Information compiled by Carol Ann McCormick, May 2007
The University of North
Carolina has to date catalogued about 40 botanical specimens
collected by Charles Henry Hitchcock. Most are from Florida
and are undated. The few that are dated were collected 1888
- 1891.
It seems possible that he
knew another botanical collector, Nathan
Barrows, M.D., since they both collected in the Winter Park,
Florida area in the 1890's. Barrows' specimens are on Dartmouth
College Herbarium labels, where Hitchcock was a faculty member.
Both Hitchcock's and Barrows' specimens came to NCU via the
Jesup Herbarium of Dartmouth College as a gift in 2002.
Hitchcock seems to have
been interested in a wide variety of plants, as he collected
not only ferns, but also shrubs, trees, and orchids.
SOURCE FOR THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION: http://docs.unh.edu/Hitchcock/pages/index.htm#who
Charles H. Hitchcock
(1836-1919) served as New Hampshire State Geologist from 1868
to 1878. Hitchcock’s survey produced a three-volume work,
“The Geology of New Hampshire” (1874-1878), and the
folio, “Atlas to Accompany the Geology…” (1878).
The maps in the atlas comprise the first detailed, comprehensive
map of the bedrock and surficial geology of the state.
Hitchcock began teaching at Dartmouth College
in 1868 and held the Hall Professorship of Geology and Mineralogy
from 1869-1908. From 1868 until 1893 the predecessor of the University
of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and
the Mechanic Arts, was located in Hanover. The two colleges shared
facilities in Culver Hall.
Hitchcock’s students nicknamed him
“Type” because of the fact that he described and named
so many of the rock units in the state and designated their “type
localities” (the places where they are well exposed in their
most typical forms). Most of these rock formation names are still
in use.
He is an exemplar of the 19th century geologist
who made contributions in a wide range of fields. His accomplishments
include fieldwork in paleontology, bedrock and glacial geology,
economic geology, and volcanology. He also synthesized others’
research resulting in compilation of significant maps at both
state and national levels.
Note: http://docs.unh.edu/Hitchcock/pages/index.htm#who
contains an image of Hitchcock from the frontispiece to the Dec.
1898 issue of "Appleton's Popular Science Monthly".
SOURCE FOR THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION: http://docs.unh.edu/Hitchcock/pages/more.htm
Early Years
Hitchcock was born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
He was the son of Edward Hitchcock (Professor of geology and natural
theology and later President of Amherst College), and of Orra
White Hitchcock, a classically educated woman and illustrator
of much of her husband’s work. Charles attended Amherst
College and initially considered entering the ministry.
The elder Hitchcock (1793-1864) was noted
for his study of Connecticut River Valley geology, especially
its dinosaur tracks and glacial features. The books and maps published
by the Massachusetts Geological Survey in the 1830’s and
1840’s during Edward Hitchcock’s tenure as Massachusetts
State Geologist served as models for later surveys. When Edward
served as Vermont State Geologist from 1856 to 1861, Charles was
one of his chief assistants. The results of the Vermont survey,
a two volume “Report on the Geology of Vermont: Descriptive,
Theoretical, Economical, and Scenographical” were published
in 1861. In the same year, Charles, following in his father’s
footsteps, was appointed State Geologist of Maine. Charles was
co-author with Ezekiel Holmes of two reports resulting from this
appointment: ”Report upon the Natural History and Geology
of the State of Maine” (1861 and 1862).
The New Hampshire Survey and Hitchcock’s
Later Studies of New Hampshire Geology
In 1866-1867, Charles studied at the Royal
School of Mines in London, examined fossils in the British Museum,
and visited glaciers in Switzerland. On his return, he became
State Geologist of New Hampshire and Professor of geology and
mineralogy at Dartmouth College. The New Hampshire Survey took
ten years, and in 1874 the first of the three volumes of “The
Geology of New Hampshire: a Report Comprising the Results of Explorations
Ordered by the Legislature” was published. In 1878, the
“Atlas” that is the subject of this web site was published
to accompany the survey’s report.
This geological survey of New Hampshire
was notable in several respects. Having worked on the earlier
Vermont survey, Hitchcock extended his work east from Vermont
into New Hampshire. The survey delineated the major rock units
in the state and, concentrating on areas of economic interest,
studied the gold deposits of the Ammonoosuc district in detail.
The overall pattern of rock and sediment distribution on the maps
of the “Atlas” and the locations and physical descriptions
of features in the “Geology” generally hold up well
over a hundred years later. Although still somewhat controversial
in the 1870’s, Hitchcock’s report and atlas recognize
the dominant role that glaciation played in forming the State’s
landscape and deposits of surficial materials (sand, gravel, and
other unconsolidated materials).
As might be expected, the analysis of the
origins of rock units is more dated. In the late 19th century
many principles that we now take for granted were not well understood.
For instance, Hitchcock recognized that igneous rocks underlie
large areas of the state. However, some of his theories for their
origins are far off the mark. He envisioned the granites forming
as lava erupting in an oceanic setting rather than forming through
intrusions of liquid magma into older rocks deep beneath the Earth’s
surface.
As part of the survey’s activities, Hitchcock created the
meteorological station on the summit of Mount Washington. In Hitchcock’s
day, the station telegraphed its reports from the mountain. Today,
weather observations from Mount Washington http://www.mountwashington.org/
remain an important source of meteorological data, not only for
their role in predicting daily weather, but also for more extensive
climatological and environmental research projects.
New Hampshire Topographic Relief
Models
Hitchcock and NH survey members created
several large relief maps depicting the topography of the state.
A. L. King (1985a, 1985b, 1990) and individuals at the NH Division
of Historical Resources and the NH State Library have researched
the history of these relief maps.
The relief model on display in James Hall
on the UNH campus maps is about 15 feet in length from north to
south (a scale of one mile to the inch). It was initially housed
at Dartmouth and moved to Durham in 1893-1894. It is probably
the map referred to by Hitchcock in his New Hampshire survey report
as having been begun in 1870. Topography is shown for both Vermont
and New Hampshire, while Hitchcock’s bedrock geology is
only included for New Hampshire. Some of this bedrock information
was revised in 1934.
The New Hampshire State Library in Concord
has a New Hampshire model at the same scale showing only topography
and political information. It also includes some 20th century
revisions. This model was commissioned by the NH legislature in
1876 and was originally placed in the NH State House. In 1990,
it was rediscovered after more than thirty years in a NH Department
of Transportation storage area.
Dartmouth College has a third model, similar
to the one at UNH. It was created by Hitchcock to replace the
one that accompanied UNH to Durham. This model has not been revised
and depicts Hitchcock’s own interpretation of the geology
of the state. It is not currently on display (February 2002) because
of the ongoing renovations of Dartmouth’s Fairchild Tower.
Hitchcock’s Other Activities
Concurrent with and following his studying
New Hampshire geology and teaching at Dartmouth, Hitchcock evaluated
ore deposits of many types, identified glacial features throughout
the northeast, and did extensive work with volcanic rocks in Hawaii.
He is credited as being the first (in 1868) to suggest that Long
Island was formed as part of the terminal moraine of a continental
glacier. In 1872, as part of the Ninth Census, Hitchcock compiled,
with W.P. Blake, the first geologic map of the entire United States.
He published several other versions of this map.
The range of geography covered by Hitchcock’s
research (New England to Florida and the Caribbean to the U.S.
Southwest, Pacific Northwest and Hawaii) would be common for a
geologist today. However, the breadth of his research and publications
is less typical of modern more highly specialized scientists.
Such breadth is very much a reflection of the opportunities in
the still relatively new discipline of geology in the latter part
of the 19th century.
Selected Additional Sources About
Hitchcock
University of New Hampshire Library call numbers follow the citations.
Anon., 1898. Sketch of Charles Henry Hitchcock.
Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly: v. 54, p. 260- 268 and
portrait preceding p. 145.
UNH: Periodicals / Q1 / .P64.
Aldrich, M.L., 2001. Orra White Hitchcock
(1796-1863) geological illustrator: Another Belle of Amherst.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs: v. 33 (6),
p. 246.
UNH: Periodicals / QE1 / .G19.
Hitchcock, C.H. and Blake, W.P., 1872.
Geological Map of the United States Compiled for the 9th Census.
1 sheet. In: Ninth Census, Volume 3. The Statistics of the Wealth
and Industry of the United States.
UNH: Docs Reference / C3.223/0:1870/v.3.
Hitchcock, C.H., 1874-1878. The Geology
of New Hampshire: A Report Comprising the Results of Explorations
Ordered by the Legislature. Concord, NH: State Printer. 5 pt.
in 3 v.
UNH: Special Collections or Loan-Call / QE139 .A16 / 1874.
Hitchcock, C.H., 1878. Atlas Accompanying
the Report of the Geology of New Hampshire. New York: Julius Bien.
17 leaves.
UNH: Map Room Historic Maps and Special Collections / QE139 /
.A16 / 1874.
[This is the original used to produce the images at this web site.]
King, A.L., 1985a. Hitchcock’s relief
models of New Hampshire and Vermont. Dartmouth College Library
Bulletin: new series v. 25 (2), p. 101-104.
UNH: Special Collections New Hamp/ Z881 / .H25b.
King, A.L., 1985b. Hitchcock’s “lost”
relief map. Dartmouth College Library Bulletin: new series v.
26 (1), p. 31-36.
UNH: Special Collections New Hamp / Z881 / .H25b.
King, A.L., 1990. Hitchcock’s relief
map of New Hampshire: A new discovery. Dartmouth College Library
Bulletin: new series v. 31 (1), p. 32-33.
UNH: Special Collections New Hamp / Z881 / H25b.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Nov1990/LB-N90-King.htm
accessed 2/2/2002.
Naslund, C.T., 1985. “Type”
Hitchcock: Dartmouth professor, New England mapmaker, and nineteenth-century
scientist. Dartmouth College Library Bulletin: new series v. 25
(2), p. 92-100.
UNH: Special Collections New Hamp / Z881 / .H25b.
Newell, J.R., 2001. The Hitchcock family:
A case study in patterns of geological training and employment
in Antebellum America. Geological Society of America Abstracts
with Programs: v. 33 (6), p. 245-246.
UNH: Periodicals / QE 1 / .G19.
Upham, W., 1920. Memorial of Charles Henry
Hitchcock. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America: v. 31,
p. 64-80.
UNH: Periodicals / QE 1 / .G2.
Waterman, L. and G. Waterman, 1989. Forest
and Crag: History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the
Northeast Mountains. Appalachian Mountain Club.
UNH: Level 4 / GV 199.42 / .N38 W38 / 1989.
Waterman, L. and G. Waterman, 1994. Charles
H. Hitchcock and the Geological Survey of New Hampshire (part
1) [excerpted with permission from Waterman, L. and G. Waterman,
1989. Forest and Crag: History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure
in the Northeast Mountains. Appalachian Mountain Club]. The Granite
State Geologist: n. 7, January 1994.
http://nhgs.org/NHGS/TGSG.07.html accessed 1/30/2002.
Waterman, L. and G. Waterman, 1994. Charles
H. Hitchcock and the Geological Survey of New Hampshire (part
1) [excerpted with permission from Waterman, L. and G. Waterman,
1989. Forest and Crag: History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure
in the Northeast Mountains. Appalachian Mountain Club]. The Granite
State Geologist: n. 8, April 1994.
http://nhgs.org/NHGS/TGSG.08.html accessed 1/30/2002.
Use and Reproduction
The materials on this web site have been made available for use
in research, teaching, and private study. For these purposes,
you may reproduce (print, make photocopies, or download) materials
from this web site without prior permission, on the condition
that you provide proper attribution of the source in all copies
(see copyright statement below). Although we do not require you
to contact us in advance for these purposes, we do appreciate
hearing from teachers, students, and researchers who are using
our resources in interesting ways (please send e-mail to thelmat@cisunix.unh.edu).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acknowledgements:
This brief summary of Hitchcock’s life and work is drawn
from the sources listed in the section “Additional Sources”.
Dr. Wallace A. Bothner and Dr. Peter J.
Thompson, Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire,
made valuable suggestions, as did Linda Johnson, Head of the UNH
Library Government Documents Department.
Russell Bastedo, NH State Curator, and
Michael York, NH State Librarian, provided information about the
topographical models of New Hampshire. Barbara DeFelice and David
A. Pantalony of Dartmouth College reviewed this text and contacted
Allen King regarding details about Dartmouth’s topographic
model.
Meredith Ricker, Government Documents Department,
University of New Hampshire Library, scanned the images and created
the web site.
Text by Thelma Thompson, Government Documents
Librarian, University of New Hampshire Library, August 20, 2002.
Timothy Frye, Technical Support.
Government Documents Department | Digital
Library Project | UNH Library
Send questions or comments to Thelma Thompson
at thelmat@cisunix.unh.edu.
© 2003 University of New Hampshire
Library. All rights reserved.
