Edward Hitchcock
Edward Hitchcock | |
---|---|
Born | May 24, 1793 |
Died | February 27, 1864 | (aged 70)
Citizenship | United States |
Alma mater | Deerfield Academy |
Spouse | Orra White Hitchcock |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Geology Natural history |
Author abbrev. (botany) | E.Hitchc. |
Edward Hitchcock (May 24, 1793 – February 27, 1864) was an American geologist and the third President of Amherst College (1845–1854).
Life
Born to poor parents, he attended newly founded
In addition to his positions at Amherst, Hitchcock was a well-known early geologist. He ran the first geological survey of Massachusetts, and in 1830 was appointed state geologist of Massachusetts (he held the post until 1844). He also played a role in the geological surveys of New York and Vermont. His chief project, however, was natural theology, which attempted to unify and reconcile science and religion, focusing on geology. His major work in this area was The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences (1851). In this book, he sought out ways to re-interpret the Bible to agree with the latest geological theories. For example, knowing that the earth was at least hundreds of thousands of years old, vastly older than the 6,000 years posited by Biblical scholars, Hitchcock devised a way to read the original Hebrew so that a single letter in Genesis—a "v", meaning "afterwards"—implied the vast timespans during which the earth was formed. Randy Moore described Hitchcock as "America's leading advocate of catastrophism-based gap creationism."[1]
Hitchcock left his mark in
As he had researched the geologic lake which once filled the Connecticut River basin, this prehistoric lake was named after him. Since he had done geological research on the Holyoke Range, one of the mountains there, Mount Hitchcock, was named after him.[5]
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1834.[6] From 1856 to 1861, Hitchcock was the State Geologist for Vermont.[7]
In 1841, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.[8]
His collections, a bust and portrait can be viewed at the
In 1821, he married Orra White, one of the earliest women botanical and scientific illustrators in the U.S. The two worked closely together, and she contributed more than 1,000 illustrations to his many scientific publications.
Paleontological chart
He inserted a paleontological chart in his Elementary Geology (1840). It shows a branching diagram of the plant and animal kingdom against a geological background. He referred to it as a tree. This "
Hitchcock was an advocate of
Writings
- Geology of the Connecticut Valley (1823)
- "Retrospection: A Sermon Delivered at Amherst, MA, at Close of Spring Term". May 13, 1823. Northampton, MA: Sylvester Judd, Jr., 1823.
- Catalogue of the Plants within Twenty Miles of Amherst (1829)
- An Essay on Temperance, Addressed Particularly to Students, and the Young Men of America(1830)
- Elementary Geology, 1840. (31 editions)
- The Religion of Geology and its Connected Sciences (1851)
- Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted, Or, Lectures on Diet, Regimen, and Employment
- Lectures on the Peculiar Phenomena of the Four Seasons (1850)
- Reports on the Geology of Massachusetts (1833, 1835, 1838, 1841)
- Outline of the Geology of the Globe and of the United States in Particular with Sketches of Characteristic American Fossils (1853)
- Illustrations of Surface Geology (1857)
- Reminiscences of Amherst College (1863)
See also
- Amherst College Museum of Natural History
- Daniel Davis Jr. - electrical device inventor
- Connecticut River Valley trackways
- Tree of Life
References
- ISBN 978-0-313-36287-3
- S2CID 89973187.
- ISBN 1-84246-085-4.
- .
- ^ Brief History of Geology at Amherst: The Latest Holocene, Amherst College Archived June 6, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
- ^ "Hitchcock Geologic Atlas". docs.unh.edu. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
- ^ "Edward and Orra White Hitchcock Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections". Archived from the original on June 21, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
- ^ a b Archibald, J. David. (2009). "Edward Hitchcock's Pre-Darwinian (1840) 'Tree of Life'". Journal of the History of Biology 42: 561-592, archived 6 July 2010
- ^ McIver, Thomas Allen. (1989). Creationism: Intellectual Origins, Cultural Context, and Theoretical Diversity. University of California, Los Angeles.
- ^ "More on Charles Hitchcock". Government Information Department, University of New Hampshire Library web site. University of New Hampshire. 2003. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
Further reading
- Guralnick, Stanley M. (1972). Geology and Religion Before Darwin: The Case of Edward Hitchcock, Theologian and Geologist (1793-1864). Isis. Vol. 63, No. 4, pp. 529–543.
- Lawrence, Philip J. (1972). Edward Hitchcock: The Christian Geologist. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 116 (1): 21-34.
- Marché, Jordan D. (1998). Restoring a 'Public Standard' to Accuracy: Authority, Social Class, and Utility in the American Almanac Controversy, 1814–1818. Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 693–710.
- Pick, Nancy. (2006). Curious Footprints: Professor Hitchcock's Dinosaur Tracks & Other Natural History Treasures at Amherst College (Amherst College Press, 2006), with photographs by Frank Ward.
External links
- Works by Edward Hitchcock at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Edward Hitchcock at Internet Archive
- "Early Discoveries of Dinosaurs From North America and the Significance of the Springfield Armory Dinosaur Site", by Vincent L. Santucci.
- "Edward and Orra White Hitchcock at Amherst College" gives an overview of the holdings of Hitchcock material available in the Archives & Special Collections and elsewhere at Amherst.
- Updated link to the Edward and Orra White Hitchcock Papers
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir