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The mineralogist and archeologist William Niven was born on October 6th 1850 in Bellshill.

Niven emigrated to the United States in 1879, where he became heavily involved in mineralogy and mining.

In 1911 Niven discovered ancient ruins buried beneath volcanic ash near Azcapotzalco in the Federal District, just north of Mexico City. He devoted the next two decades of his life to archeological exploration in the Valley of Mexico and through an arrangement with the Mexican government was able to fund his digging by the sale of artifacts. Niven established a private museum in Mexico City with more than 20,000 exhibits.

Niven was a founding member of the New York Mineralogical Club, an honorary life member of the American Museum of Natural History, a member of the Scientific Society Antonio Alzate in Mexico, and a fellow in the American Geographic Society of New York and the Royal Society of Arts in London. In 1929 he moved to Houston, where he donated a large number of Mexican artifacts to the new Houston Museum and Scientific Society and served on its board of trustees. In 1931 he moved to Austin. He died there on June 2, 1937, and was buried in Mount Calvary cemetery.

#scotland #scottish #history #minerologist #archeologist

The Scottish naturalist and mineralogist Robert Jameson was born on July 11th 1774 AT Leith.

Jameson was educated at Leith Grammar school, where he excelled and went on to became the apprentice of the Leith surgeon John Cheyne, planning on becoming a ships surgeon. He also attended classes at the University of Edinburgh studying botany, chemistry and natural history. By 1793 he had abandoned medicine and the idea of a life at sea, and focused instead on science, particularly geology and mineralogy, his class mates included Joseph Black and Thomas Dick, two future notable members of the Edinburgh Eliterati that were part of The Scottish Enlightenment.

He must have impressed the University hierarchy as that same year he was given charge of the Natural History department, at the age of just 19, the beginning of a long association lasting over 50 years. In 1804 he succeeded Dr Walker as the third Regius Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University, during this period he became the first eminent exponent in the British Isles of the Wernerian geological system.

Although not always agreeing with him, Jameson worked with the eminent James Hutton who is often referred to as the ‘father’ of modern geology.

As a teacher, Jameson is said to be remarkable for his power of imparting enthusiasm to his students, and from his class-room there radiated an influence which gave a marked impetus to the study of geology, but not by all his pupils, a young student by the name of Charles Darwin apparently found the lectures boring, this may have been to Darwin being only 16 at the time and Jameson much more senior at 52.

Over Jameson’s fifty year tenure, he built up a huge collection of mineralogical and geological specimens for the Museum of Edinburgh University, including fossils, birds and insects. By 1852 there were over 74,000 zoological and geological specimens at the museum, and in Britain the natural history collection was second only to that of the British Museum. Shortly after his death, the University Museum was transferred to the British Crown and became part of the Royal Scottish Museum, now the Royal Museum, in Edinburgh’s Chambers Street. He was also a prolific author of scientific papers and books, including the Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles.

Robert Jameson died in Edinburgh on 19th April 1854. A portrait of Robert Jameson is housed by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Edinburgh, and a bust of him is in the Old College of the University of Edinburgh.

#scotland #scottish #university of edinburgh #tutor #professor #the scottish enlightenment #history #minerologist

The Scottish naturalist and mineralogist Robert Jameson was born on July 11th 1774 at Leith.

Jameson has always had a slightly sour reputation, primarily because of Charles Darwin’s reminiscences about his days at Edinburgh and Jameson’s’ “incredibly dull” lectures. Jameson was also one of the last of the geological Neptunists, who believed that all rocks, including granite and basalt, had been deposited from water, a view that Darwin also mocks in his Autobiography. But Jameson had a sizable up-side. He was an avid collector of fossils, skins, and minerals, and his collection morphed into the Edinburgh College Natural History Museum (as seen in the second image), which became the Royal Museum of Edinburgh in 1904 and is now part of the National Museum of Scotland. By 1852 there were over 74,000 zoological and geological specimens at the museum, only second to the British museum in London.

It also turns out that Jameson had a little secret that makes him much more interesting. In 1826, an anonymous article was published in the first volume of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, titled “Observations on the Nature and Importance of Geology,” in which the author praised the idea of the transmutation of species, as advocated by the French zoologist Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Since there was a known Lamarckian at Edinburgh at this time, Robert Grant (whom Darwin praised in the same autobiography where he damned Jameson), it has always been assumed that Grant was the author of this proto-evolutionary piece. But this assumption was ill-founded, for it turns out that the most likely author is Jameson, he was proposing evolutionary ideas long before Darwin had any such notions! If you like to divide historical figures into good guys and bad guys, and Jameson has usually been a bad guy, but it turns out there was more to him than people knew. Perhaps Darwin should have paid more attention in Jameson’s class.

Robert Jameson died at his home, 21 Royal Circus in Edinburgh, on 19th April 1854 after two years of illness, and was interred at Warriston Cemetery in Edinburgh.

#Scotland #scottish #geologist #naturalist.#minerologist #regius professor #history

The mineralogist and archeologist William Niven was born on October 2nd 1850 in Bellshill.

Niven emigrated to the United States in 1879, where he became heavily involved in mineralogy and mining.

In 1911 Niven discovered ancient ruins buried beneath volcanic ash near Azcapotzalco in the Federal District, just north of Mexico City. He devoted the next two decades of his life to archeological exploration in the Valley of Mexico and through an arrangement with the Mexican government was able to fund his digging by the sale of artefacts. Niven established a private museum in Mexico City with more than 20,000 exhibits.

He recovered the first in a series of unusual stone tablets bearing pictographs from his digs at San Miguel Amantla, Azcapotzalco, and elsewhere in the Valley of Mexico in 1921. This discovery eventually totalled more than 2,600 tablets. Niven was a founding member of the New York Mineralogical Club, an honorary life member of the American Museum of Natural History, a member of the Scientific Society Antonio Alzate in Mexico, and a fellow in the American Geographic Society of New York and the Royal Society of Arts in London. In 1929 he moved to Houston, where he donated a large number of Mexican artifacts to the new Houston Museum and Scientific Society and served on its board of trustees.

In 1931 he moved to Austin. He died there on June 2, 1937, and was buried in Mount Calvary cemetery.

More about Niven and his finds here http://docshare01.docshare.tips/files/3229/32295825.pdf

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Anyone know any good blogs along the lines of geology, mineralogy, and gemology? I wanna focus on the sourcing and extracting of natural raw material, even gallery pages would be nice. Thanks.😊 Any suggestions?