Josiah Dwight Whitney - Northampton, MA - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

The grave of Josiah Dwight Whitney is marked by a white boulder which contains an embedded bronze plaque. The plaque is inscribed:

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.

Books by Josiah Dwight Whitney listed on Wikipedia (q.v.) and Amazon:

Names and Places
Geological Report on Ohio
Metallic Wealth of the United States
Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Mountain-Building
The Yosemite Guide-Book: A Description of the Yosemite Valley and the Adjacent Region of the Sierra Nevada, and of the Big Trees of California
The United States
Report on the Geology and Topography of a Portion of the Lake Superior Land District in the State of Michigan
Geological Survey of California, Volume 1
Letter of the state geologist relative to the progress of the State Geologist Survey, during the years 1866-1867 1867
Report of a geological survey of the upper Mississippi lead region 1862
An address on the propriety of continuing the state Geological survey of California delivered before the Legislature at Sacramento, Thursday evening, January 30th, 1868
Geographical and Geological Surveys 1875
Report of the Commissioners to Manage the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove, for the Years 1866-7
Report on the Geological Survey of the State of Iowa: Embracing the Results of Investigations Made During Portions of the Years 1855, 56 & 57
Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California
Climatic Changes of Late Geological Times
Studies in Geographical and Topographical Nomenclature