Request Material
LeConte, Emma - photograph album
Descriptive Summary | |
| Title: LeConte, Emma - photograph album | |
| Creator: Unknown | |
| Inclusive Dates: 1900 | |
| Language(s): English | |
| Extent: 1 Linear Feet 1 oversized box | |
| Collection Number: ms2942 | |
| Repository: Hargrett Library | |
Collection Description
Historical Note
Joseph LeConte, born in 1823, graduated from the University of Georgia in 1841. He enrolled in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1844 and received an M.D. in 1845. He married Elizabeth Caroline Nisbet in 1847 and established a medical practice in Macon. Upon completing his studies in 1851 he returned to Georgia and became professor of chemistry and natural history at Oglethorpe University (then located near Milledgeville). In 1852 Joseph was appointed professor of geology and natural history at the University of Georgia. Involved in a dispute with the university president, he left the university a year after his brother departed, and in 1857 he became professor of chemistry and geology at South Carolina College.
During the Civil War he aided the Confederacy, first in producing medicines and later in the niter works. As his brother John had done, Joseph joined the faculty of the University of California, departing for the West Coast in 1869. Although he often expressed a desire to return to the South, he readily adapted to his new state, where he gained fame for his success as a professor of geology and physiology.
The author of about 200 publications, including nine books, Joseph LeConte won special recognition for his Elements of Geology (1877), Sight: An Exposition of the Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision (1881), and Evolution and Its Relation to Religious Thought (1888). Revised four times, the geology textbook remained in use until the 1920s. A detailed study of the physiology of human vision, Sight was the first work of its kind in America. Evolution enjoyed notable success as an effort to reconcile the theory of evolution with Christian beliefs.
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1875, Joseph LeConte served as president of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1891) and the Geological Society of America (1896). A devoted camper and mountain lover, he was a charter member of the Sierra Club. His Journal of Ramblings through the High Sierra of California was published in 1875 and reissued in 1930 and 1960. His Autobiography was published in 1903, and his 'Ware Sherman, an account of his escape from Union troops near the end of the Civil War, was published in 1937 and reissued in 1999.
LeConte died in 1901 while camping in Yosemite National Park. Joseph LeConte was the father of five children: Emma Florence, Sarah Elizabeth, Josephine Eloise (died in early childhood), Caroline Eaton, and Joseph Nisbet.
Emma's diary of events surrounding Union general William T. Sherman's attack on Columbia, South Carolina, in February 1865 was published as "When the World Ended" in 1957 and reissued in 1987. Her husband, Farish Furman, became a farmer near Milledgeville and developed a highly successful fertilizer for growing cotton. For more information, see the article LeConte Family in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of an album which includes photographs that were taken during one or more camping trips by Joseph LeConte with family members and others in the area of Kings River Canyon, California and the Sierra Nevada. See the accession folder for an article by Joseph LeConte about his trip to this area.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
LeConte, Emma - photograph album, ms2942, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.