Thomas Sterry Hunt, 1826-1892
Innovative American Chemist and Geologist
Hunt was one of the first to rise to prominence in both geology and chemistry.
Studied with Benjamin Silliman
Thomas Hunt was born in Norwich, Connecticut on the 5th of September, 1826, where he received his early education. Abandoning the study of medicine, he developed an interest in mineralogy around 1845. He became a private student with Professor Benjamin Silliman at New Haven, Connecticut as well as a chemical assistant to Yale College professor Benjamin Silliman, Sr. Preparing to continue his studies in Great Britain, he was chosen to be chemist and mineralogist to the recently established Geological Survey of Canada at Montréal. While there he also taught at Laval University in Quebec where he lectured in the French language. He held this position for twenty-five years, resigning in 1872 to take the chair of Geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He never married.
Dr. Hunt’s contributions to the areas of theoretical chemistry, chemical philosophy, and geological and mineralogical chemistry have been significant. He prepared a summary of organic chemistry, that he called “the chemistry of carbon and its compounds”, which forms a part of Silliman’s “First Principles of Chemistry”. His research on the chemistry of soda and mineral waters were ground-breaking and exhaustive. He also studied the chemistry of lime and magnesia, undertaken with reference to the origin of the native combinations of these bases. Mention should also be made of his “contributions to a chemical cosmogony and to a comprehensive theory of chemical and dynamical geology” as noted in the Smithsonian Report for 1869.
Geological Survey of Canada
The Geological Survey of Canada has published many of Dr. Hunt’s technical applications relating to soils, fertilizers, peat, building materials, the manufacture of salt and the ores and metallurgy of iron and copper. His later work included studies of granites and granite veinstones, the origins of crystalline rocks, and the history of the names Cambrian and Silurian in geology. His views as to the crystalline, stratified rocks, their genesis, their great antiquity as opposed to the notion of more recent origin, and his grouping and classification of them, constituted a new departure in the science. In 1876 Dr. Hunt participated in the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania under Professor Lesley.
Professional Affiliations
Dr. Hunt served in many capacities in many organizations during his career. He was President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1870. He was a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Boston. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and was a member of the Imperial Leopoldo-Carolinian Academy of Germany and of the Geological Society of France, the Geological Society of Belgium, the Geological Society of Ireland and the geological societies of many other countries. He was a member of the International Juries at the Great Expositions at Paris in 1855 and 1867 and was an officer of the Legion of Honor.
Youmans, E.L., "Sketch of Thomas Sterry Hunt, LL.D., F.R.S." Popular Science Monthly, vol. VIII, February 1876, pp. 486-488
Thomas Sterry Hunt, LL.D, FRS
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