Edward Hitchcock (May 24, 1793 – February 27, 1864) was an American
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
and the third President of
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...
(1845–1854).
Life
Born to poor parents, he attended newly founded
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an elite coeducational preparatory school in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1797, it is one of the oldest secondary schools in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association, the Ten Schools Admissi ...
, where he was later principal, from 1815 to 1818. In 1821 he was ordained as a
Congregationalist pastor and served as pastor of the Congregational Church in
Conway, Massachusetts
Conway is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,761 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Conway was first settled by English colonists ...
, 1821–1825. He left the ministry to become Professor of Chemistry and
Natural History at Amherst College. He held that post from 1825 to 1845, serving as Professor of
Natural Theology and Geology from 1845 until his death in 1864. In 1845, Hitchcock became President of the College, a post he held until 1854. As president, Hitchcock was responsible for Amherst's recovery from severe financial difficulties. He is also credited with developing the college's scientific resources and establishing its reputation for scientific teaching.
In addition to his positions at Amherst, Hitchcock was a well-known early geologist. He ran the first geological survey of
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, 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
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...
. 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."
Hitchcock left his mark in
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
. He discovered some of the first fossil fishes in the United States. He published papers on fossilized
track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
s in the
Connecticut Valley
The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Isl ...
, including
Eubrontes
''Eubrontes'' is the name of fossilised dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland), USA, India and ...
and
Otozoum, that were later associated with dinosaurs, though he believed, with a certain prescience, that they were made by gigantic ancient birds. In the
Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet
The Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet is a collection of fossil footmarks assembled between 1836 and 1865 by Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864), noted American geologist, state geologist of Massachusetts, United States, and President of Amherst College. ...
he established a remarkable collection of fossil footmarks. His son,
Edward "Doc" Hitchcock Jr., named one of the earliest dinosaurs discovered in North America and the United States, ''Megadactylus polyzelus''. Later it was
reclassified as the
type specimen of ''
Anchisaurus polyzelus'' (ACM 41109), a
prosauropod. This botanist is denoted by the
author abbreviation E.Hitchc. when
citing a
botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Interna ...
.
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
The Holyoke Range or Mount Holyoke Range is a traprock mountain range located in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. It is a sub-range of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connec ...
, one of the mountains there,
Mount Hitchcock
Mount Hitchcock is a mountain located in South Hadley and Hadley, Massachusetts. It reaches 1,002 feet (305 m) at its peak in South Hadley. The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail runs through it as it does for all the Holyoke Range. To the west is Seven ...
, was named after him.
He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1834.
From 1856 to 1861, Hitchcock was the State Geologist for Vermont.
In 1841, he was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
His collections, a bust and portrait can be viewed at the
Amherst College Museum of Natural History
The Beneski Museum of Natural History, Amherst College is located on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. It showcases fossils and minerals collected locally and abroad, many by past and present students and professors. The ...
. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst holds his papers.
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 "
tree of life
The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A Hist ...
" is the earliest known version that incorporates paleontological and geological information.
[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
Hitchcock was an advocate of
gap creationism. Hitchcock saw
God as the agent of change. He explicitly rejected
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
and a religious
six-day creation. He perceived that new species were introduced by a Deity at the right time in the history of the earth.
The chart is present in all editions between 1840 and 1859. After
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
(1859) published his ''
On the Origin of Species
''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
'', a tree of life image was generally interpreted as an evolutionary tree. In the 1860 edition of ''Elementary Geology'' Hitchcock dropped the chart. In 1863 Hitchcock wrote an article in which he criticized Darwin’s theory of
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
. After his death in 1864, his son
Charles Henry Hitchcock
Charles Henry Hitchcock (August 23, 1836 – November 5, 1919) was an American geologist.
Life
Hitchcock was born August 23, 1836, in Amherst, Massachusetts. His father was Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864) who was a professor of geology and natural ...
(1836–1919) published a new edition (1870) also without a paleontological chart. Charles then published books and articles of his own.
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
The Beneski Museum of Natural History, Amherst College is located on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. It showcases fossils and minerals collected locally and abroad, many by past and present students and professors. The ...
*
Daniel Davis Jr. - electrical device inventor
*
Connecticut River Valley trackways The Connecticut River Valley trackways are the fossilised footprints of a number of Early Jurassic dinosaurs or other archosauromorphs from the sandstone beds of Massachusetts and Connecticut. The finding has the distinction of being among the ...
*
Tree of Life
The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A Hist ...
References
Further reading
*Guralnick, Stanley M. (1972). ''Geology and Religion Before Darwin: The Case of Edward Hitchcock, Theologian and Geologist (1793-1864)''. ''
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
''. 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
*
*
"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.
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchcock, Edward
1793 births
1864 deaths
American Christian creationists
American Congregationalist ministers
American geologists
American paleontologists
Amherst College faculty
Botanists with author abbreviations
Catastrophism
Deerfield Academy alumni
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Heads of Deerfield Academy
Middlebury College alumni
People from Deerfield, Massachusetts
Calvinist and Reformed ministers
Yale University alumni
Presidents of Amherst College
19th-century American clergy