18th/19th-century American geologist and cartographer
William Maclure (27 October 1763 – 23 March 1840) was an AmericanizedScottishgeologist, cartographer and philanthropist.[1][2] He is known as the 'father of American geology'.[3][4] As a social experimenter on new types of community life, he collaborated with British social reformerRobert Owen, (1771–1854), in Indiana, United States.
Maclure had a highly successful mercantile career, making a fortune that allowed him to retire in 1797 at the early age of 34 to pursue his scientific, geological and other interests. In 1809 he made the earliest attempt at a geological map of the United States of America.[5]
Biography
Early life, business, and education
Maclure was born in 1763 in Ayr, Scotland.
After a brief visit to New York City in 1782, he began work with the merchants Miller, Hart & Co, who traded and shipped goods to and from America. Maclure was based in the London office but regularly travelled to France and Ireland on business.[6] In 1796 business affairs took him to Virginia, which he thereafter made his home.
In 1803 he visited France as one of the commissioners appointed to settle the claims of American citizens on the French government; and during the few years then spent in Europe he applied himself with enthusiasm to the study of geology.[7]While residing in Switzerland, he became impressed with what is now called the Pestalozzi School System, from Swiss pedagogist Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827).[citation needed]
Geological map
Maclure visit to Spain in 1808; this visit ended abruptly by the outbreak of the Peninsular War. After his return home in 1808 he commenced the self-imposed task of making a geological survey of the United States. Almost every state in the Union was traversed and mapped by him, the Allegheny Mountains being crossed and recrossed some 50 times.[8] The results of his unaided labours were submitted to the American Philosophical Society in a memoir entitled Observations on the Geology of the United States explanatory of a Geological Map, and published in the Society's Transactions, together with the first geological map of that country,[7] Maclure's 1809 Geological Map.[9] This antedates William Smith's geological map of England and Wales (with part of Scotland) by six years, although it was constructed using a different classification of rocks.
Maclure's Geological Map of the United States, published in 1817
In 1812, while in France, Maclure became a member of the newly founded Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). In 1817 Maclure became president of the ANSP, a post he held for the next 22 years.[10]
In 1817, while residing in Europe, Maclure brought before the same society a revised edition of his map, and his great geological memoir, which he had issued separately, with some additional matter, under the title Observations on the Geology of the United States of America.[11][12] Subsequent surveys have corroborated the general accuracy of Maclure's observations.[7]
Later years
In 1820 he visited Spain, because since the restoration of the Constitution in July 1820, Spain was the only liberal country in Europe. He attempted to establish an agricultural college near the city of Alicante, but en 1823 the invasion of the French army, the Hundred Thousand Sons of Sait Louis, imposed absolutism again and in May 2, 1824, he abandoned Alicante.[10] Returning to America in 1824, he settled for some years at New Harmony, Indiana, seeking to develop his vision of the agricultural college. Failing health ultimately required him to relinquish the attempt and to seek (in 1827) a more congenial climate in Mexico.[7] There, in 1840, at San Ángel, he died aged 77. His will provided for a trust fund consisting of most of his property. Under the terms of the Trust, 160 workingmen's libraries were established. The treatment of Maclure's burial site in Mexico was bereft of the honors due the respected humanitarian and geologist:
The burial site of William Maclure
At the distance of a few feet from them, repose the remains of William McClure, a countryman, dear to American science. The Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, of which he was so long the President and benefactor, erected a small marble monument over his grave, and surrounded it with an iron rail. A short time before I left Mexico, the rail was torn down, the monument upset, and, on the same night, the newly-buried body of a Scotchman was disinterred, stripped of its clothes, and thrown over the wall of the cemetery!
Maclure, W. 1817. Observations on the geology of the West India Islands, from Barbadoes to Santa Cruz, inclusive. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(6), 134–149. (BHL link)
Maclure, W. 1818. Essay on the formation of rocks, or an inquiry into the probable origin of their present form and structure. Part 1. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(7), 261–276. (BHL link)
Maclure, W. 1818. Essay on the formation of rocks, or an inquiry into the probable origin of their present form and structure. Part 2. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(7), 285–310. (BHL link)
Maclure, W. 1818. Essay on the formation of rocks, or an inquiry into the probable origin of their present form and structure. Part 3. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(7), 327–345. (BHL link)
Maclure, W. 1818. On the geology of the United States of North America, with remarks on the probable effects that may be produced by the decomposition of the different classes of rocks, on the nature and fertility of soils: applied to the different states of the Union agreeably to the accompanying geological map. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society new series 1, 1–92. (BHL link)
Primary sources
The European Journals of William Maclure[15] was a monumental book, describing, charting, and chronicling much of the features of Europe.
^Bantu, Richard E. (1948). "New Harmony's Golden Years". Indiana Magazine of History (1): 26. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
^Geikie, Archibald (1905). The Founders of Geology (2nd ed.). London and New York: Macmillan and Co., Limited. pp. 458. Retrieved 3 February 2019 – via Internet Archive.
^Merrill, George P. (1906). Contributions to the History of American Geology. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. p. 217. hdl:2027/mdp.39015066939177.
^Merrill, G.P. (1904) Contributions to the history of American geology. Rep. US Natn. Mus. For 1904, Gov Printing Office, Washington D.C., 189-733, 1906
^Donachie, I. William Maclure: Science, Pestalozzianism and Reform in Europe and the United States Accessed 26 August 2012
^ a b c dOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Maclure, William". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 263.
^Page 39 in Greene, J.C. and Burke, J.G. (1978) The Science of Minerals in the Age of Jefferson. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 68, No. 4, pp. 1-113
^Maclure, William (1809). "Observations on the Geology of the United States, explanatory of a Geological Map". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 6: 411-428. Retrieved 29 January 2019 – via Internet Archive.
^ a bCalvo Rebollar, Miguel (2011). "William Maclure, glauberite and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia". Mineral Up. 2 (5): 6–7.
^Maclure, William (1818). "Observations on the Geology of the United States of North America; With Remarks on the Probable Effects That May Be Produced by the Decomposition of the Different Classes of Rocks on the Nature and Fertility of Soils: Applied to the Different States of the Union, Agreeably to the Accompanying Geological Map". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 1: 1–91. doi:10.2307/1004895. hdl:2027/uc1.32106008399278. JSTOR 1004895.
^Maclure, William (1817). Observations on the Geology of the United States of America; with Some Remarks on the Effect Produced on the Nature and Fertility of the Soils, By the Decomposition of the Different Classes of Rocks; With An Application to the Fertility of Every State in the Union, In Reference to the Accompanying Geological Map; With Two Plates. Philadelphia: Printed for the Author by Abraham Small and sold by him and J. Melish. Retrieved 29 January 2019 – via Internet Archive. William Maclure.
^Mexico the Way It Was and Is.(1847) p.158 at archive.org
^J. Percy Moore (1947) William Maclure - Scientist and Humanitarian Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 91, No. 3. pp.234-249
^The European Journals of William Maclure. William Maclure, edited by John S. Doskey. Diane Publishing, (1988), ISBN 0-87169-171-X, 9780871691712, 815 pages.
^Le Sueur, C. A. (1818). "Observations on a new genus of fossil shells". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 1 (7): 310–313.
^Benjamin Eli Smith (1899). The Century dictionary and cyclopedia. The Century co. pp. 3562–.
Morton, M.D., Samuel George (1841). A Memoir of William Maclure, Esq., Late President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Read July 1, 1841 and Published by Direction of the Academy. Philadelphia: T.K. & P.G. Collins. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Internet Archive.
Harvey L. Carter, "William Maclure," Indiana Magazine of History, vol. 31, no. 2 (June 1935), pp. 83–91. In JSTOR
Alberto Gil Novales, Maclure en España. Iniciativas de Cultura, 1981.
Donald E. Pitzer, "William Maclure's Boatload of Knowledge: Science and Education into the Midwest", Indiana Magazine of History, vol. 94, (1998), pp. 110–135.
Leonard Warren, Maclure of New Harmony: Scientist, Progressive Educator, Radical Philanthropist. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009.
External links
Biography of William Maclure by James S. Aber
William Maclure at University of Evansville
New Harmony Workingmen's Institute, legacy of William Maclure at University of Evansville
History of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
New Harmony Scientists, Educators, Writers & Artists at University of Evansville
"Thomas Jefferson to William Maclure, 2 November 1817". Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 12, 1 September 1817 to 21 April 1818, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, pp. 165–166.] Retrieved 30 January 2019.