John Strong Newberry
Encyclopedia
John Strong Newberry (December 22, 1822 – December 7, 1892) was a American geologist
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, physician, explorer, author, and a member of the Megatherium Club
Megatherium Club
The Megatherium Club was founded by William Stimpson. It was a group of Washington, D.C.-based scientists who were attracted to that city by the Smithsonian Institution's rapidly growing collection, from 1857 to 1866....
at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
He was born at Windsor
Windsor, Connecticut
Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....
, Conn.
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
Most of his early life was spent in the Western Reserve
Connecticut Western Reserve
The Connecticut Western Reserve was land claimed by Connecticut from 1662 to 1800 in the Northwest Territory in what is now northeastern Ohio.-History:...
of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. He graduated from Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
in 1846 and from Cleveland Medical School in 1848. After two years of study in medicine and paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
he established his medical practice in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
(1851).
In 1855 he joined an exploring expedition under Lieutenant Williamson, sent out by the War Department to examine the country between San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
. In 1857–58 he acted as geologist to an expedition headed by Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives
Joseph Christmas Ives
Joseph Christmas Ives , soldier, botanist, explorer of the Colorado River in 1858.Ives was born in New York City in 1828 and was a graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1852. As a Lieutenant from 1853 to 1854 he was appointed by the U.S. Army to the Topographical Engineers as assistant...
, sent out to explore the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
, and he served as naturalist on an expedition in 1859 under Captain Macombe, which explored southwestern Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and adjacent parts of Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, finding the remains of the dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
Dystrophaeus
Dystrophaeus
Dystrophaeus is the name given to an extinct genus of dinosaur from the early Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic that existed around 155.7 Ma. It was perhaps a diplodocoid sauropod. Its fossils were found in the Morrison Formation of Utah....
. He was the first geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
known to visit the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
. He was called to a professorship at Columbian (now George Washington
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
) University in 1857.
He was elected a member of the United States Sanitary Commission
United States Sanitary Commission
The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...
on 14 June 1861. His medical knowledge and experience in the army led to his becoming an important member of that commission. The first sanitary inspection of troops in the west was made at Cairo, Illinois
Cairo, Illinois
Cairo is the southernmost city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The rivers converge at Fort Defiance State Park, an American Civil War fort that was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant...
, by him, in connection with Rev. Henry W. Bellows and Dr. William H. Mussey. In September 1861, he resigned from the Army and became secretary of the Western Department of the Sanitary Commission, having supervision of all the work of the commission in the Mississippi Valley, with headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
.
The first distributing depot in the west was opened in Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, on 8 October and was the source from which the hospitals at Wheeling, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, and other military points were supplied with a large part of their equipment. Dr. Newberry organized the whole of the comprehensive machinery of the commission in the large section that was committed to his care, and by his practical suggestions and enthusiasm stimulated the formation of the tributary societies. From 1 September 1861 until 1 July 1866, he expended more than $800,000 in money, and distributed hospital stores that were valued at more than $5,000,000. During this time the names of more than 850,000 soldiers were collected and recorded in the hospital directory in Louisville, and food and shelter were given in the various homes of the commission to more than 1,000,000 soldiers, for whom no other adequate provision was made.
In 1866 he was offered the chair
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
of geology and paleontology in the School of Mines, Columbia College (now Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
), which he accepted and held for 24 years. During his connection with this institution, he created a museum of over 100,000 specimens, principally collected by himself, which served to illustrate his lectures in paleontology and economic geology. At that time, it contained the best representations of the mineral resources of the United States to be found anywhere, as well as many unique and remarkable fossils.
His other positions were: director of the Ohio Geological Survey; a member of the Illinois Geological Survey; president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
; president of the New York Academy of Sciences
New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences is the third oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, non-profit organization with more than members in 140 countries, the Academy’s mission is to advance understanding of science and technology...
; and president of the Torrey Botanical Club. During the World's fair in Philadelphia in 1876 he was one of the judges. In 1887, He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. He assisted in the organization of the Geological Society of America
Geological Society of America
The Geological Society of America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. The society was founded in New York in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchcock, John R. Proctor and Edward Orton and has been headquartered at 3300 Penrose...
at Cleveland in 1888, and served on the commission to organize an international geological congress, of which he was president in 1891. The Murchison Medal
Murchison Medal
An award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. One of the closing public acts of Murchison’s life was the founding of a chair of geology and mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh. Under his will there was established the Murchison Medal and geological fund to be awarded annually...
of the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
was awarded to him in 1888.
Newberry died at New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
on December 7, 1892. Newberry Crater, Oregon (now in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument
Newberry National Volcanic Monument
Newberry National Volcanic Monument was designated on November 5, 1990, to protect the area around the Newberry Volcano in the United States. It was created within the boundaries of the Deschutes National Forest and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service...
) was named in his honor in 1903.
Works
Dr. Newberry's separate papers contributed to various periodicals included upward of 200 titles, chiefly in the departments of geology and paleontology, but also in zoology and botany. In addition, he authored or contributed to:- Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practical and Economic Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi RiverMississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
to the Pacific Coast, Made in 1855–56 (Washington, 1857). His reports on the geology, botany, and zoology of northern California are contained in the sixth volume. - Report on the Colorado River of the West, Explored in 1857–58 (Washington, 1861). His observations formed the most interesting material that was gathered by the expedition, and made up fully half of this report.
- Reports of the Exploring Expedition from Santa Fé to the Junction of the GrandeRio GrandeThe Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
and Green RiverGreen River (Utah)The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
s (Washington, 1876). A large area of this country was before unknown, but proved to be rich in minerals and to be covered with the traces of an ancient civilization. This information was his contribution to this report. - The Rock OilsPetroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
of Ohio (1859) - Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Ohio (1860)
- The U. S. Sanitary Commission in the Valley of the Mississippi (Cleveland, 1871)
- Iron Resources of the United States (1874)
- The Structure and Relations of DinichthysDinichthysDinichthys herzeri is an extinct, giant, marine arthrodire placoderm from the Late Devonian of Ohio and Tennessee. It was comparable in size, shape and ecological role to the better known Dunkleosteus...
(1875) - Report on the Fossil Fishes Collected on the Illinois Geological Survey (1886)
- The flora of the Amboy Clays. (Abstract) (1886)
- Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic Rocks of New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and the Connecticut Valley (1888) - Paleozoic Fishes of North America (1889)
- Later Extinct Floras (1898)
Further reading
- C. A. WhiteCharles Abiathar WhiteCharles Abiathar White was an American geologist, paleontologist, and writer whose publications total 238 titles. He was born at North Dighton, Mass....
, Biographical Memoir of John Strong Newberry (Washington, 1908)