Beyond Darwin: The Pioneering Voyage and Science of James Dwight Dana

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You’ve probably seen his name and glossed over it without a thought. But if you had been born in the 19 th Century, it was a name that was famous in scientific and
educational circles, and would become known worldwide: James Dwight Dana.

James Dwight Dana

He was born on Feb. 12, 1813, in Utica, N.Y., the son of James Dana and Harriet Dwight.

The Dwight family was well known in religious circles in New England as missionaries and educators. His uncle, Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, and Harrison’s son, Henry Otis Dwight, were long time Congregationalist missionaries to Istanbul, Turkeye, in the then-Ottoman Empire. Whatever James thought of his religious relatives, it was science that was in his blood.
Fostered by an interest in science while attending Charles Bartlett’s Academy in Utica, N.Y., he enrolled at Yale College, in New Haven, Conn., in 1830 as a sophomore. He graduated in 1833. At Yale he studied under the distinguished professor, Benjamin Silliman, Yale’s first science professor and the founder of the American Journal of Science. James would have further connections with Professor Silliman in later years.

Upon his graduation from Yale, James Dana began teaching mathematics to U. S. Navy midshipman on a Mediterranean cruise. By 1836, he had returned to Yale as assistant in minerology and chemistry to his former teacher, Benjamin Silliman. Dana would hone his skills first in New England, when in the 1830s he completed a geological survey of Connecticut and New Haven.

U.S. Exploring Expedition

During this time he wrote “A System of Minerology.” a 580-page work still in publication through multiple editions. A year after its publication, in 1838, he joined the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842). It set out to explore and survey the Pacific and its islands. He acted as the expedition’s minerologist and geologist. James Dwight Dana was one of nine scientists enlisted for the expedition that included seven U.S. Navy ships under the command of Expedition leader Lt. Charles Wilkes, the Captain of the USS Vincennes, a sloop-of-war. In spite of the fact that Wilkes was a relatively new officer, he was used to doing survey work and working with scientists. That experience gained him command of the expedition.

Wilkes was something of a martinet who commanded by threat and flogging. However, the expedition itself was a huge success exploring the Pacific. It far surpassed Darwin’s more famous 1831 voyage on the Beagle.

Not until the early winter months of 1839 did the expedition sail around Cape Horn and into the Pacific. During the next three years, it visited Tahiti, Samoa, New South Wales, Australia. Stopping in Sydney, some of the scientists, including Dana, remained behind to explore New South Wales while the remainder of the expedition went into the Antarctic Ocean. It then charted 1500 miles of the then-unknown Antarctic coastline.

Returning to Sydney, the expedition then visited various island, including Tonga, and Fiji. In Fiji, two Americans were killed, probably precipitated by the Americans holding local hostages. The killings resulted in an American landing in force that killed between 74 and 10 Fijians and their villages destroyed.

From Fiji, the expedition sailed to the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) and eventually home.

James Dwight Dana succeeds Benjamin Silliman

Dana made so many observations and notes that he would take the next 13 years to completely compile them. In 1849 he published a paper on the geology of the expedition that among other things contributed markedly to the understanding of the geology and paleontology of New South Wales. He would expand upon that later.

It is not clear exactly when, but at some time in his association with Professor Silliman he became enamored with his daughter, Henrietta Francia Silliman. In 1844, Dana moved permanently to New Haven and married Henrietta. They would eventually have three sons, Edward (1849-1935), James (1853-1861) and Arnold (1862-1947). They also had three daughters — Frances (1846-1924), Harriet (1857-1861) and Maria (1867-1961). His son Edward followed in his footsteps as a noted minerologist in his own right.

Six years later, he took over as Silliman’s successor as the Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology at Yale. He then held the post for the next 32 years. From 1844 to 1854, he published over 7,000 pages of work, much of it centered on his work during the Wilkes’ Expedition. By this time, his name was known worldwide,. He stayed in continual contact with the noted international men of science in his day, including Charles Darwin. He often disagreed with Darwin, but he maintained a cordial and professional, if somewhat contentious, relationship with him. Unlike Darwin, who never wrote textbooks, Dana wrote several, mostly on minerology. One is currently in its 22nd edition. In 1854, Dana won election to the American Philosophical Society.

Groundbreaking Work

Dana’s hard work ethic and inner drive took its toll on his health. By 1859, he had a physical breakdown from which he never completely recovered. While his public persona became more muted, his work never really stopped. First and foremost, Dana was revered as a teacher and this continued for over 20 more years. In 1864 he published “A Text Book of Geology,” and in 1872 he published a groundbreaking study, “Corals and Coral Islands.”

Dana returned to Hawai’i in 1880 and 1881, and again in 1884 and 1890, to more closely study volcanism. His groundbreaking research became the first geological study of the Hawaiian volcanic chain. His conclusion that this chain was composed of two strands, “Loa” and “Kea”, was a breakthrough, Kilauea and Mauna Kea, and Mauna Loa being the best known today, along with 8 other extinct or dormant volcanoes that make up the Hawaiian Islands.

James Dwight Dana was recognized throughout his lifetime with numerous honors. In 1850 he was the associate editor of the American Journal of Science and Arts and later became its editor. In 1872, the Geological Society of London awarded him the Wollaston Medal, and he was awarded the Copley Gold Medal from the Royal Society of London in 1877. From 1874 to 1882 he was the President of the National Academy of Sciences, of which he was an original member. He belonged to the Royal Society of London, the Royal Academy of the Lincei of Rome, the Institute of France, and the Royal Academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin and Vienna. In 1886, Harvard awarded him an LL.D. degree.

Medals and Mountains

His monumental contributions to geology and minerology resulted in numerous geological and other features named after him. They include Mount Dana in the Sierra Nevada, California; the Dorsa Dana wrinkle-ridge system on the Moon; the Dana Passage in Puget Sound; the Dana crater on Mars; and the Dana Peak in Alaska.

James Dwight Dana died on April 14, 1895, in New Haven. He was buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in the same city. After his death, the Mineralogical Society of America created The Dana Medal, and named for him and his son Edward Salisbury Dana. The medal honors outstanding contribution in the mineralogical sciences. In 1865, the National Register of Historic Place added the James Dwight Dana House in New Haven.

James Dwight Dana is the author’s second cousin, four times removed.

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Images: James Dwight Dana house By ajay_suresh – James Dwight Dana House – Yale University, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154689676. Mount Dana By Jim Bahn – File:Gaylor Peak panorama.jpg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117820675