JAMES DWIGHT DANA AND THE EMERGENCE OF PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES

JULIE R. NEWELL

Department of Social and International Studies, Southern Polytechnic State University, 1100 S. Marietta Parkway, Marietta, Georgia 30060-2896

ABSTRACT. James Dwight Dana (1813-1895) was one of the most prolific and influential American geologists of the nineteenth century. He also established patterns and set precedents that contributed to the establishment of the American geological and scientific communities and the possibility of pursuing geology as a career. At the same time, Dana's career was unique in several ways.

The son of a New York merchant family, Dana struggled to prove that science could be a career for a man required to earn his own way in the world. In a time when federal funding for science was both controversial and relatively rare, Dana obtained a paid position with the United States South Pacific (Wilkes's) Exploring Expedition. This provided him with income, unparalleled experience literally around the globe, and, in the expedition reports, a publisher for the works that would make him a scientist of international repute.

Dana moved from working on the Expedition reports to a specially created professorship at Yale, where he spent the rest of his career. His position at Yale provided an income and a teaching load light enough for him to carry on myriad other tasks. Among these were the editorship of the American Journal of Science, authorship of numerous professional papers and teaching texts, and the maintenance of a large network of correspondence. These activities ensured his continued influence and importance in the American scientific community and allowed him to elucidate a uniquely American geology and defend it as the proper model for geologists around the world.

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