Address by Prof. Stephen Alexander, LL. D., with an Account of the Subsequent Proceedings at the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Astronomical Observatory of the College of New Jersey
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Stephen Alexander was an American astronomer, scientist and educator. He served as a professor of astronomy at College of New Jersey, and was the head of the expedition to observe the solar eclipse in Labrador.
Background
Stephen Alexander was born on September 1, 1806 in Schenectady, New York, United States. He was the son of Alexander Alexander, a descendant of Scotch Presbyterians, who had settled in Schenectady, New York, in a mercantile career in which he proved successful. He died at the age of forty-four years, leaving a widow, Maria, and two small children. Little is known of Stephen's mother except that she had the qualities necessary to dominate the circumstances now facing the future of the young boy and girl.
Education
Alexander's mother gave special attention to his education, who was delicate in physique, quiet and sensitive in disposition, and very studious and observant.
His early education was thorough, and with the natural habit of study he completed the academic course at Union College with honors at the age of eighteen.
He received the degree of Doctor of Law from Columbia University in 1852.
Career
Early in career, Alexander taught in the academy at Chittenango, New York. In 1830, his sister, Harriet, married her cousin, Joseph Henry, who was then entering upon a distinguished career at the Albany Academy as an investigator in magneto-electricity and related problems. Alexander gave up his teaching and became associated with his cousin-brother-in-law. Just what position he held is not known, but he was soon at work upon astronomical problems. His observations upon star occultations and solar eclipses in 1830 and 1831 were communicated to the Albany Academy. In the latter year he made an expedition to Maryland to observe an annular eclipse of the sun, which was in those days a scientific event of note.
The next year, 1832, was the turning-point of his life, for the trustees of the New Jersey College at Princeton extended an invitation to Henry to become the professor of natural philosophy, and Alexander accompanied him. He entered the Theological Seminary, but in 1833 accepted an appointment as tutor in mathematics, thereby beginning a long and distinguished service to the college. In 1834 he was advanced to adjunct professor in the same department, in 1840 he became professor of astronomy and, with several later changes of title, he remained on the faculty until his retirement in 1877.
In conjunction with Henry, he published his observations of terrestrial magnetism in the American Journal of Science, April 1832, and his determination of the difference of longitude by the fall of meteors in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, December 1839. We find him directing a large party to Labrador to observe the solar eclipse of 1860, the scientific results being published in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Report of that year. In 1869 he was chairman of the committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences to organize the observation of the solar eclipse at Ottumwa, Iowa. In 1838, 1854, 1865, and 1875 he observed the annular eclipses of the sun of those years, as well as a partial eclipse and a transit of Mercury. He terminated his astronomical observations of more than fifty years in December 1882 by observing with great interest and care the transit of Venus.
Aside from his strictly scientific work Alexander carried on his duties as college professor with exactitude, and found time to publish many scholarly papers upon subjects bordering on the philosophy of the sciences. The most important of these were as follows: "On the Origin of the Forms and the Present Condition of Some of the Clusters of Stars and Several of the Nebul', " Astronomical Journal, March 13-July 10, 1852; "Lecture on the Vastness of the Visible Creation, " Smithsonian Institution Annual Report, 1857; and other works.
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Membership
Alexander was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1839, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1850. In 1862 he became selected as one of the original fifty members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Connections
Alexander was twice married: on October 3, 1826 to Louisa Meads of Albany, who died in 1847, leaving three daughters; and on January 2, 1850 to Caroline Forman of Princeton, by whom he had two daughters.