon general, he held various professorships in diseases of the nervous system at the University of Maryland. He published many books on his specialty as well as several novels.
APS: See his letters, many from Fort Riley, relating to the surveys in the J.P. Lesley Papers and the J.L. LeConte Papers. The latter reveal his dismay at his fellow officers' lack of scientific curiosity and indicate that he collected for LeConte and Joseph Leidy as well as himself.
ANSP: Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1) has more letters from Ft. Riley, one of 1857 assuring Leidy that "I will look after the interests of the Academy."
Other freelance collectors whose specimens went to the Smithsonian were J.H. Alexander (Maryland Geological Survey, 1833), J.L. Berlandier, Lt. D.N. Couch, Capt. Stewart van Vliet (all of the U.S. and Mexican Boundary Survey, 1848), Maj. William Rich (United States Exploring Expedition, 1838), Capt. James H. Carleton (1814-1873; **HSP, ANSP), and two army surgeons, John Frazier Head (1821-1908; **LCP) and William Shakespeare King (d. 1895, ANSP 1863; **HSP, **LCP).
In addition to the field men who filed reports, laboratory specialists reported on the natural history collections: Louis Agassiz (Mississippi Geological Survey, 1850), J.W. Bailey, John Cassin, Charles Girard, Asa Gray, W.S. Sullivant, Edward Tuckerman (all of United States Exploring Expedition, 1838), J.C. Booth (Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 1836), T.A. Conrad and E.N. Horsford (both of New York Natural History Survey, 1836), George Engelmann (Emory's Reconnaissance, 1846), Edward Hallowell (Sitgreaves's Expedition, 1851), J. L. LeConte (Michigan Geological Surveys, 1837).
Two of the topographers, John Lambert (**ANSP) and Lt. Johnson K. Duncan (1827-1862; **APS), reported on landscapes; and George Christian Schaeffer (1814-1873; **APS, ANSP) reported on fossil wood.
Owing to the difficulty, in many instances impossibility, of determining the relevance of the letters of the laboratory and museum men to these surveys, I have not attempted the task in any thorough way, but do make exception to list those figures who make their first appearance with these surveys and those whose letters appear relevant.
S.F. Baird
ANSP: Baird kept Leidy informed on the progress of the surveys and their fossil gathering: Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1-B).
**ANSP
William Greene Binney (1833-1909; ANSP 1856)
Binney, son of the distinguished conchologist Amos Binney, participated in four federal expeditions. He reported on land shells.
ANSP: Binney's seven conchological letters (1860-1863) in Samuel S. Haldeman Correspondence may bear on the survey's collections.
**APS, ANSP
Elias [Elié Magloire] Durand (1794-1873; ANSP 1824) DAB
Born in Mayenne, France, Durand studied medicine in Paris and served as pharmacist in Napolcon's army before coming, about 1816, to the United States. The drugstore he established in Philadelphia in 1825 became a popular gathering place for the physicians of the city. Durand supported several botanical collectors, purchased the herbaria of Thomas Nuttall and C.S. Rafinesque, gave many specimens to the ANSP, and in 1868 presented his superb herbarium of North American plants to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.[
42]
APS: Of the many letters to and from Durand in various collections, few if any deal with these surveys.
**APS, HSP, ANSP
A. A. Gould
ANSP: See Gould's letters of 1849-1863 about his conchological publications in Samuel S. Haldeman Correspondence (Coll. 73).
James Hall
ANSP: The Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1) has several letters from Hall, who, like Meek, Hayden and many another paleontologist, sent fossils to Leidy for determination. There is much on Hall's Bad Lands collection and on Evans and his party vs. Meek and Hayden, with hard words for Evans and Shumard and their bitter jealousy.
**ANSP
Edward Hallowell
ANSP: Among several other Hallowell items in the Library, the Edward Hallowell Papers (Coll. 357) has Hallowell's field notes for 1855; however, these seem not to pertain to these surveys.
George Newbold Lawrence (1 806-1895) DAB
A lifelong New Yorker, this wholesale druggist early developed a fascination, stimulated by his meeting in 1841 with Spencer Baird and John Cassin, with ornithology. He deposited his collection of some 8000 skins in the American Museum of Natural History. Lawrence reported on water birds.
APS: See his letters in the G.N. Lawrence Papers; the many to and from W.H. Brewer are of a later period.
Rodgers and Ringgold North Pacific Exploring Expedition: 1853
In 1852 Congress appropriated funds for a survey "for naval and commercial purposes," but an able corps of scientists was smuggled in. Though owing to Congressional indifference and the coming of the Civil War the official reports never saw print, the botanical and zoological collections, lodged at the Smithsonian, proved significant. Wright's collections enabled Asa Gray to establish the botanical affinity between America's northwest coast and Japan, and to assign the cause -- glaciation. E.M. Kern (
Frémont's Explorations, 1845) served as artist and topographer and Charles Wright (
U.S. and Mexican Boundary Survey, 1848), recommended by Spencer Baird, as botanist.
On Captain Ringgold's becoming temporarily deranged, John Rodgers assumed command.
Cadwalader Ringgold (1802-1867) DAB
Born in Maryland, the son of a congressman, Ringgold entered the navy in 1819 and commanded the
Porpoise of the
United States Exploring Expedition (1838), a vessel that disappeared in the course of this expedition. He retired as Commodore in 1862.
HSP: The Simon Gratz Collection has a Ringgold letter about a sounding apparatus presumably used by the expedition. The Cadwalader Collection has letters to influential relations about his removal from command and the official investigation that ensued. More on the controversy appears in M.C. Perry's 1856 letter to Robert Rodgers in the Commodore John Rodgers Papers. The Erring Papers has Ringgold letters of 1857-1858 detailing the achievements of his command.
John Rodgers (1812-1882) DAB
A Marylander of a distinguished navy family, Rodgers entered the navy at sixteen. He commanded the expedition's steamer John Hancock before assuming command of the expedition itself. After the Civil War, in which he commanded in several engagements, he served as superintendent of the Naval Observatory. Rodgers was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.
HSP: Though less useful on the subject than might be supposed, the Commodore John Rodgers Papers contains some relevant correspondence, as well as logbooks.
Lt. John Mercer Brooke (1826-1906) DAB
Born in Florida, the son of a major-general, Brooke graduated from the Naval Academy in 1847. At the Naval Observatory in 1851-1853, he invented a deep-sea sounding apparatus which won favor with oceanographers. Brooke later surveyed a route from California to China, including part of the Japanese Coast. Joining the Confederacy on the outbreak of the Civil War, he armored the Merrimac and afterward taught physics and astronomy at Virginia Military Institute. Assistant astronomer on this expedition, he prepared its charts.
**APS, HSP
William Stimpson (1832-1872; ANSP 1858) DAB
Another Marylander, Stimpson studied under Louis Agassiz, who recommended appointment of the twenty-one-year-old zoologist to the expedition. He devoted nine years after its return to classifying its collections, the majority of which were lost in the Chicago Fire while he was serving as curator of the ChicaR:o Academv of Sciences. A careful observer, he ranked with James Dwight Dana in describing new marine species. Stimpson was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
APS: Letters of Scientists has several Stimpson letters about shells, some of which may pertain to the expedition -- e.g., that of 31 January 1860. In the E.K. Kane Papers, see Stimpson's letters of 4 February 1853 and n.d., regarding selection of a naturalist for the expedition. For Agassiz's opinion of Stimpson, see his letter of 3 February 1853 to Joseph Henry in the Joseph Henry Papers.
ANSP: Stimpson asked Leidy to describe the expedition specimens. For the rest his letters to Leidy deal largely with his and Leidy's publications. Joseph Leidy Correspondence (Coll. 1). Stimpson's 28 pp. catalogue of frog and salamander data is in Coll. 408.
**APS, ANSP
Francis Humphreys Storer (1832-1914) DAB
A Bostonian, Storer studied chemistry at the Lawrence Scientific School. On his return from the expedition, on which he served as chemist and taxidermist, he studied in Germany and in 1865 was appointed professor of chemistry at MIT, and in 1870 at Harvard.[
43]
**ANSP
In addition to Stimpson, Wright, John Cassin (United States Exploring Expedition, 1838), and Edward Hallowell (Sitgreaves's Expedition, 1851), the following were to report on the collections. Most published papers in Society transactions.
Theodore Gill
APS: A few of Gill's letters about the collections appear in the J.L. LeConte Papers.
ANSP: For the disagreement over Gill's scientific merits, see Stimpson's letters in Samuel S. Haldeman Correspondence (Coll. 73).
A. A. Gould
APS: See his letters in J.P. Lesley Papers.
ANSP: Gould's conchological letters in Tryon-Pilsbry Correspondence may contain references to the shell collection.
Asa Gray
APS: Gray's letters in the following collections may repay search: Royal Botanic Gardens Correspondence (H.S. Film no. 7); Asa Gray Correspondence (H.S. Film no. 35); Linnaean Society of London Correspondence with American Scientists (H.S. Film no. 6); and J.L. LeConte Papers.
Philip Reese Uhler (1835-1913; ANSP 1858) DAB
Born in Baltimore, Uhler studied with Agassiz, later taught at Johns Hopkins, and wrote several reports for the U.S. Geological Survey. He was primarily an entomologist.
APS: See his letters in the J. L. LeConte Papers.
**ANSP
