Josiah Dwight Whitney was the foremost American economic geologist of the 19th century. He graduated from Yale University in 1839 where he studied chemistry and mineralogy. He then joined the geologic survey of New Hampshire.
After continuing his studies in Europe he returned to America and joined the survey of the iron rich Upper Peninsula area of Michigan. There he developed his interest in economic geology and later publish the book Metallic Wealth of the United States in 1854.
His greatest fame came when 1860 when he was appointed the state geologist for California and launched a comprehensive geologic survey of the new state. He published the Geological Survey of California (1864–70) and the Yosemite Book (1869). Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States, was named in his honor as was the Whitney Glacier on Mount Shasta, the first confirmed glacier in the United States.
In 1865, Whitney was appointed as a Professor at Harvard University, a position he held until he died in 1896. At Harvard he established the School of Mines which was merged into the Lawrence Scientific School which is absorbed into the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.