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{{Short description|American geologist (1819–1896)}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Josiah Whitney
|image         = Josiah_whitney.jpg
|caption       = Portrait of Josiah Whitney by Silas Selleck, 1863
|birth_date    = {{birth date |1819|11|23}}
|birth_place   = [[Northampton, Massachusetts]]
|death_date    = {{death-date and age|August 18, 1896|November 23, 1819}}
|death_place   = [[Lake Sunapee]], New Hampshire
|citizenship   =
|nationality   =
|occupation    = [[geologist]], professor at [[Harvard University]], Chief at [[California Geological Survey]]
|alma_mater    = [[Yale University]]
|known_for     = Mount Whitney
|father  = Josiah Dwight Whitney (1786-1869)
|relatives     = [[William Dwight Whitney]] (brother)
}}

'''Josiah Dwight Whitney''' (November 23, 1819 – August 18, 1896) was an American geologist, professor of [[geology]] at [[Harvard University]] (from 1865), and chief of the [[California Geological Survey]] (1860–1874).  Through his travels and studies in the principal mining regions of the United States, Whitney became the foremost authority of his day on the [[economic geology]] of the U.S.<ref name=nie>{{NIE|wstitle=Whitney, Josiah Dwight|year=1905|inline=1}}</ref> [[Mount Whitney]], the highest point in the [[Contiguous United States|contiguous 48 United States]], and the [[Whitney Glacier]], the first confirmed glacier in the United States, on [[Mount Shasta]], were both named after him by members of the Survey.

==Early years==
Whitney was born November 23, 1819, in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], the oldest of 12 children.
His father was Josiah Dwight Whitney (1786–1869) of the [[New England Dwight family]]. His mother was Sarah Williston (1800–1833).
He was the brother of grammarian and lexicographer [[William Dwight Whitney]]  (1827–1894).<ref name="dwight2">{{cite book |last=Dwight |first=Benjamin Woodbridge |author-link=Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight |title= The history of the descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass |volume= 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghcfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA833 |pages= 833–835 |year=1874 |publisher=J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders }}</ref>
He was educated at a series of schools in Northampton, Plainfield, Round Hill, New Haven and Andover.  In 1836, he entered [[Yale University]] where he studied chemistry, mineralogy and astronomy.<ref name=eb>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Whitney, Josiah Dwight}}</ref>
After graduation in 1839, he continued to study chemistry in Philadelphia, and in 1840 he joined a geologic survey of New Hampshire as an unpaid assistant to [[Charles Thomas Jackson|Charles T. Jackson]].

In 1841, he was preparing to enter Harvard Law School, when he happened to hear a lecture on geology by [[Charles Lyell]].
He decided to change career plans and sailed to Europe in 1842 to continue his studies in science.
For the next five years he traveled through Europe and studied chemistry and geology in France and Germany.

When Whitney returned home in 1847, he and [[John Wells Foster]] were hired to assist Charles T. Jackson in making a federal survey of the Lake Superior land district of northern Michigan which was about to become a major copper and iron mining region. When Jackson was dismissed from the survey, Foster and Whitney completed it in 1850 and the final report was published under their names. Building on this experience, Whitney became a mining consultant, and eventually wrote the book, ''Metallic Wealth of the United States'' (1854).  It was considered to be the standard reference for the next 15 years.

During the 1850s, Whitney participated in geological surveys of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He was appointed state chemist and professor in the [[Iowa State University]] in 1855, and together with [[James Hall (paleontologist)|James Hall]], he issued reports on Iowa's geological survey (1858–1859). In 1858–1860, he took part in the survey of the [[lead (metal)|lead]] region of the Upper [[Missouri River]], publishing, again with Hall, a report in 1862.<ref name=cne>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Whitney, Josiah Dwight}}</ref> The [[American Philosophical Society]] elected him to membership in 1863.<ref>{{cite web |title=Josiah D. Whitney |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=whitney+josiah&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |website=American Philosophical Society Member History Database |access-date=16 February 2021}}</ref>

==California Geological Survey==
In 1860, he was appointed the state geologist for California and was instructed by the legislature to undertake a comprehensive geologic survey of the state.<ref name=Brewster>Brewster, Edwin Tenney. (1909) ''Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney''.</ref> To carry out the [[California Geological Survey]], he organized an eminent,  multi-disciplinary team, including [[William H. Brewer]], [[James Graham Cooper]], [[William More Gabb]], [[Charles F. Hoffmann]], [[Watson Andrews Goodyear]], and [[Clarence King]].
They began a survey that covered not only geology and geography, but also botany, zoology, and paleontology.
Although significant progress was made, Whitney made a tactical error by first publishing two volumes on paleontology when the legislators were clamoring for information about gold. 
Whitney argued that the survey should do more than simply serve as a prospecting party. 
The legislature grew impatient with the scope and pace of the survey work and slowly cut the budget. Whitney tactlessly complained, telling legislators:

{{blockquote|We have escaped perils by flood and field, have evaded the friendly embrace of the grizzly, and now find ourselves in the jaws of the Legislature.}}

In 1867, the survey was eliminated from the budget, and work was suspended in 1868.

Although the California Geological Survey ceased work when funds were eliminated, Whitney managed to retain the title of state geologist until 1874.<ref name=eb/> The survey's field work never resumed. In fact, California was left without a geological agency until 1880, when the legislature created the State Mining Bureau, which was empowered—after the legislators' experience with Whitney—only to address mining issues, and set up with a board of trustees to keep the new agency focused on that narrow purpose. One or two bureau chiefs tried to broaden the scope to include geology, but the bureau was not allowed to hire a geologist until 1928, six decades after the old survey's demise.

The state funded the publication and printing of the first three volumes of the survey's results, and Whitney published the remaining reports using his own money. In spite of financial difficulties and political problems, the survey was significant not only for its published results, but also because of the men involved, and the survey methods developed – in particular, topographical mapping by triangulation.

Whitney also wrote ''The Yosemite Book'' (1869), which was essentially a travel guide to [[Yosemite Valley]] and the surrounding area. In this work he advocated the protection of Yosemite, and was one of the first to propose creation of a national park.

==Controversies==
While in California, Whitney became embroiled in three notable controversies:

===Yosemite Valley origins===
First, Whitney maintained that Yosemite Valley was created by a cataclysmic sinking of the valley floor.  However, [[John Muir]], who was exploring the Yosemite area during the same time, argued that the valley was carved by glacial action.  Whitney derided Muir as an "ignoramus" and a "mere sheepherder."  Whitney's survey reports suppressed evidence of glaciers, and he never abandoned his viewpoint.  Most scientists eventually dismissed Whitney's hypothesis and accepted Muir's.

===Calaveras Skull===
The second controversy involved the discovery of the [[Calaveras Skull]], allegedly uncovered by a miner {{Convert|130|ft}} beneath the surface of the earth. Eventually the skull made its way into the possession of Whitney, who quickly pronounced it genuine and concluded that it came from the [[Pliocene]] era (5.3 [[myr|mya]] – 1.8 mya). However, others assert that the skull is much younger, as little as 1,000 years.

===Dispute with Benjamin Silliman Jr.===
The third controversy involved the dispute over California's potential oil wealth with Yale Professor [[Benjamin Silliman Jr.]] After conducting a small-scale survey of surface seeps of petroleum in [[Ventura County, California|Ventura County]], Silliman claimed that California possessed "fabulous wealth in the best of oil". Whitney vehemently contested this claim, and accused Silliman of self-interested speculation aimed at prospective investors. Whitney devoted much of his time and energy to personally attacking and discrediting Silliman, whose reputation was severely tarnished over the course of the public debate between the two. But Silliman was ultimately vindicated – first in 1874 when the first major California oil strike occurred, and then in subsequent decades when California went on to produce 80 million barrels per year by 1910 – forty percent of total U.S. domestic oil production.<ref>White, Gerald (1968). ''Scientists in Conflict: The Beginnings of the Oil Industry in California''.</ref>

==Later life==
In 1865, Whitney was appointed to the Harvard faculty in order to found a [[Hooper School of Mining and Practical Geology|school of mines]]. He was allowed an indefinite leave of absence to complete his work in California. When the survey work was definitively ended in 1874, Whitney returned to Harvard and opened the school of mines, which was quickly merged a year later into the Lawrence Scientific School.  He held his position as professor of geology for the rest of his life.

Whitney married Louisa Goddard (born in [[Manchester]], England, December 17, 1819; died in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], May 13, 1882) on July 5, 1854. She wrote ''The Burning of the Convent: a Narrative of the Destruction of the Ursuline School on Mount Benedict, [[Charlestown, Massachusetts|Charlestown]], by One of the Pupils'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1877), and ''Peasy's Childhood: an Autobiography'' (1878). Their daughter Eleanor Goddard Whitney was born on November 29, 1856.<ref name="dwight2"/><ref name=acab>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Whitney, Josiah Dwight|year=1889}}</ref>
Whitney named [[Lake Eleanor]] in [[Yosemite National Park]] for his daughter, who died in 1882.<ref>{{cite book |last=Browning |first=Peter |title= Yosemite Place Names: The Historic Background of Geographic Names in Yosemite National Park |year= 2005 |page= 42 |publisher=Great West Books |isbn= 978-0-944220-19-1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=o_c0x6YRjjoC&pg=PA42 }}</ref>
Josiah Whitney died at [[Lake Sunapee]], New Hampshire, on August 18, 1896.

==Selected works==
* {{cite book |last=Berzelius |first=Jöns Jacob  |author-link=Jöns Jacob Berzelius |title=The Use of the Blowpipe In Chemistry and Mineralogy |url=https://archive.org/details/useblowpipeinch01berzgoog |access-date=May 11, 2013 |year=1845 |publisher=W.D. Ticknor and Co. |location=Boston |others=English translation by Josiah Whitney}}
* ''Report on the Geology of the Lake superior Land District'', with [[John Wells Foster|J. W. Foster]] (1851–52)
* {{cite book |last=Whitney |first=J. D. |title=The Metallic Wealth of the United States: Described and Compared with that of Other Countries |url=https://archive.org/details/metallicwealthu00whitgoog |access-date=May 11, 2013 |year=1854 |publisher=Lippincott, Grambo & Co. |location=Philadelphia }}
* ''Geological Report on Ohio'', with [[James Hall (paleontologist)|James Hall]] (1858)
* {{cite book |last1=Whitney |first1=J. D. |last2=Hall |first2=James |title=Report of a Geological Survey of the Upper Mississippi Lead Region |year=1862 |publisher=<!-- unknown?? --> |location=Albany, NY |url=https://archive.org/details/reportageologic01whitgoog | access-date=May 11, 2013}}
* ''The Geological Survey of California'' (1864–70)
* [http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_yosemite_book/ ''The Yosemite Book'' (1869)]. Later reprinted without photographs as ''The Yosemite Guide-Book''
* {{Cite EB9 |last=Whitney |first=Josiah D. |wstitle=California|volume=4}}
* {{cite Q |Q51444838}}
*''Climatic Changes of Late Geological Times'' (1882)
*''Studies in Geographical and Topographical Nomenclature'' (1888)

He published many papers in journals of the United States and elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Whitney, Josiah Dwight}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Additional sources ==
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Whitney, Josiah Dwight}}
*Bourgoin, Suzanne Michele ed. (1998) "Josiah Dwight Whitney", ''Encyclopedia of World Biography''.
*Farquhar, Francis P. (1965) ''History of the Sierra Nevada''.
*Johnson, Allen and Dumas Malone, ed. (1946) "Whitney, Josiah Dwight", ''Dictionary of American Biography (Volume X)''.
*Merrill, George P. (1924) ''The First One Hundred Years of American Geology''.
*True, Frederick W. ed. (1913) "Josiah Dwight Whitney", ''A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences: 1863–1913''.

==External links==
* [http://www.yosemite.ca.us/history/the_yosemite_book/ The Yosemite Book]

{{Sequoia National Park}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Josiah}}
[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:1896 deaths]]
[[Category:Yale College alumni]]
[[Category:Phillips Academy alumni]]
[[Category:People from Northampton, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Explorers of the United States]]
[[Category:California Geological Survey]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]