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James Dwight Dana Facts & Worksheets

a 19th-century geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist

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James Dwight Dana was born and raised in America, his expeditions resulted in significant studies of mountain building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structures of continents and ocean basins.

See the fact file below for more information on James Dwight Dana or alternatively, you can download our 28-page James Dwight Dana worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Early Years

  • James Dwight Dana was born on February 12, 1813, in Utica, New York. 
  • The eldest of four children, he was born into a religious family. His father, James Dana, owned a hardware store, and his mother, Harriet Dwight, was related to the Dwight New England family of missionaries and educators. 
  • Dana was proficient with different tools as he used to help in his father’s business. He was also skilled in music as he could play piano and guitar. He liked to collect rocks, plants, and insects when he was a kid. 
  • He attended Utica high school and was taught by Bible translator, Faye Edgerton. In 1830, he attended Yale College and was instructed by his future father-in-law, Benjamin Silliman. 
  • He graduated in 1833 and became an instructor on a US Navy vessel that sailed to the Mediterranean. While working here, he saw Vesuvius‘ eruption and pursued entomology.
  • Silliman published his first scientific paper in the Journal about the volcano’s eruption.
  • He returned to Yale in 1834, where he developed a new mineral classification. It was based on chemistry and crystallography and using his own childhood collection and Silliman’s cabinet of minerals. It resulted in a book “System of Mineralogy,” published when he was only 24. 
  • From 1838 to 1842, he worked as a mineralogist and geologist in the US Exploring Expedition, commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes. 
  • The expedition charted the islands in the Pacific for potential way stations for American clipper ships and whalers before venturing to Antarctica. The Pacific was an excellent opportunity for the budding scientist. 
  • The journey pushed him to pursue geology and other branches of natural history as he was taken to the Andes, to the atolls and reefed volcanic islands of the Pacific, and Kilauea, one of the active volcanoes in Hawaii. 
  • His four-year trip resulted in fifty sketches of maps, diagrams, including views of both Mount Shasta and Castle Crags. His illustration of the former became the second view of the mountain ever published. 
  • In 1844, he married Silliman’s daughter, Henrietta Frances Silliman. He settled in New Haven, Connecticut. The two had four children, two daughters, and two sons.
  • In 1850, he was appointed as his father-in-law’s successor and became a Professor of Natural History and Geology at Yale College. He served in the same school in the same position until his retirement in 1892.  
  • In 1846, Dana joined the American Journal of Science and Arts, becoming a joint editor.
  • Dana was named the president of the Geological Study of America in 1890. Before that, the Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal in 1877, the Geological Society of London a Wollaston Medal in 1874, and the Royal Society of New South Wales, a Clarke Medal in 1882. 
  • Dana died on April 14, 1895, in New Haven, Connecticut, at 82. He was honored multiple times by naming a Mars crater, a mineral (Danalite), a wrinkle ridge system on the moon (Dorsa Dana), and other landmarks and structures.

Famous Works

  • His work in Mount Shasta, published in 1849, was in response to the California gold rush publicity.
  • As one of the few geologists in America who knew the terrain in California, he confirmed that it is very likely to find gold in Northern California given the geography and geology of the area.
  • From 1880 to 1881, Dana embarked on the first geological study of volcanoes in Hawaii. He theorized that there were two strands in the chain of volcanoes in the area known as the “loa” and the “kea” strands. 
  • He confirmed it in 1890 after his expedition with a fellow geologist Clarence Edward Dutton in 1884, in his published manuscript on the island. It was the most detailed study of the island, which is used until now and became a definitive source concerning Hawaii’s volcanoes.
  • Dana pioneered the classification of geological formations concerning the stages of progress in building the continents and their local structural features. He explained that mountains and continents are products of cooling and subsequently shrinking earth. He compared it to grapes turning into raisins or wrinkling human skin as we grow old. 
  • He coined the term geosynclines to describe old belts of thick deformed strata along the edges of continents. 
  • He also regarded rocks not only as aggregates of mineral matter but as geological formations that could help identify the history of the Earth and be defined as of a particular period or an epoch. 

Publications

  • Various universities and colleges used Dana’s book as a standard college text. He even used his own publications while teaching at Yale college. 
  • Dana’s System of Mineralogy was published in four editions during his lifetime. It was revised in its six editions by his son, Edward Salisbury Dana, printed in 1862. The eighth and final edition was issued in 1997 under the title Dana’s New Mineralogy, edited by R. V. Gaines et al 
  • His other books, Manual of Mineralogy and Manual of Geology, had become the standard college text. It was continuously revised until the 23rd edition in 2007 under the title “Manual of the Mineral Science, revised by Cornelis Klein and Barbara Dutrow. 
  • He also wrote Science and the Bible: A review of the Six Days of Creation” of Prof. Taylor Lewis in 1856 and Creation, Or, The Biblical Cosmogony in the Light of Modern Science in 1885. As a religious man, he tried to reconcile his scientific findings with the Bible. 

James Dwight Dana Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about James Dwight Dana across 28 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use James Dwight Dana worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about James Dwight Dana who was a 19th-century geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. Born and raised in America, his expeditions resulted in significant studies of mountain building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structures of continents and ocean basins.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • James Dwight Dana Facts 
  • Dana’s  Bio
  • The Missing Words 
  • Notable Theories
  • Dana’s Circle 
  • The Dana Publications
  •  Dana’s Works 
  • A Geologist’s Life 
  • Tributes to a Geologist
  • A Fulfilling Life
  • Dana’s Words

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