Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Akademiestraße 6, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
Emmons studied in the Bergakademie at Freiberg, Saxony, where he remained until midsummer 1865, after which he visited many of the important European mining centers.
Gallery of Samuel Emmons
Harvard College, 28 Fernald Dr, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Emmons entered Harvard College at the age of seventeen and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1861. In 1866 Harvard awarded him a Master of Arts degree.
Harvard College, 28 Fernald Dr, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Emmons entered Harvard College at the age of seventeen and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1861. In 1866 Harvard awarded him a Master of Arts degree.
Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Akademiestraße 6, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
Emmons studied in the Bergakademie at Freiberg, Saxony, where he remained until midsummer 1865, after which he visited many of the important European mining centers.
Map of Alaska Showing Known Gold-Bearing Rocks with Descriptive Text Containing Sketches of the Geography, Geology and Gold Deposits and Routes to the Gold Fields
Samuel Franklin Emmons was an American geologist. He served as an assistant geologist under Clarence King on the American geological exploration of the fortieth parallel, and later became geologist in charge of the Colorado division of the United States Geological Survey.
Background
Samuel Franklin Emmons was born on March 29, 1841, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was a descendant of Thomas Emmons, one of the founders of the Rhode Island Colony, who was “admitted to be an inhabitant of Boston” in 1648. His father was Nathaniel Henry Emmons, a highly respected and affluent Boston merchant engaged in the East India and China trade. His mother, Elizabeth Wales, was a descendant of Nathaniel Wales, who emigrated from Yorkshire to Boston in 1635. He was named for a great-grandfather on his father’s side, Samuel Franklin, a cousin of Benjamin Franklin.
Education
During his boyhood Emmons attended private schools, including the Dixwell Latin School, where he had rigorous training in English composition and some instruction in physical geography and mapmaking, all of which stood him in good stead in later years.
He entered Harvard College at the age of seventeen and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1861. The next five years were spent in Europe, climbing in the Alps in the summer of 1861 and then studying with private tutors in Paris to gain admission to the École Impériale des Mines, where he was a student during the academic years 1862-1863 and 1863-1864.
He then enrolled in the Bergakademie at Freiberg, Saxony, where he remained until midsummer 1865, after which he visited many of the important European mining centers, finally returning to Boston from Rome in June 1866, at which time Harvard awarded him a Master of Arts degree.
In late 1866 and early 1867 the geological exploration of the fortieth parallel, under the direction of the chief of engineers, United States Army, was authorized by Congress and organized by Clarence King, who was a chief geologist. Arnold Hague, who had become acquainted with Emmons when they were students at Freiberg, was appointed one of King’s assistant geologists. Through Hague’s influence, King accepted Emmons as a volunteer assistant for the 1867 field season. The following winter Emmons received an official appointment as an assistant geologist, a position he held until the completion of his reports in 1877 when he resigned to engage in cattle ranching in Wyoming. The United States Geological Survey was created by the act of Congress on March 3, 1879. Clarence King was its first director, and one of his first official acts was to appoint Emmons as a geologist in charge of the Rocky Mountain Division. Later he was placed in charge of the Division of Economic Geology, where he remained until his death.
Although mining geology, especially the origin of ore deposits, was Emmons’ major interest, his contributions to regional and structural geology were notable. His assignment with the fortieth-parallel exploration involved the survey of an area, about 100 miles in width, extending from the Sierra Nevada to the Great Plains. Much of the region was then so little settled that detachments of the United States Army accompanied the field parties to protect them from hostile Indians. The report on this pioneer work (1877) promptly became a model for regional studies and was emulated by many geologists.
The directives for Emmons’ early work in the United States Geological Survey were conflicting. Most desirable from his point of view were the instructions to prepare a monograph on the region of Leadville, Colorado, at that time one of the most productive mining localities in the Rocky Mountains. But this was in 1879, and the Geological Survey had undertaken the collection of statistics on precious metals for the tenth census (1880). That task was also given to Emmons and G. F. Becker. With characteristic energy, Emmons fulfilled both duties simultaneously. Volume XIII of the Tenth Census Reports, by Emmons and Becker, with its geological descriptions of mining regions, was published in 1885. A preliminary report on the geology and mining industry of the Leadville region was published in 1882 and the definitive monograph in 1886. This immediately attracted widespread attention and stimulated the investigation of the origin of ore deposits in other mining regions.
Emmons was active in many scientific organizations. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and its treasurer from 1902 to 1910. He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of America in 1888 and its president in 1903. Earlier he had helped to establish the Colorado Scientific Society and was its first president in 1882. Emmons was a member or fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Washington Academy of Sciences, the Geological Society of Washington (of which he was president for one term), and the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of which he was vicepresident in 1882 and again in 1890 and 1891. Emmons became a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1874 and later an honorary member of the Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles.
National Academy of Sciences
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United States
Geological Society of America
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United States
Colorado Scientific Society
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United States
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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United States
American Philosophical Society
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United States
American Association for the Advancement of Science
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United States
Washington Academy of Sciences
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United States
Geological Society of Washington
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United States
American Institute of Mining Engineers
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United States
Geological Society of London
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United Kingdom
Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles
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France
Connections
Emmons was married three times: on August 5, 1876 to Waltha Anita Steeves of New York, from whom he was subsequently divorced; on February 14, 1889 to Sophie Dallas Markoe of Washington, who died on June 19, 1896; and on August 4, 1903 to Suzanne Earle Ogden-Jones of Dinard, France, who survived him. He left no children.