Home > William Maclure

Maclure was born at Ayr in Scotland. After a brief visit to New York in 1782 he began active life as a partner in a London firm of American merchants. In 1796 business affairs took him to Virginia, U.S.A., which he thereafter made his home. In 1803 he visited France as one of the commissioners appointed to settle the claims of American citizens on the French government; and during the few years then spent in Europe he applied himself with enthusiasm to the study of geology.

On his return home in 1807 he commenced the self-imposed task of making a geological survey of the United States. Almost every state in the Union was traversed and mapped by him, the Allegheny Mountains being crossed and recrossed some fifty times. The results of his unaided labours were submitted to the American Philosophical Society in a memoir entitled Observations on the Geology of the United States explanatory of a Geological Map, and published in the Society's Transactions (vol. iv. 1809, p. 91) together with the first geological map of that country. This antedates William Smith's geological map of EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England by six years. In 1817 Maclure brought before the same society a revised edition of his map, and his great geological memoir was issued separately, with some additional matter, under the title Observations on the Geology of the United States of America. Subsequent survey has corroborated the general accuracy of Maclure's observations.

In 1819 he visited SpainThe Kingdom of Spain is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It inc, and attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish an agricultural college near the city of AlicanteAlicante ( Catalan: Alacant Spanish: Alicante is the capital city of the province of Alicante, in the south of the Valencian Country, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. Alicante is an important Seaport. As of the 2003 census, the population of the city of A. Returning to America in 1824, he settled for some years at New Harmony, IndianaNew Harmony is a town located in Posey County, Indiana. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 916. Geography New Harmony is located at 38°7'43" North, 87°56'3" West (38. 128583, -87. According to the United States Census Bureau, the to, and sought to develop his scheme of the agricultural college. Failing health ultimately constrained him to relinquish the attempt, and to seek (in 1827) a more congenial climate in MexicoThis article is about the country Mexico. For other meanings, see Mexico (disambiguation The United Mexican States or Mexico ( Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or Mexico regarding the use of the variant spelling Mejico see section The name below) is a co. There, at San Angel , he died.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica