Ebenezer Emmons (1)
New York Fruit, Vegetables, and Grains

 

The hand-colored lithographs below and on the following pages are cut from Ebenezer Emmons' classic Natural History of New York, Part V, Volumes 2 & 3:  Agriculture, Albany, 1849, 1851--two in a series of studies commissioned by the New York State legislature in 1836.  The plates were drawn by Emmons himself; the lithography is primarily by George Endicott of New York.   The plates are generally of excellent quality with very little age toning and few blemishes.  The plates vary in thickness from moderately sturdy to very sturdy.  

Size: 9 x 11.25 inches

After studying medicine in Albany and practising as a physician, Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863) returned to his first love: geology.  In 1833, he became professor of natural history of Williams College and in 1836 was appointed Geologist-in-Chief of the Northern District of the Geological Survey of New York State.  It was Emmons who named the "Adirondacks" (1838) and "Taconic Mountains" (1844).  In the course of his career, Emmons argued that oldest stratified fossil-bearing rocks on the continent were not Silurian but Taconic, or Upper Cambrian.  This position was controversial and led to friction with eminent geologists such as James Hall.   Emmons' major work is entitled American Geology (1855-57) , a theoretical treatise with illustrations of  characteristic American fossils.  Emmons made contributions on agriculture and geology  in several volumes of the  Natural History of New York .  In later life, Emmons serves as state geologist of North Carolina (1851-60) and conducted a geological survey of that state.  According to Jules Marcou, Emmons was “the founder of American palaeozoic stratigraphy."

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