DOCSLIB.ORG

ASA GRAY and the DEVELOPMENT of BRYOLOGY in the UNITED STATES Author(S): Norton G

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ASA GRAY and the DEVELOPMENT of BRYOLOGY in the UNITED STATES Author(S): Norton G ASA GRAY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRYOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES Author(s): Norton G. Miller Source: Harvard Papers in Botany , December 2010, Vol. 15, No. 2 (December 2010), pp. 287-304 Published by: Harvard University Herbaria Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41761699 REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41761699?seq=1&cid=pdf- reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Harvard University Herbaria is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Harvard Papers in Botany This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Tue, 06 Jul 2021 08:58:36 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ASA GRAY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRYOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES Norton G. Miller1 Abstract. Asa Gray never expanded his knowledge of floristic bryology to the extent he developed expertise in flowering plant taxonomy. Nevertheless, he became experienced in bryological floristics early in his botanical career, and Gray absorbed new bryological information, both floristic and conceptual, throughout his life from wherever it was generated. He had plans to advance bryology in the United States, including an exsiccata and publishing a volume devoted to cryptogams as part two of the second edition of his Manual , but both never hap- pened. His respect for the bryological talent and energy of William S. Sullivant, whose achievements Gray con- sistently encouraged and fostered, allowed Sullivant, a non-academic in Columbus, Ohio, to become a highly regarded bryologist of international stature and the designated Father of American Bryology. The growth of bryo- floristic knowledge in the United States is traced from the earliest colonial period to later workers, including Dil- lenius, André Michaux, Palisot de Beauvois, Henry Muhlenberg, Lewis Schweinitz, Lewis Beck, and John Torrey, to Asa Gray, and eventually to William Sullivant. The bryological work and accomplishments of each of them show that all participated in a sophisticated international network of information exchange by letter or other con- veyance, thereby building important collections of bryophyte specimens and printed references. For some, this happened during the 1800s when improvements in compound light microscopy led to the resolution of morphol- ogy not before revealed with certainty in bryophytes and to conceptual advances in understanding the biology of these plants, which in turn allowed the discovery of the mesoscale structural uniqueness of them and continuing advancements in their systematics in the post-Sullivant era. Keywords: Asa Gray, William Sullivant, John Torrey, Lewis Schweinitz, Lewis Beck, Henry Muhlenberg, Palisot de Beauvois, André Michaux, Dillenius, history of bryology, history of botany " My desire to know every N. American plant with certainty is insatiable , as for foreign plants , let others explore them , there is room for all to study and admire the great variety. " - Henry Muhlenberg (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) to Dawson Turner (Yarmouth, England), 21 February 1803. Asa Gray's botanical accomplishments are reading letters and journal entries he wrote profound, durable, and generally understood during his first trip to Europe, 1838-1839 (J. to pertain to the flowering plants. Yet, through- Gray, 1893). Gray's career bridged the earliest out his career, and especially during the time attempts to document the North American flora he trained to become a physician and early inby colonial plantsmen, botanical explorers, and his botanical work, Gray maintained a lively a small group of native-born botanists, some probing interest in all branches of floristic, of whom took as their goal securing names for structural, and physiological botany as these American bryophytes, and the later botanists subjects were then defined, including bryo- that carried bryofloristic knowledge beyond the phytes and other cryptogams. This is clear from pioneer stage. I am grateful for information or assistance from the following: Robert Magill and Patricia Eckel (Missouri Botanical Garden), Ronald Stuckey (Ohio State University), Charles Sheviak (New York State Museum), Caryn Radick (Rutgers University Archives), Lynn Eaton (Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University), Stephen Sinon (LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden), and Daniel Weinstock, M.D., Geneva, New York. The last generously gave me permission to quote from unpublished letters of 19th century botanists in his collection. Sean P. Kilcoyne, Reference Archivist, Ohio Historical Society, helpfully searched the Sullivant family papers there for pertinent letters. Unless already published, all other quotations from letters are with permission of the institutional archive holding the original. Because this essay is in part about books and printed matter, it gives me much pleasure to acknowledge the great libraries I use regularly: New York State Library and its Manuscripts and Special Collection Division (Margaret Harris, Cindy Stark, Cara Janowsky, James Summa, and associates), University at Albany Library (Heather Swan Miller), and the Harvard University Botany Libraries (Judy Warnement and staff, especially Lisa DeCesare). Leigh Ann Smith and Patricia Kernan, New York State Museum, assembled the plate of images. 1 Biological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, New York 12230-0001 , U.S.A. Email: [email protected] Harvard Papers in Botany , Vol. 15, No. 2, 2010, pp. 287-304. © President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2010. This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Tue, 06 Jul 2021 08:58:36 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 288 HARVARD PAPERS IN BOTANY Vol. 15, No. 2 In this essay I explore connections Lewis Beck, and associates, between as well as bryolo- Asa Gray's botanical activities gists and bryophyteand the collectors devel- that Gray later opment of bryology in mentoredthe Unitedand influenced. States. I have sought to find bryological Asa Gray's links published between contributions are num- and among Gray and his predecessorserous, nearly 800 of them and in fact,con- and much temporaries and to ascertain has been how written bryological about his life, associates, knowledge accumulated inand accomplishments.the United A listStates of Gray's writ- from the late 1700s to the middle 1800s. This ings is available (Watson and Goodale, 1888), was a time of transition, during which bryolog- as is an index (Seymour, 1888). Selections of ical expertise developed in the United States Gray'sin letters, chronologically arranged, and an native-born botanists. In particular I sought autobiographyto of his first 30 years, were pub- establish what bryological books and specimens lished by Jane Loring Gray (1893), his wife. were used by the early workers, which in ret- Many of Gray's scientific and other writings rospect serve as an assessment of how well were a reprinted by Sargent (1889). In addi- worker was connected to mainstream bryology tion, the historian A. Hunter Dupree (1959) has of the time, and also the names of authorities written a richly informative biography of Asa to whom specimens were sent for identifica- Gray, with attention to the national and interna- tion or other response. Such information and tional intellectual mileau in which he worked. examination of authentic specimens from an These sources, plus letters and other records expert's herbarium help understand the often in the Gray Herbarium archives at Harvard varying early application of the technical names University and the collection there of of bryophytes. Grayana, provide much information pertain- Steere (1977) has assembled much fasci- ing to the topic outlined above. Additional nating information pertaining to bryologists primary sources were consulted at or from the and bryological progress for a later period, Rutgers University Archives; Duke University mostly the last half of the 19th and first half Archives;of LuEsther T. Mertz Library (New the 20th centuries. By contrast, my focus is Yorkon Botanical Garden); library of the the initial development of bryology in the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia); United States and Gray's role in helping Ohio Historical Society (Columbus); and the move bryological science in America from itsDivision of Manuscripts and Special Collec- earliest period into a more modern era. I present tions of the New York State Library (Albany). information that explores bryological work Scans of pertinent unpublished letters in the of the botanical collaborators, Asa Gray and collection of Daniel Weinstock, M. D. (Geneva, John Torrey, and their predecessors, principally New York) were also read. Henry Muhlenberg, Lewis von Schweinitz, Bryology in North America up to the Start of Asa Gray's botanical career Bryophytes had an almost inconsequential reached. My primary sources for names in this role in the work of plant collectors who ener- list were Dillenius (1741); Cardot (1899), who getically sought New World plant novelties for
Load more

Recommended publications
  • University of Oklahoma Graduate College
    UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE SCIENCE IN THE AMERICAN STYLE, 1700 – 1800 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By ROBYN DAVIS M CMILLIN Norman, Oklahoma 2009 SCIENCE IN THE AMERICAN STYLE, 1700 – 1800 A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY ________________________ Prof. Paul A. Gilje, Chair ________________________ Prof. Catherine E. Kelly ________________________ Prof. Judith S. Lewis ________________________ Prof. Joshua A. Piker ________________________ Prof. R. Richard Hamerla © Copyright by ROBYN DAVIS M CMILLIN 2009 All Rights Reserved. To my excellent and generous teacher, Paul A. Gilje. Thank you. Acknowledgements The only thing greater than the many obligations I incurred during the research and writing of this work is the pleasure that I take in acknowledging those debts. It would have been impossible for me to undertake, much less complete, this project without the support of the institutions and people who helped me along the way. Archival research is the sine qua non of history; mine was funded by numerous grants supporting work in repositories from California to Massachusetts. A Friends Fellowship from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies supported my first year of research in the Philadelphia archives and also immersed me in the intellectual ferment and camaraderie for which the Center is justly renowned. A Dissertation Fellowship from the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History provided months of support to work in the daunting Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library. The Chandis Securities Fellowship from the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens brought me to San Marino and gave me entrée to an unequaled library of primary and secondary sources, in one of the most beautiful spots on Earth.
    [Show full text]
  • The Following Four Pages Are the Professional Genealogy Of
    The following four pages are the professional genealogy of Professor Steven H. Strauss, Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 1982 2002 • Professor of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry (CSU) • Studied iron hydroporphyrins, Steven H. Strauss fluorinated superweak anions, nonclassical metal carbonyls, PhD Northwestern 1979 halofullerenes, and detection & extraction of aqueous anions • CSU Research Foundation • Professor of Inorganic Chemistry Researcher of the Year 2002 (NorthwesternU) • Author of Manipulation of Air-Sensitive Compounds Duward F. Shriver • Co-author of textbook PhD Michigan 1962 Inorganic Chemistry • ACS Award for Distinguished Service in Inorg. Chem.1987 • Professor of Inorganic Chemistry (UMich and UUtah) Robert W. Parry • ACS Award for Distinguished Service in Inorg. Chem. 1965 PhD Illinois 1947 • ACS Award in Chemical Education 1977 • ACS Priestley Medal 1993 • Professor of Inorg. Chem. (UIll.) • The "Father" of American coordination chemistry • ACS President 1957 John C. Bailar • ACS Award in Chem. Educ. 1961 PhD Michigan 1928 • ACS Award for Distinguished Service in Inorg. Chem. 1972 • ACS Priestley Medal 1964 • Professor of Chemistry (UMich) • Synthesis of CPh4 in Meyer's lab • First isolation of an organic free Moses Gomberg radical (CPh3•) in Meyer's lab PhD Michigan 1894 • The "Father" of organic free radical chemistry • Developed the first satisfactory • Professor of Organic Chemistry antifreeze and Pharmacy (UMich) • Founded qualitative org. analysis • Studied alkaloid toxicology (esp. Alfred B. Prescott alkaloidal periodides) and the MD Michigan 1864 structure of caffeine • Developed the first assay for opium • Established chemistry lab at UMich (Houghton's assistant) • Took over Houghton's chemistry Silas H. Douglass duties in 1845 MD Maryland 1842 • Co-authored (with A.
    [Show full text]
  • William Martin Smallwood and the Smallwood Collection in Natural History at the Syracuse University Library
    Syracuse University SURFACE The Courier Libraries Fall 1987 William Martin Smallwood and the Smallwood Collection in Natural History at the Syracuse University Library Eileen Snyder Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/libassoc Part of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons Recommended Citation Snyder, Eileen. "William Martin Smallwood and the Smallwood Collection in Natural History at the Syracuse University Library." The Courier 22.2 (1987): 67-94. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Courier by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ASSOCIATES COURIER VOLUME XXII, NUMBER 2, FALL 1987 SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ASSOCIATES COURIER VOLUME XXII NUMBER TWO FALL 1987 Benjamin Spock and the Spock Papers at Syracuse University By Robert S. Pickett, Professor of Child and 3 Family Studies, Syracuse University Alistair Cooke: A Response to Granville Hicks' I Like America By Kathleen Manwaring, Syracuse University Library 23 "A Citizen of No Mean City": Jermain W. Loguen and the Antislavery Reputation of Syracuse By Milton C. Sernett, Associate Professor 33 of Afro,American Studies, Syracuse University Jan Maria Novotny and His Collection of Books on Economics By Michael Markowski, Syracuse University 57 William Martin Smallwood and the Smallwood Collection in Natural History at the Syracuse University Library By Eileen Snyder, Physics and Geology Librarian, 67 Syracuse University News of the Syracuse University Library and the Library Associates 95 William Martin Smallwood and the Smallwood Collection in Natural History at the Syracuse University Library BY EILEEN SNYDER When, shortly after World War II, it was decided that Syracuse University should add to its science curriculum a course on the his~ tory of science, Professor William Park Hotchkiss became the pro~ gram's most effective advocate.
    [Show full text]
  • THE FOUNDERS of AMERICAN GEOLOGY: a VISIT to THEIR TOMBS, Labs, and THEIR FAVORITE EXPOSURES: the DEVONIAN LIMESTONES of THE
    55 THE FOUNDERS OF AMERICAN GEOLOGY: A VISIT TO THEIR TOMBS, lABS, AND THEIR FAVORITE EXPOSURES: THE DEVONIAN LIMESTONES OF THE CAPITAL DISTRICT; A STUDY OF THE SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF THESE LIMESTONES GERALD M. FRIEDMAN Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of CUNY and Northeastern Science Foundation affiliated with Brooklyn College-CUNY 15 Third Street,Box 746 Troy, N.Y. 12181-0746 INTRODUCTION Located along the Helderberg Escarpment this classic site is on hallowed ground. Amos Eaton (1776-1842), Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863), James Hall (1811-1898), William W Mather (1804-1859), Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875), Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), James D. Dana (1813-1895), Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), and Sir William E. Logan (1798-1875) have trod here before you, and we will view the memorial plaque erected in their honor. The field sites expose a large variety of Lower and Middle Devonian limestones, including coral reefs, stroma­ toporoid reefs, storm deposits, stromatolite facies, skeletal- and lime mud facies, solution-collapse features, and karst. This diversity of facies will be studied in terms of trans­ gressive-regressive cycles, known as parasequences, which are defined as confonnab/e succes­ sions of genetically-related beds bounded by surfaces of erosion, called parasequence surfaces. HISTORY OF GEOLOGY Before viewing the sequence stratigraphy of the Devonian we will pay tribute to the founders of American geology on whose concepts modern geology has built. Among those particular attention will be given to Amos Eaton, James Hall, and Ebenezer Emmons, whose debt we have incurred as builders of our science and at whose graves we will pay our respects.
    [Show full text]
  • Gidi..Cgy at Renssei.Aer: a His'idrical Perspeci'ive
    GIDI..CGY AT RENSSEI.AER: A HIS'IDRICAL PERSPECI'IVE Address of the Retiring President of the New York State Geological Association Gerald M. Friedman Department of Geology, Rensselaer Polyteclmic Institute Troy, New York 12181 Geology is a tradition at Rensselaer. As R.P. Baker (1930) assessed the first one hundred years of the history of R.P.I., he emphasized "in Geology and Mineralogy, of course, Rensselaer was long supreme. Fran those connected with the Institute came the first standard texts -- the first, you may be interested to know, in which figures and plates were used to supplement the text -- and from them also came the first epoch - making re­ p::>rts. Indeed, approx:imately half of the notable developnents in these two subjects before 1850 were due to graduates of the Institute. They were resp::>nsible for the official surveys of Alabama, Delaware, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin. In other states their advice and assistance were hardly less useful. M:>reover, in a number of colleges and endc:Med universities as well as in the State univer­ sities of Alabama, Iowa, Michigan and \'lisconsin, they established a tradi­ tion of research, which has been honorably maintained by their successors. " The founder and first senior professor of Rensselaer Amos Eaton has been acclailred as the Father of Alrerican Geology (Fig. 1) . Hence geology was allotted praninence early at Rensselaer, as s'hc:1.vn on a circular of 1827, which reads "it is now required that each stu­ dent take two short mineral­ ogical tours to collect minerals for his own use, for the purp::>se of improving himself in the science of mineralogy and geology.
    [Show full text]
  • Displacement and Equilibrium: a Cultural History of Engineering in America Before Its “Golden Age”
    Displacement and Equilibrium: A Cultural History of Engineering in America Before Its “Golden Age” A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY David M. Kmiec IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Bernadette Longo, Adviser August 2012 Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1 Using historical context to contextualize history: The ideology of cultural history ........................................................................... 12 Motivation and methodology for a cultural history of American engineering ......................................................................................... 16 2 National service and public work: Military education and civilian engineering ......................................................... 23 Early modern France and the origins of military engineering ................................ 24 Military engineering and the American Revolution ................................................ 30 Civilian engineering as rationale for maintaining a military in peacetime .............................................................................................. 37 Engineering union in sectionalist America .............................................................. 51 3 The self-made engineer goes to school: Institutionalized education(s) for engineers ......................................................... 59 Colleges at the
    [Show full text]
  • The Parallel Impacts of William Maclure and Amos Eaton on American Geology, Education, and Public Service
    The Parallel Impacts of William Maclure and Amos Eaton on American Geology, Education, and Public Service Markes E. Johnson” Two independent centers of education were established simul- taneously during the early part of the nineteenth century by William Maclure in southern Indiana and by Amos Eaton in eastern New York. Geology was only one of many sciences thereby promoted local- ly. A commanding role, however, was eventually played by these cen- ters in shaping the intersection of public service and applied or practical geology that survives today under the authority of state and federal agencies responsible for geological exploration and sur- vey work. Maclure was thirteen years senior to Eaton in age. Although from different generations and from different family backgrounds, both were attracted to geology as self-taught individuals. At best, these two geologists and educators shared only the most attenuated connections, but they both operated under the guiding influence of larger tendencies in American life to make science a public servant of humanity. In his massive 1924 compilation on The First One Hundred Years ofAmerican Geology, George P. Menill devotes the fmt two chap- ters to the “Maclurean Era, 1785-1819” and the “Eatonian Era, 1820-1829.”’ The exploits of these two hardy pioneers are intellec- tually as well as physically monumental. Two of their achievements are particularly noteworthy. Maclure produced the first geological map and texts in 1809 and 1817 summarizing much of the eastern half of North America, an accomplishment derived from thousands of miles of personal exploration on foot. Eaton produced a geographically more constrained but more detailed geological cross section and syn- thesis in 1824 following the route of the Erie Canal across New York state.
    [Show full text]
  • John Torrey: a Botanical Biography
    Reveal, J.L. 2014. John Torrey: A botanical biography. Phytoneuron 2014-100: 1–64. Published 14 October 2014. ISSN 2153 733X JOHN TORREY: A BOTANICAL BIOGRAPHY JAMES L. REVEAL School of Integrative Plant Science Plant Biology, 412 Mann Building Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853-4301 [email protected] ABSTRACT The role played by the American botanist John Torrey (1796–1873) in the development of floristics and the naming of plants, especially from the American West, is shown to be fundamental not only for present-day taxonomists in their monographic and floristics studies, and to historians in understanding the significance of discovering new and curious objects of nature in the exploration of the West but also the role Torrey directly and indirectly played in the development of such institutions as the New York Botanical Garden and the Smithsonian Institution. For the author of this 2014 paper, the name of John Torrey dates back to his earliest years of interests in botany, some 56 years ago, as even then Torrey was the kind of hero he could admire without resorting to comic books or movies. John Torrey has long been a “founding father” of North American systematic botany. Even so it was probably a bit unusual that a high school kid from the Sierra Nevada of California should know the name and even something about the man. It was Torrey who described plants with the explorer John Charles Frémont 1, and so by fate the three of us were thrown together while I penned a paper for a history class at Sonora Union High School in the spring of 1958.
    [Show full text]
  • Dewitt Clinton and Amos Eaton: Geology and Power in Early New York
    Book Reviews DeWitt Clinton and Amos Eaton: Geology and Power in Early New York. By David I. Spanagel. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2014, 288 pages, $54.95 Cloth. Reviewed by Camden Burd, University of Rochester n DeWitt Clinton and Amos Eaton, David I. Spanagel writes a compelling Ihistory that blurs the boundaries between science, politics, and the arts in early New York State. Through a history centered mostly on geologist Amos Eaton, the author demonstrates how Eaton’s passion to explore the Earth’s origins helped define New York State as the center of political, eco- nomic, scientific, and cultural development in the early nineteenth century. Creatively reading source material, Spanagel depicts a period of scientific exploration situated between natural theology and professionalized science. In this space Governor DeWitt Clinton, driven by his political ambition, married science and politics in an unprecedented manner. The results of the union carried implications beyond the construction of the Erie Canal. Spanagel argues that Eaton and Clinton transformed the relation between science, politics, and broader American culture. Spanagel successfully redeems Eaton’s reputation from a dated histo- riography that defined his work as derivative and unoriginal. By arguing that Eaton’s contributions lie beyond simple scientific theory, the author describes a dynamic scholar, teacher, and father of American geological study. Through collaboration with Stephen Van Rensselaer, Eaton helped establish the Rensselaer School with a mission to provide technical educa- tion to students through his unique hands-on approach to scientific study. Eaton’s efforts as a teacher informed an entirely new generation of thinkers such as William Cullen Bryant, John Torrey, Emma Willard, and Douglas Houghton.
    [Show full text]
  • The Early Career of John L. Riddell As a Science Lecturer in the 19Th Century1
    The Early Career of John L. Riddell as a Science Lecturer in the 19th Century1 RALPH W. DEXTER, Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242 ABSTRACT. John Leonard Riddell (1807-1865), trained in science, especially botany and geology, by Amos Eaton at the Rensselaer School at Troy, New York, became a professional itinerant science lecturer. He be- gan in Ogdensburg, New York, then in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with lectures on chemistry and physics. From 1832 to 1836 he concentrated his efforts in Ohio, focusing his lectures on botany, particularly medical botany, chemistry, geology, and electricity. He continued his botanical studies, including the collection of plant specimens, and studied medicine, obtaining an M.D. degree from Daniel Drake's School, the Medical Department of the Cincinnati College. After departing Ohio to teach chemistry at the Medical College of Louisiana in New Orleans, he published and lectured on science fiction based on fancied documentation from a presumed former student, Orrin Lindsay, at Cincinnati. Riddell was an early 19th century science lecturer, field botanist, and author of science fiction. OHIO J. SCI. 88 (5): 184-188, 1988 ITINERANT LECTURER (1830-1832) and science teaching. (See Bolles 1867 for a detailed ac- John Leonard Riddell (1807-1865), the oldest of count of the rescue of these papers.) 11 children born to John and Lephe Riddell in Leydon, In 1830 Riddell gave one of his first public lectures Massachusetts, lived as a youth in Preston, New York. at Ogdensburg, New York, on the subject of chemistry. As a young man he attended the Rensselaer School at It was delivered on 11 October at the Ogdensburg Court- Troy and studied science, especially botany and geol- house to stimulate subscriptions to a proposed lecture ogy, under the famous Amos Eaton.
    [Show full text]
  • Conference on the History of Geologic Pioneers, August 2–5, 2000
    work of Eaton, founder and first professor much of the rest of the United States. With of the Rensselaer School in 1824, that the Emmons, Hall was cofounder of the Conference study of geological science in America took American Association of Geologists, the a giant leap forward. Eaton was so predecessor of the American Association influential during these early years that in for the Advancement of Science. on the American geology, 1818–1836 is known as Edgerton was one of the geologists the Eatonian era. Eaton and Emmons had trained. He was Among the most influential students of born in Burlington, Vermont, and was 21 Eaton was Hall, State Geologist of New years old (1825), when he entered RPI. In History of York, who was known as the father of the 1826, he became adjunct to Eaton and geosyncline. In 1857 (published in 1859), remained in this position until after Hall observed that, where the Paleozoic graduation (fall 1828; Nason, 1887). After marine strata are thin (a few hundred or a leaving RPI, he became professor of natural Geologic few thousand meters thick), they are flat science at the Utica Gymnasium, where lying. In contrast, within the Appalachians, James D. Dana (1813–1895) became his thicknesses of equivalent age strata amount student. Pioneers, to tens of thousands of meters, and the Edgerton’s title almost matched Dana’s strata are not horizontal. Hall hypothesized choice of a profession: He wanted to that the subsidence of the strata within a pursue his interest in natural history (Dana, trough, where they would be extra thick, 1835; Newell, 1997).
    [Show full text]
  • Asa Gray's Plant Geography and Collecting Networks (1830S-1860S)
    Finding Patterns in Nature: Asa Gray's Plant Geography and Collecting Networks (1830s-1860s) The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Hung, Kuang-Chi. 2013. Finding Patterns in Nature: Asa Gray's Plant Geography and Collecting Networks (1830s-1860s). Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11181178 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Finding Patterns in Nature: Asa Gray’s Plant Geography and Collecting Networks (1830s-1860s) A dissertation presented by Kuang-Chi Hung to The Department of the History of Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History of Science Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts July 2013 © 2013–Kuang-Chi Hung All rights reserved Dissertation Advisor: Janet E. Browne Kuang-Chi Hung Finding Patterns in Nature: Asa Gray’s Plant Geography and Collecting Networks (1830s-1860s) Abstract It is well known that American botanist Asa Gray’s 1859 paper on the floristic similarities between Japan and the United States was among the earliest applications of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory in plant geography. Commonly known as Gray’s “disjunction thesis,” Gray's diagnosis of that previously inexplicable pattern not only provoked his famous debate with Louis Agassiz but also secured his role as the foremost advocate of Darwin and Darwinism in the United States.
    [Show full text]