Background
Gerard Troost was born on March 15, 1776 at Bois-le Duc, Holland.
His parents, Everhard Joseph Troost and Anna Cornelia van Haeck, were of but limited means.
(Title: Geological survey of the environs of Philadelphia....)
Title: Geological survey of the environs of Philadelphia. Author: Gerard Troost Publisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more. Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more. Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ SourceLibrary: Huntington Library DocumentID: SABCP03455800 CollectionID: CTRG00-B1803 PublicationDate: 18260101 SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to America Notes: Collation: 39 p., 1 leaf of plates : 1 fold. map ; 21 cm
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Doctor mineralogist naturalist scientist
Gerard Troost was born on March 15, 1776 at Bois-le Duc, Holland.
His parents, Everhard Joseph Troost and Anna Cornelia van Haeck, were of but limited means.
He was educated at the universities of Leyden and Amsterdam, devoting himself especially to chemistry, natural history, and geology. From the former institution he received the degree of doctor of medicine and from the latter that of master in pharmacy.
In Paris he became a pupil of René Just Haüy and attained the remarkable skill in mineralogy and crystallography that characterized his later work.
Then he was a pupil of Abraham Gottlob Werner.
He practised as a pharmacist at Amsterdam and at The Hague. He served in the army as a private soldier and later as a health officer and was twice wounded.
In 1807, Louis Napoleon, King of Holland, sent him to Paris for further scientific study.
Between 1807 and 1809 he traveled widely in Europe, collecting minerals for the cabinet of the King of Holland.
In 1809 he was appointed on a Dutch scientific commission to Java, but was captured, taken to a French port, released on his identity becoming known, and proceeded to Paris, where he was made a corresponding member of the Museum of Natural History of France.
Early in 1810 he sailed for Philadelphia. The Kingdom of Holland was soon after annexed to the French Empire. Troost then abandoned the idea of going to Java and decided to become an American citizen.
He soon established a pharmaceutical and chemical laboratory in Philadelphia and in 1812 was one of the seven founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, which for five years he served as its first president.
In 1811 he became interested in establishing at Cape Sable, Md. , the first manufactory of alum in the United States. This venture failed within a few years, causing Troost heavy losses.
In 1821 he became professor of mineralogy in the Philadelphia Museum and in 1821-22 was professor of pharmaceutical and general chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.
Between 1821 and 1825 he made a geological survey of the environs of Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, publishing the results in 1826. In 1825 he joined William Maclure, Thomas Say, Robert Dale Owen, and C. A. Lesueur in the "boat-load of knowledge" which floated down the Ohio to Robert Owen's community at New Harmony, Ind. , but, disappointed he moved in 1827 to Nashville, Tenn. , with the large collections in natural history and geology which he had spent twenty years acquiring.
While in Philadelphia he had made frequent scientific excursions into New Jersey and New York, and from New Harmony had visited the Missouri lead mines. From Java alone he had over 400 species of mounted birds. Later he acquired so much more material that his museum at Nashville became the most notable west of the Appalachians. His meteorites have since been acquired by Yale University.
From his election early in 1828 until his death, Troost was professor of geology and mineralogy, and for most of that time of chemistry and natural philosophy, also, in the University of Nashville; from 1831 to 1850 he was also state geologist of Tennessee and did much to make known the mineral resources of that state.
Becoming interested in Indian archeology, he made extensive collections from Tennessee mounds and graves. His last important work, a monograph on the crinoids of Tennessee, remained unpublished for many years but was at length reworked and published by the Smithsonian Institution (Elvira Wood, A Critical Summary of Troost's Unpublished Manuscript on the Crinoids of Tennessee, United States National Museum Bulletin 64, 1909).
His interests ranged over practically all the known sciences. The bibliography of his writings contains articles on geology, natural history, chemistry, ethnology, mineralogy, and crystallography.
Because of the long delay in publishing his work on fossil crinoids he lost much of the honor prompt publication would have brought him.
Troost died in Nashville in August 1850 from cholera, which was epidemic in that city.
(Title: Geological survey of the environs of Philadelphia....)
(Nashville 1907. University of Nashville Bulletin of Infor...)
Troost was a member of many of the learned societies of both Europe and America and was a frequent contributor to their publications.
Gerard Troost was a founding member and first president of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.
Kindly and courteous, he had the polish that characterized the literary and scientific circles in which he moved in Paris; he was an excellent teacher, a good classical scholar, and widely read in science; he was probably most able in chemistry and mineralogy.
He was twice married: first, January 14, 1811, to Margaret Tage, who died August 3, 1819; and second, to a Mrs. O'Reilly. He left two children, both of the first marriage.