Call Number:

C1095

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 2 boxes
• 2.2 linear feet

Language:

English and French

Preferred Citation:

Citations should be as follows: Arnold Guyot Collection, Box #, Folder #, Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1829-1928 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Guyot, A. (Arnold) (1807-1884)

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century, Diplomas--19th century., Documents. -- 19th century, and Manuscripts. -- 20th century

Abstract:

Consists of selected correspondence, documents, and related material by and about Arnold Guyot, the Swiss-born American geologist, geographer, and educator whose extensive meteorological observations led to the founding of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Arnold Guyot was a Swiss-born American geologist, geographer, and educator. Born in Boudevilliers, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland, he obtained his doctoral degree at Berlin. Between 1839 and 1848 he taught physical geography and history at the Academy of Neuchâtel. In 1948 Guyot came to the United States, and in 1854 he was appointed Professor of Geology and Physical Geography at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). The following year he began what is now the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences and started the institution's first systematic instruction in geology. In 1856 he founded what is now the Princeton Museum of Natural History. Guyot's main activities focused on hypsometric measurements of the eastern mountains from New England to North Carolina, on meteorology, and on the reform of geographic teaching in colleges and secondary schools. Guyot was involved in the formative years of weather forecasting in the United States, and his extensive meteorological observations led to the founding of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Guyot also developed topographical maps of the Appalachian and Catskill mountains. His published works include The Earth and Man (English translation, 1849), Tables, Meteorological and Physical (1859), and Creation, or The Biblical Cosmogony in the Light of Modern Science (1884). Guyot's many texts, geographic atlases, and wall charts continued to be published long after his death. The guyot, a flat-topped volcanic peak rising from the ocean floor, is named after him.

The collection consists of selected correspondence and documents by and about Arnold Guyot, and a typescript titled "Arnold Guyot et Princeton" by Leonard Chester Jones. The correspondence includes three letters by Guyot to E. H. Champion, one letter to "Monsieur Rodrigués," and one letter to William Webster. In addition, there are letters between Varnum Lansing Collins, Arnold Guyot Dana, Leonard Chester Jones, Arthur Piaget, and others regarding Guyot, dated between 1927 and 1928. The documents include diplomas and scholarly awards relevant to the academic career of Guyot. They include his PhD diploma from Berlin, his MA from Harvard, certificates of membership to La Société de Geographie, La Société Entomologique de France, La Société des Sciences Naturel, the Royal Academy of Turin, La Société Géologique de France, the American Geographical and Statistical Society, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the Albany Institute, the American Oriental Society, and a certificate of merit awarded by the Vienna Exposition of 1873. Jones's typescript (113 pp.) about the life and accomplishments of Arnold Guyot while he was at Princeton University is written in French, with holographic corrections and annotations. It was published in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1929.