Charles Lyell's Debt to North America: His Lectures and Travels from 53 1841 to 1853
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Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 Charles Lyelrs debt to North America: his lectures and travels from 1841 to 1853 ROBERT H. DOTT, JR Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA Abstract: Charles and Mary Lyell visited North America four times from 1841 to 1853. During the first three visits, Lyell lectured and they travelled widely. The lectures were great successes with the American public in spite of Lyell's poor elocutionary skills. Comparisons of lecture topics covered over a decade provide insights into the rapid development of the young science of geology and of Lyell's changing preoccupations. Included were crustal movements; uniformity of causes through time; coral reefs and oceanic subsidence; Carboniferous conditions; the early appearance of reptiles; palaeoclimate; the submergence of land and the origin of drift; biogeo- graphy; and a uniform organic plan with arguments against transmutation and historical pro- gression. The Lyells saw more of the United States and Canada than had most citizens. Their conveyances included horseback, stagecoach, train, railroad handcar, and steamboat. Accommodation varied from elegant hostelries to dirt-floored shacks. Their travels took them from the Atlantic coast to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and from the St Lawrence valley to the Gulf Coast. America gained from Lyell the enhancement of the stature of geology, several original contributions to the understanding of its geology, and a positive impression of the New World conveyed back to Britain. Lyell's reward was greater, however, thanks to the generosity of American guidance in his field work. He gained many fresh geological examples for his books, published two travel journals and more than 30 journal articles and presented at least eight lectures in Britain about American geology, making him the local British authority on America. He especially gained new evidence for his opposition to biological progression and for his submergence theory for the drift. Besides enhancing his geological reputation, Lyell also made an incisive comparison of British and American education, which drew him into public reforms at home sponsored by Prince Albert. Finally, his exposure to American Unitarianism, coupled with disenchantment with the Anglican Church, caused Lyell to shift his religious allegiance. For many years, a myth prevailed that Charles Lyell lished or republished in America. Consequently, a came in 1841 like a crusading white knight and full spectrum of geological opinions was well rescued North American geology from the twin entrenched, which was no more Wernerian or pagan heresies of neptunism and catastrophism. catastrophist than prevailed in Europe. Nonethe- The reality is that geology was already well less, the visit of one of Britain's most prominent developed and becoming professionalized in geologists was an important event. The status of America (Carozzi 1990; Newell 1993). At least half American geology could only be enhanced by such a dozen British ~migr6 geologists had preceded a visit and local practitioners were anxious to show Lyell and an equal number of American-born off their accomplishments, which they did by geologists had spent time in Europe, several of the escorting Lyell to the field and by having him latter having met Lyell before his first visit. participate in the third annual meeting of the Benjamin Silliman's American Journal of Science, American Association of Geologists at Boston in established in 1818, carried accounts of important April 1842 (American Association of Geologists European developments and reprinted in toto 1843, p. 42-76). Lyell was duly impressed with the numerous foreign articles, including some by Lyell. quality of American work, and both he and Mary Several years had elapsed since the first publication Lyell were captivated by the great energy and of Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1830--1833 and friendliness of the egalitarian Americans. Lyell Elements of Geology in 1838. A number of books summarized their feelings nicely when he told the on geology, including unauthorized editions of both audience at the close of his 1842 New York lectures Principles and Elements, had already been pub- that 'I shall always look back to the time spent here Doa-r, R. H. JR 1998. Charles Lyell's debt to North America: his lectures and travels from 53 1841 to 1853. In: BLUNDELL,D. J. & ScoTr, A. C. (eds) Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 143, 53-69. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 54 R.H. DO'IT, JR with a home-feeling, which will always make it 1981; Dott 1996). Because there was much difficult to regard America as a foreign land.' feedback between Lyell's American geological (Raymond 1842-1843, p. 52) (Note I Appendix). travels and the lectures, I felt it important to study It seems clear, however, that ultimately LyelI them together. This exercise has illuminated the gained more from his four visits to North America substantial debt to America that Lyell accumulated between 1841 and 1853 than did his New World for important evidence to support many of his hosts. He came with a definite agenda and with ideas, especially anti-progression and the origin of London as his chief audience. First, with his chosen drift. vocation of publishing for profit, he recognized the potential of the American market and the need to The lectures negotiate contracts for the publication of his books there in order to stop the plagiarism that had The Boston Lowell Lectures were endowed in the already occurred. Second, he could exploit the great will of John Lowell, Jr in 1836 to provide free popularity of exploration travel journals by publish- lectures to benefit the people of Boston (Weeks ing popular accounts of his experiences in America. 1966). Public lectures were then very popular in Third, he could communicate the results of his America, where self improvement enjoyed higher American geological investigations through letters status than the passive entertainment of the to the Geological Society of London, where they theatre, especially in Boston. They were also a would be read orally and published promptly. perfect vehicle for popularizing science. Benjamin Finally, upon returning home, he could publish full Silliman had opened the first lecture season in 1840 journal articles about American geology. That he in grand style and apparently suggested Lyell to succeeded spectacularly is attested by contem- inaugurate the second season. Accordingly, Charles porary London newspaper and scientific journal and his charming wife, Mary Homer Lyell, arrived accounts of his travels, the addition to his publi- in Halifax on 31 July 1841 for a 121/2 month visit to cation list of two travel books (Lyell 1845, 1849), the United States and Canada, the beginning of a and more than 33 published letters and articles great adventure in the New World which would (Skinner 1978). In addition, he obtained countless span 12 years. The American Journal of Science in examples of American geological phenomena to August 1841 carried an enthusiastic notice of the embellish his books and to support his position on Lyell's arrival, the scheduled course of lectures at such important issues as the theory of marine sub- the Lowell Institute, and their subsequent itinerary. mergence and floating ice for drift, his anti- Three Boston newspapers also carried advertise- progressionist and steady-state view of earth ments of the 12 lectures on geology, which were history, and his scheme for subdividing the Tertiary. presented from 19 October to 27 November 1841 Indeed, he was so successful that he quickly (Dott 1996). The audience averaged about 3000 became the local London authority on North enthusiastic and attentive 'persons of both sexes, of America, thus enhancing his already substantial every station in society ... all well dressed and reputation and increasing the intensity of his rivalry observing the utmost decorum' (Lyell 1845, p. 86). with Roderick Murchison (Page 1976). (Note 2 Lyell was delighted to receive US $2000 (more Appendix). than US $30,000 in today's dollars), which was The present article provides a condensed account three times the going fee in London for the most from my more extended treatment of Lyell's three reknowned lecturers. This, together with smaller series of lectures and associated travels in America fees for repeat offerings of the lectures in over an 11 year period during a very important time Philadelphia and New York, would finance the in the history of geology (Dott 1996). Lyell's Lyells' extensive travels in America (Fig. 1). lectures and his American writings provide valu- Lyell's Lowell Lectures of 1841, 1845 and 1852 able insight into the development of his thinking; were all poorly reported by the Boston news- they also provide evidence of his interactions with papers. By contrast, the 1842 repeat lectures in the American community, which were not entirely Philadelphia and New York were thoroughly amicable. After Lyell's first seven months in reported, with the New York series (condensed to America, during which he had been guided by more eight lectures) being published verbatim as a than a dozen of the country's leading geologists and pamphlet with 16 illustrations taken from Lyell's naturalists, his hosts became apprehensive that this Principles of Geology (1830-1833) and Elements guest would publish their data before they could do of Geology (1838, 1841) (Raymond 1842-1843). so (Newell 1993; Silliman 1995). Discussions of Lyell's surviving handwritten notes for many the American visits have appeared before in Lyell's lectures and Mary Lyell's correspondence from own travel journals, his published correspondence America provide additional evidence about the (Lyell 1881), biographies (Bonney 1895; Bailey content of this first lecture series and they are the 1963; Wilson 1998) and other writings (Brice 1978, principal sources for the 1845 and 1852 series, for Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 LYELL'S DEBT TO NORTH AMERICA 55 Fig.