Author: Amos EatonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Amos Eaton and John Torrey Correspondence, 1816-1840
Author: Amos EatonAmos Eaton and John Torrey Correspondence
Author: Amos EatonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Barite
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Correspondence from Amos Eaton to John Torrey, dated 1816-1840. The correspondence begins the year after Eaton's release from prison, while he is living in New Haven, Connecticut, studying natural science ("I intend to know all that can be known of mineralogy and botany in this country"), and working on a book with Yale professor Eli Ives. Shortly after the death of his second wife in late 1816 Eaton relocates to Massachusetts, and begins a period he calls "this wandering life," travelling to deliver limited series' of popular lectures in botany, chemistry, and geology throughout New York State and New England. His letters are tart, opinionated, affectionate, and a touch paranoid. His fondness for Torrey is clearly and continually evident, even when, alarmed by Torrey's suggestion that he too embark on a series of popular lectures, he pragmatically lists the younger man's strengths and weaknesses: "I will tell you what you are and are not, in a few words ... Your personal presence is not commanding—Your language and manner are not prepossessing—Your literature has not a classical polish. Then what has raised you above every individual of your years in North America? It is your discriminating powers, your indefatigable research, set off to the best advantage by that modest confidence for which you are distinguished." Clearly stung by what he sees as an ongoing conspiracy by the same "enemies" who contributed to his earlier incarceration, Eaton often requests Torrey's discretion when discussing a new project, and wonders aloud what their reaction will be to his successes. His modest accounting of his own talent ("I can bring down the labors of the learned to the capacities of illiterate boys and girls as well as anyone") doesn't dim his enthusiam for geology and botany, or for teaching his students, both male and female. He writes with great enthusiasm of new acquaintences he esteems, like Chester Dewey and Charles Upham Shepard; conversely, when his gimlet eye lands on those he finds wanting ("What is the matter with Rafinesque?"), like William Cooper ("an obsolete blackguard"), his pronouncements are scathing. Later years see a slowing in the frequency of the letters, particularly after Torrey's marriage and the end of Eaton's "wandering" in Troy, New York, where he founds the Rensselaer School. In later years too, there are painful episodes of friction between Eaton and Torrey's protege, Asa Gray. In the midst of a long tirade, however, Eaton pauses to reassure Torrey of his undying affection: "We are like some old husband and wife," he write in 1831, "who scold each other, fret, snark, &c., but when either is in distress the other feels it to the heart." Obsolete and unresolved plant and mineral names mentioned include Cardamine spathulata, Cimicifuga serpentaria, Convallaria umbellata, Draba arabiformis, Hydroglossum, Hydrophyllum virginicum, Kalmis galuca, Monotropa procera, Orchis blephariglottis, Polygonum natans, Veronica virginica, and Schoharite.
John Torrey and Amos Eaton Correspondence
Author: John TorreyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botanical specimens
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Correspondence from John Torrey to Amos Eaton, dated 1818, discussing the distribution of Eaton's books to booksellers; the difficulty of identifying a shipment of specimens Eaton recently sent ("You send me such poor specimens of your plants that if I did not know them well I should have never been able to determine them"); work on Eaton's Manual; and other botanical matters, as well as Torrey's recent graduation from medical school: "I have now got my sheepskin & have full powers granted me to kill & destroy in any part of the earth-- I expect soon to open an office in the City." The second document is titled "Remarks on Eaton's translations of Acharius," with notes on a number of lichen genera; it is undated, and may have originally been enclosed with the letter. Unresolved plant names mentioned include Smyrnium aureum.
Amos Eaton Papers
Author: Amos EatonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
The Amos Eaton papers (MC 11) consist of correspondence, Eaton's herbarium (1830), his geological journal (1830-1836), journal fragments, an 1821 deed to the Old Bank Place (the original home of the Rensselaer School), two instruments used by him (steel mineralogist's forceps and a bone letter opener/paper folder), three geological survey drawings, and an undated sketch and comments on women's fashions. Correspondents include William Aiken, Lewis C. Beck, William Marcy, Oliver Steele, John Torrey, Silas Wright, and founder of the Troy Female Seminary, Emma Willard. The collection also contains correspondence among Eaton family members, including Almira Eaton, Amos B. Eaton, Daniel Cady Eaton, Hezekiah Hulbert Eaton, Timothy D. Eaton, Sarah C. Eaton, William B. Eaton, Typhena Cady, and Nathan Halsey; many of the letters are also available as typed transcriptions.
DeWitt Clinton and Amos Eaton
Author: David I. SpanagelPublisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421411059
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
How did geology and politics inform scientific ideas and contribute to New York's prominence in the early nineteenth century? David I. Spanagel explores the origins of American geology and the culture that promoted it in nineteenth-century New York. Focusing on Amos Eaton, the educator and amateur scientist who founded the Rensselaer School, and DeWitt Clinton, the masterful politician who led the movement for the Erie Canal, Spanagel shows how a cluster of assumptions about the peculiar landscape and entrepreneurial spirit of New York came to define the Empire State. In so doing, he sheds light on a particularly innovative and fruitful period of interplay among science, politics, art, and literature in American history.
H.H. Eaton and John Torrey Correspondence, 1831
Author: Eaton Papers
Author: George F. EatonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educators
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Correspondence with various members of the Eaton family, 1819-1940 (28 letters). Correspondents include Amos Eaton (first senior professor of the Rensselaer School), Almira Eaton, Sarah C. Eaton, Daniel C. Eaton, Timothy D. Eaton, Typhena Cady, John Torrey, and Emma Willard (founder of the Troy Female Seminary). Also, two publications by or about Amos Eaton, and two instruments used by him (steel mineralogist's forceps and a bone letter opener, n.d.).
Amos Eaton
Author: Ethel M. McAllisterPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512817899
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 616
Book Description
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Amos Eaton
Author: Harlan Hoge BallardLewis Allison Edwards and John Torrey Correspondence
Author: Lewis Allison EdwardsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botanical specimens
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Correspondence from Lewis Allison Edwards to John Torrey, dated June 29, 1848. Edwards is writing in replay to Torrey's letter of thanks for specimens previously sent by Edwards through Amos Beebe Eaton. He apologizes for delaying his reply-- he had planned to send more specimens with his letter, but orders have come down for his unit to move north to California and Santa Fe. Edwards assures Torrey he hopes to send him more plants in the coming year.