Benjamin West

Background

Benjamin West was born at Rehoboth, Massachussets, where his father, John West, was a farmer, and where his grandfather settled on coming from England.

Education

He was entirely self-educated, after his father had settled on a farm in Bristol, R. I, through books lent to him by friends. The honorary degrees of M. A. were conferred on West by Brown (also LL. D. , 1792) and Harvard colleges in 1770, and by Dartmouth in 1782.

Career

He moved to Providence, R. I, in 1753 and opened a private school. He next started a drygoods store which later included a bookstore, but this venture ended also in the unsettling days preceding the Revolution. Ardently embracing the principles of the Revolution, he was engaged at Providence throughout the war in manufacturing clothes for the use of troops. On the return of peace he again opened a school. In 1786 he was appointed to the professorship of mathematics and astronomy in Rhode Island College (later known as Brown University), a position which in those days was merely a lectureship. But he did not enter upon his duties until the year 1788, after spending a little more than a year of 1787-88 teaching in the Protestant Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia. At this time West had achieved considerable reputation in New England as an almanac-maker and astronomer. His first scientific publication was An Almanack, for the year of our Lord Christ, 1763 , published by William Goddard on Providence's first printing press, set up in 1762. The first part of the title, after two expansions, became The New-England Almanack, or Lady's and Gentleman's Diary, and it was issued at Providence annually for 1765 through 1781 (except for the year 1769, published in Boston); with John Carter, 1745-1814, the publisher of the last twelve, West had no further connection. By 1767 the almanacs had obtained such an excellent reputation for accuracy that editions were published simultaneously at Boston, Salem, Norwich, and Providence. There was a Boston edition of the New England Almanack for 1767, and a Newport edition (possibly pirated) of the one for 1772. In Boston West revived the name Isaac Bickerstaff, originated in 1707 by Dean Swift, and issued Bickerstaff's Boston Almanac for the Year of our Lord 1768. This was annually continued by West through the issue for 1779 and for 1783-93 (as published by Benjamin Russell). It was the first illustrated almanac in Massachusetts. There is evidence that West had nothing to do with most other almanacs bearing the name Bickerstaff. He prepared The North-American Calendar: or Rhode Island Almanac (published at Providence by B. Wheeler) for the years 1781-87, and The Rhode Island Almanac (published at Newport) for the years 1804-06. All these almanacs were for the meridians of Providence and Boston; others were calculated for the meridian of Halifax, Nova Scotia. West collaborated with some prominent residents of Providence, especially Joseph and Moses Brown, in making elaborate preparations for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1769. His 22-page pamphlet, An Account of the Observation of Venus upon the Sun the Third Day of June 1769, appeared in Providence the same year and was reprinted (though dated only 1769) between 1800 and August 14, 1814. The greater part of it appeared also in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. In Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences West published an account of an eclipse of the sun observed in Providence, April 23, 1781, and a paper "On the Extraction of Roots. " His recommendation of the first edition of Nicolas Pike's A New and Complete System of Arithmetic (1788) was printed in this work. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781. Confusion with Benjamin West, the artist, has led standard authorities (e. g. , Harvard Quinquennial Catalogue, post) to state that he was a member of the American Philosophical Society. For his last year at Brown (1798 - 99) he was named professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. From 1802 until his death he was postmaster of Providence, and he was succeeded as postmaster by his son-in-law, Gabriel Allen. A small gouache-drawing, a bust portrait apparently made from life, is preserved at Brown University.

Achievements

• He opened a private schools. In addition to his tracts on astronomy and his almanacs, Benjamin West wrote about subjects such as algebra, geometry, fluxions, maxima and minima, and navigation.

Connections

He married on June 7 to Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Smith of Bristol. Four of his eight children were living at the time of his death.

Father:

John West

Spouse:

Elizabeth