Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
Encyclopedia
Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (September 7, 1829 – December 22, 1887) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
in the late 19th century. He was also a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
who served with the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
during the Civil War.
Early life
Ferdinand Hayden was born in Westfield, MassachusettsWestfield, Massachusetts
Westfield is a city in Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 41,094 at the 2010 census. The ZIP Code is 01085 for homes and businesses, 01086 for Westfield State...
. As a young boy he was fascinated with all nature and wildlife, the likes of which led him into the field of medicine. He worked in Cleveland under J. P. Kirtland and thereafter in Albany, NY, where he worked under James Hall, of the Geological Survey of New York.
He graduated from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1850 and from the Albany Medical College
Albany Medical College
Albany Medical College is a medical school located in Albany, New York, United States. It was founded in 1839 by Amos Dean, Dr. Thomas Hun and others, and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation...
in 1853, where he attracted the notice of Professor James Hall
James Hall (paleontologist)
James Hall was an American geologist and paleontologist. He was a noted authority on stratigraphy and had an influential role in the development of American paleontology.-Early life:...
, state geologist of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, through whose influence he was induced to join in an exploration of Nebraska Territory
Nebraska Territory
The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebraska Territory was created by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854...
, with Fielding B. Meek to study geology and collect fossils.
Hall sent him on his first geological venture in the summer of 1853. Being of independent mind Hayden ended his commission with Hall, and with the encouragement of S. F. Baird, and a partial sponsorship from the Smithsonian Institution, he spent the remainder of the 1850s on various exploring and collecting expeditions in the northern Missouri River areas.
In 1856 and 1857, Hayden accompanied exploration expeditions led by Lieutenant G.K. Warren and in 1859, the Raynolds Expedition of 1860
Raynolds Expedition
The Raynolds Expedition was an United States Army exploring and mapping party which left St. Louis, Missouri May 29, 1859 and was intended to map the unexplored territory between Fort Pierre, Dakota Territory and headwaters of the Yellowstone River. Led by experienced explorer and topographical...
led by Captain William F. Raynolds
William F. Raynolds
William Franklin Raynolds was a U.S. Army Colonel, explorer, engineer, Mexican War and Civil War officer who is best known for leading the 1859-1860 Raynolds Expedition while serving as a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers...
, both of the Topographical Engineers. One result of which was his Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in 1859–1860 (1869).
During the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
he was actively employed as an army surgeon. He rose to be chief medical officer of the Army of the Shenandoah.
Geological surveys
United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories
The United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories was established by an act of Congress on 2 March, 1867 as an agency under the Department of the Interior tasked to complete a geographical survey of the State of Nebraska which had been admitted to the Union the day before...
.
Hayden organized and led previous expeditions into the Rocky Mountains, both before and after the Civil War. In 1869, he led an expedition along the Front Range to Denver and Sante Fe. In 1870 he received an $25,000 governmental grant to lead a 20-man expedition to South Pass, Fort Bridger, Henry's Fork, and back to Cheyenne.
About this time, he also became identified with the Megatherium Club
Megatherium Club
The Megatherium Club was founded by William Stimpson. It was a group of Washington, D.C.-based scientists who were attracted to that city by the Smithsonian Institution's rapidly growing collection, from 1857 to 1866....
at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
To measure distances during their journeys into the western frontier Hayden employed the use of an odometer
Odometer
An odometer or odograph is an instrument that indicates distance traveled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or automobile. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two. The word derives from the Greek words hodós and métron...
, a device used by mappers to estimate distances traveled. The device was mounted on a mule drawn carts that measured distances as the cart wheels rolled along. Because of rough terrian the device had a range of accuracy of about 3%.
Yellowstone
Hayden Geological Survey of 1871
The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 explored the region of northwestern Wyoming that later became Yellowstone National Park in 1872. It was led by geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden...
into the Yellowstone region of northwestern Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. The survey consisted of some 50 men which included notables such as Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran from Bolton, England was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist...
, painter and famous frontier/Civil War photographer William Henry Jackson
William Henry Jackson
William Henry Jackson was an American painter, Civil War, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West...
. The following year Hayden and his work Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in 1859-1860 was instrumental in convincing Congress to establish Yellowstone as the first U.S. National Park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
, aided by Jackson's stunning large-format photographs and Moran's dramatic paintings. These publications also encouraged the westward expansion of the United States.
Legacy
From his twelve years of labour and annual survey journeys there resulted a most valuable series of volumes in all branches of natural history and economic science; and he issued in 1877 his Geological and Geographical Atlas of ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. The last of the annual survey journeys was in 1878. As a result of Hayden's extensive geological work, he uncovered numerous dinosaur fossils which he brought back east with him for further scientific study. Much of what he brought back is still housed in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
American paleontologist Joseph Leidy
Joseph Leidy
Joseph Leidy was an American paleontologist.Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, and later was a professor of natural history at Swarthmore College. His book Extinct Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska contained many species not previously described and many previously...
obtained most of his fossil specimens from Hayden.
Later life
Hayden was made professor of geology at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1865 with the help of Leidy. Upon the reorganization and establishment of the United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
in 1879 he acted for seven years as one of the geologists. He died at Philadelphia on the 22nd of December 1887.
Honors
Hayden ValleyHayden Valley
Hayden Valley is a large, sub-alpine valley in Yellowstone National Park straddling the Yellowstone River between Yellowstone Falls and Yellowstone Lake. The valley floor along the river is an ancient lake bed from a time when Yellowstone Lake was much larger...
in Yellowstone is named after him. The town of Hayden, Colorado
Hayden, Colorado
Hayden is a Statutory Town in Routt County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,634 at the 2000 census. The town sits along U.S. Highway 40 in the Yampa River Valley between Craig and Steamboat Springs. Historically a center of coal mining and agriculture, it consists today of a small...
, located in the Yampa River
Yampa River
The Yampa River is a tributary of the Green River, approximately 250 mi long, in the U.S. state of Colorado. It's located in the Southwestern United States...
valley, is named for him. Many mountain peaks
Hayden Mountain
Hayden Mountain may refer to the following peaks or locations. These features are generally named after Ferdinand Hayden, an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century.Peaks...
have been named after Hayden as well. A garter snake, Thamnophis radix haydenii was named for him by Robert Kennicott
Robert Kennicott
Robert Kennicott was an American naturalist.-Biography:Kennicott was born in New Orleans and grew up in "West Northfield" , Illinois, a town in the prairie north of the then nascent city of Chicago....
in 1860; although it was in a different genus at the time.http://ebeltz.net/herps/biogappx.html#Hayden A land snail, Oreohelix haydeni was named for him by William Gabb in 1869.http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=77675 Hayden Hall at the University of Pennsylvania which formerly housed the dental school now houses the bioengineering and earth sciences departments.
Other publications
With FB MeekFielding Bradford Meek
Fielding Bradford Meek was an American geologist and paleontologist.The son of a lawyer, he was born in Madison, Indiana. In early life he was in business as a merchant, but his leisure hours were devoted to collecting fossils and studying the rocks of the neighborhood of Madison...
, he wrote (Smithsonian Institution Contributions, v. 14. Art. 4) "Palaeontology of the Upper Missouri, Pt. 1, Invertebrate." His valuable notes on Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
dialects are in The Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (1862) in The American Journal of Science (1862) and in The Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1869). With ARC Selwyn he wrote North America (1883) for Stanford's Compendium.
- Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery (1870)
- The Yellowstone National Park, illustrated by chromolithographic reproductions of water-colour sketches by Thomas MoranThomas MoranThomas Moran from Bolton, England was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist...
(1876) - The Great West: its Attractions and Resources (1880)
- Ferdinand Hayden: A Young Scientist in the Great West 1853-1855 (2010) by Fritiof FryxellFritiof FryxellFritiof M. Fryxell , was an American geologist and mountain climber, best known for his research and writing on the Teton Range of Wyoming. Upon the establishment of Grand Teton National Park in 1929, he was named the park’s first naturalist, a position he held for six summers...
, Published posthumously by Augustana Historical Society
See also
- Hayden Geological Survey of 1871Hayden Geological Survey of 1871The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 explored the region of northwestern Wyoming that later became Yellowstone National Park in 1872. It was led by geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden...
- A.D. WilsonA.D. WilsonA.D. Wilson - was an American cartographer.-Biography:He was born in Sparta, Illinois. He left school and in March 1867, enlisted with the Geological Survey of California. There he learned triangulation...
a member of several of Hayden's surveys. - Joseph Leidy, paleontologistJoseph LeidyJoseph Leidy was an American paleontologist.Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, and later was a professor of natural history at Swarthmore College. His book Extinct Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska contained many species not previously described and many previously...