James Dwight Dana

James Dwight Dana (February 12 1813–April 14 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist and zoologist. He made important studies of mountain-building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structure of continents and oceans.

Dana was born in Utica, New York. He showed an early interest in science, which had been fostered by Fay Edgerton, a teacher in the Utica high school, and in 1830 he entered Yale College, in order to study under Benjamin Silliman the elder. Graduating in 1833, for the next two years he was teacher of mathematics to midshipmen in the Navy, and sailed to the Mediterranean while engaged in his duties.

In 1836 and 1837 he was assistant to Professor Silliman in the chemical laboratory at Yale, and then, for four years, acted as mineralogist and geologist of the United States Exploring Expedition, commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes, in the Pacific Ocean. His labours in preparing the reports of his explorations occupied parts of thirteen years after his return to America in 1842. His notebooks from the four years of travel contained fifty sketches, maps, and diagrams, including views of both Mount Shasta and Castle Crags. Dana's sketch of Mount Shasta was engraved in 1849 for publication in the American Journal of Science and Art along with a lengthy article based on Dana's 1841 geological notes. In the article he described in scientific terms the rocks, minerals, and geology of the Shasta region. As far as is known, his sketch of Mount Shasta became the second view of the mountain ever published.

In 1844 he again became a resident of New Haven, married the daughter of Professor Benjamin Silliman, and in 1850, on the resignation of the latter, was appointed Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology in Yale College, a position which he held until 1892. In 1846 he became joint editor and during the later years of his life he was chief editor of the American Journal of Science and Arts (founded in 1818 by Silliman), to which he was a constant contributor, principally of articles on geology and mineralogy.

The reason for the 1849 publishing of his geology journal of Mount Shasta was undoubtedly in response to the gold rush publicity. Dana was the pre-eminent U.S. geologist of his time, and he also was one of the few trained observers anywhere who had first hand knowledge of the northern California terrain. He had previously written that there was likelihood that gold was to be found all along the route between the Umpqua River in Oregon and the Sacramento Valley. He was probably deluged with inquiries about the Shasta region, and was forced to publish in more detail some advice to the would-be gold miners.

Dana's best known books were his System of Mineralogy (1837) and Manual of Geology (1862). A bibliographical list of his writings shows 214 titles of books and papers, beginning in 1835 with a paper on the conditions of Vesuvius in 1834. His reports on Zoophytes, on the Geology of the Pacific Area, and on Crustacea, summarizing his work on the Wilkes Expedition, appeared from 1846 onwards. Other works included Manual of Mineralogy (1848), afterwards entitled Manual of Mineralogy and Lithology (ed. 4, 1887); and Corals and Coral Islands (1872; ed. 2, 1890). In 1887, Dana revisited the Hawaiian Islands, and the results of his further investigations were published in a quarto volume in 1890, entitled Characteristics of Volcanoes.

He was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 1877, the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society of London in 1874 and the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1882.

A crater on Mars and a Dorsum (wrinkle-ridge system) on the Moon are named in his honor.

Note on the Manual of Geology by J. D. Dana: This standard university text on mineralogy has been continuously revised and updated (for many years under the title of Dana's Manual of Geology) and currently is available in its 22nd edition under the title of Manual of Mineral Science revised by Cornelis Klein. Many old school geologists continue to refer to the book reverently as Dana.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)