Edward Hitchcock
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Edward Hitchcock (24 May 1793 – 27 February 1864) was the third President of Amherst College, from 1845 to 1854. Born to poor parents, he was largely self-educated and in 1821 was ordained as a Congregationalist pastor. A few years later 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 to 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, 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. 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 (http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=6730fe66e24262cb615a418fad16efb8;rgn=full%20text;idno=AFY7120.0001.001;view=image;seq=0017) (Boston, 1851). This work was inspired by Hitchcock's conviction that the stories in the Judeo-Christian Bible concerning the early history of the Earth were actual happenings and that all the accumulating scientific evidence required to be interpreted in the light of those scriptural truths. Quote: "(Geology) shows us equally with revelation, that the existing races of animals and plants on the globe were created at a comparatively recent epoch, and that man commenced his existence not more than six thousand years ago." Geologists today would conclude that he thus undermined most of his credibility as a dispassionate interpreter of overwhelming geological evidence to the contrary.
Hitchcock left a small mark in paleontology. He published papers on fossilized tracks in the Connecticut Valley that were later associated with dinosaurs, but more importantly, he was responsible for naming one of the earliest dinosaurs discovered. He called it the Megadactylus polyzelus and thought, with a certain prescience, that it might be a bird, though it was later reclassified as the type specimen of Anchisaurus polyzelus (ACM 41109), a prosauropod.
External links
- An article (http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/paleontology/pub/grd3_3/spar1.htm), "Early Discoveries of Dinosaurs From North America and the Significance of the Springfield Armory Dinosaur Site", by Vincent L. Santucci.
- A [1] (http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=6730fe66e24262cb615a418fad16efb8;rgn=full%20text;idno=AFY7120.0001.001;view=image;seq=0017), The Religion of Geology and its Connected Sciences by Edward Hitchcockde:Edward Hitchcock