Clarence King
Explorer, Adventurer, First Head of the USGS
 |
 |
Clarence King
|
Clarence King (1842-1901), American chemist, geologist, mountaineer,
and first director of the U.S. Geological Survey (1879-1881), shown
center foreground, with the Hayden Survey of Colorado; King was noted
for his exploration of the Sierra Nevada; King led a strange double
life, becoming obsessed with Ada Copeland, a black nursemaid and former
slave living in New York City; King somehow convinced Copeland that he
was also black (despite his having bright blue eyes) and was a Pullman
porter working on the railroads (which explained his long absences);
King hid his common-law marriage to Copeland because of the then
widespread condemnation for mixed marriages (miscegenation) and did not
disclose his true race to her until writing a letter to Copeland from
his deathbed in far off Arizona; chemists.
|
|
 |
Clarence King at United States Army base
|
A painting that depicts American mountain climber, geologist and
Yale University alumni, Clarence King (January 6, 1842 - December 24,
1901) (Standing) at a United States Army base near Carson City in
Nevada.
|
 |
|
1869 party of American mountain climber, Clarence King
|
An 1869 painting that depicts the party of American mountain
climber, geologist and Yale University alumni, Clarence King (January
6, 1842 - December 24, 1901) as it crossed the Wasatch Range in Utah.
|
|
 |
American mountain climber Clarence King
|
American mountain climber , geologist and Yale University alumni, Clarence King (January 6, 1842 - December 24, 1901).
|
In 1893 King wrote "The Age of the Earth" in
the American Journal of Science, which advanced groundbreaking theories
of how to estimate the planet's true age through a deductive reasoning
process. King's works were at first met with some derision,
particularly among those whose views extended from the biblical account
of creation. However, his work later gained wide acceptance among his
peers and many of his his techniques are still in use today. In
November, 1893 King began experiencing symptoms of "nervous excitation"
and was eventually committed to Bloomingdale Asylum. He died from
tuberculosis on December 24, 1901 in Phoenix, Arizona. Remembered
mainly today for his bizarre private life, King was nevertheless a
pioneer in the science of geophysics. His determination of the age of
the Sierra mountain range by finding fossils in metamorphosed slate
represents one of the earliest examples of the discovery of scientific
truth from the application of pure empirical reasoning.
|
