Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873, APS 1860), geologist, was an important figure in the development of the modern discipline of geology. He was educated at Cambridge, being ordained in 1817. An excellent field geologist, he did significant work interpreting complex old rock in such places as Devonshire (naming the Devonian Period after that location), Cornwall, and the Lake District, correlating his findings with strata in other places such as Germany. Sedgwick first interpreted strata from the period he named Cambrian. He served in many professional organizations and was honored for his work with the Wollaston and Copley medals. Sedgwick, a Liberal in politics, served on the committees that reformed the administration of university education. Despite being a friend of Charles Darwin's, Sedgwick was critical of the materialist bent of Darwinian thought.

Sedgwick was born in Dent, Yorkshire, England, on March 22, 1785. He had a stable and happy home life in Dent, where his father was vicar. Dent lies in one of the Yorkshire Dales, famous even today for its picturesqueness. In the late 18th century it was the home to self-sufficient farmers referred to as statesman. While never the rural paradise that Sedgwick and others such as his friend William Wordsworth could imagine it to be, Dentdale was nevertheless a prosperous place, producing cottage knitted goods, Galloway ponies, farm products (especially butter), and cooperage. Sedgwick spent most of his life beyond Dentdale but all his life sustained a relationship with it and its people. For instance, in 1868 he wrote A Memorial by the Trustees of Cowgill Chapel, which is one of the best sources about life in Dentdale. More profoundly, Dentdale formed Sedgwick's character. Colin Speakman writes of him, "[Sedgwick's] forthrightness, his Broad Church radicalism, his sometimes rather simplistic way of distinguishing right from wrong, . . . his generosity, his warmth, his vivid and homely descriptive powers" might have seemed somewhat out-of-place in Cambridge but would have seemed typical in Dentdale. Sedgwick also remained close to his family, especially his sister Isabella and a niece, also named Isabella, who was his companion and nurse in his later years.

Like other 19th century English geologists, Sedgwick spent his youth rambling over the countryside, where he also collected rocks and fossils. Following attendance at the Dent grammar school, he went to the nearby Sedbergh School, boarding at a farm whose owner was a relative of the Fosters of Hebblethwaite Hall, good friends of the Sedgwick family. Among the school's pupils was the mathematician George Peacock (1791-1858), who became a colleague of Sedgwick's at Trinity College.

Sedbergh School was run by the Rev. William Stevens, a competent but stern and apparently troubled man. In Sedbergh, however, resided the surgeon and mathematician John Dawson, a man of remarkable intellectual and moral integrity. Dawson practiced medicine, worked in mathematics, and tutored students drawn to him by his reputation as a mathematician and teacher. (Among his achievements, Dawson had demonstrated that it was possible to determine the distance to the sun by observing the orbit of Venus, a fact confirmed during Cook's voyage to Tahiti in 1768.) Dawson was an inspiration and model for Sedgwick throughout his life.

Despite his modest family means, Sedgwick was able to attend Trinity College, University of Cambridge, as a sizar, a type of scholarship student, chosen from a group of subsizars by examination. A recognizable type as the poor, hardworking, ambitious scholarship student, Sedgwick was graduated with distinction in mathematics in 1808. He did not receive a much-needed Fellowship in 1809, but successfully qualified through examination in 1810. The Fellowship offered a measure of financial security but the relentless intellectual work, decreasing interest in mathematics, increasing loneliness as his friends were graduated, and drudgery of teaching uninterested students wore him down; his health broke following a river trip in 1813. Rest and country living restored his health. However, although amazingly strong and untiring, Sedgwick never completely recovered from his breakdown. Outdoor exercise remained a physical and emotional necessity, but he suffered frequent bouts of ill health and grew increasingly hypochondriacal as he aged.

An amiable, generous, well-liked person who applied himself to university life, Sedgwick became an assistant tutor in 1815. He was ordained in 1817, not because of theological conviction but because of economic necessity: he would have lost his Fellowship if he had not taken orders. It was a rather surprising start for a churchman who became identified with the anti-materialist, god-centered critics of Darwin's evolutionary theories. Sedgwick nevertheless became a conscientious minister and excellent preacher. His chief theological duty was a prebendary at Norwich, which he accepted in 1834.

Sedgwick's great opportunity came when the Woodwardian Professorship of Geology became vacant in 1818. Endowed by John Woodward (1665-1728), the position carried with it relatively light responsibilities (guardianship of the geology collection and the requirement of delivering four lectures a year) but was less remunerative than being an assistant tutor, was not prestigious (as endowed chairs would be later in the 19th century) and required that the professor be unmarried. The intellectual challenge, chance at an outdoor life, and freedom from the drudgery of teaching undergraduates attracted Sedgwick. He was overwhelming elected more for his potential than for his existing expertise. Never having systematically studied geology and never having done field work, Sedgwick legendarily (and probably apocryphally) remarked, "Hitherto I have never turned a stone; henceforth I will leave no stone unturned." He was, however, likely familiar with the geologic issues of the day, having been formally "introduced" to the Geological Society of London in 1816, an unlikely event for a complete tyro. Sedgwick never married and remained at Trinity College the rest of his life.

Sedgwick quickly set about becoming a geologist. He took his first field trip in the summer of 1818. In 1822 he first tackled the famously complex geology of the Lake District, where he met William Wordsworth. Sedgwick's pioneering work on the Cumbrian Mountains was not published until 1835. His time in the District also produced "Three Letters Upon the Geology of the Lake District Addressed to W. Wordsworth, Esq." (1842). The "letters," later increased to five, appeared with Wordsworth's "Guide to the Lakes" in a volume edited by John Hudson.

Sedgwick also immediately became active in professional organizations. He was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1818 and was an officer and active member for decades, serving as president from 1829 to 1831. Sedgwick played a leading role in founding the Cambridge Philosophical Society, an organization of the same type as the APS, in 1819. Following the pattern begun earlier in his career, Sedgwick helped found the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831, serving as president in 1833 and as a leading member of its geology section. And Sedgwick's organizing activities were not confined to "professional" organizations ("professional" and "amateur" were not distinct terms in Sedgwick's time, when a figure such as Darwin was a gentleman scientist without academic appointment and with an independent income). Sedgwick even organized a geological society during his residence as prebend at Norwich.

In 1819 Sedgwick began the series of lectures that led to his renown as a forceful, accessible, inspiring teacher with a commanding presence. His language was strong and picturesque. Sedgwick saw lectures as an introduction to details found in textbooks. Rather than burden an audience with minutia, Sedgwick sought to spark the imagination by opening up ways of thinking. In a time when lectures were not required of students and frequently not about what they needed to know for graduation, Sedgwick's drew colleagues and townspeople as well as undergraduates, his lectures becoming a feature of Cambridge life. Sedgwick gave his last lecture in 1870 when he was 85 years old -- his 52nd series.

Care of the geologic collection at Cambridge was another of Sedgwick's duties. The collection grew substantially under Sedgwick's care, becoming one of the best in the world. Sedgwick added specimens he gathered from the field and purchased collections with university and his own money as well as funds solicited for the purpose. Catalogs of the collection were published, such as a systematic description of the Paleozoic fossils in 1855. Through Sedgwick's constant effort a new building was erected for the collection in 1840. This building was already inadequate by the time of Sedgwick's death; a new one was erected in 1904, and the museum was named in Sedgwick's honor. Today it is called The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.

One of Sedgwick's most lasting contributions to higher education was his work in university reform. A Liberal in politics and a firm believer in the value of a balanced curriculum, Sedgwick was a forceful proponent of political reform in England and educational reform at Cambridge. For example, he supported the Reform Bill, not a popular stance in the Cambridge community, that was passed in 1832. Also, in 1834 Sedgwick led a then-unsuccessful campaign to abolish the religious tests that effectively kept Dissenters and Catholics out of Cambridge. Sedgwick's understanding of and commitment to broad, liberal education was laid out in his 1833 work, A Discourse on the Studies of the University.

Real reform at Cambridge began in 1847 with the election of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Consort, to the office of Chancellor. The Prince asked Sedgwick to be his Secretary. Sedgwick's position was difficult. Although a member of the Cambridge Establishment, having been made Vice-Master of Trinity in 1845, he was also a reformist, as was the Prince, for whom Sedgwick would work. Some reform came in 1848, when two new tripos (undergraduate examinations) were established, one in the natural sciences, which Sedgwick wrote from 1851 to 1860, and a system was established to ensure that undergraduates attended at least one professional lecture before graduating.

A Royal Commission was set up in 1850, with Sedgwick as a Commissioner. The Commission's report, largely written by Sedgwick, recommended many reforms: democratizing the University Senate, abolishing archaic privileges, reforming examinations, awarding scholarships and fellowships by merit only, having colleges contribute to the salaries of lecturers and professors (who were dependent upon student lecture fees). The University did not act on the recommendations, however, so a parliamentary commission, on which Sedgwick also served, had to be established, which drew up a bill to enact into law many of the reforms.

It was of course as a geologist that Sedgwick made his name. Although Sedgwick disliked writing professional papers and never produced a geological text such as his contemporary Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, he nevertheless produced some classic short works in a career that spanned the Heroic Age of geology.

Early in his career, Sedgwick followed the ideas of Abraham Gottlieb Werner (1749-1818) who believed rocks were created entirely by the action of primeval seas. His followers were termed Neptunists, and their theories were easily reconciled with Biblical creation. An opposing school was developed by James Hutton (1726-1797), who emphasized the action of volcanic forces and fires over great spans of time. These Plutonists posited a more mechanistic view of geology that seemed a denial of the Old Testament. Lyell was a Plutonist who emphasized the idea that forces that shaped the past are identical to the ones at work now, thus creating the idea of Uniformitariansim, a term coined by William Whewell (1794-1866). Sedgwick, antithetical to the atheistic tendencies of the mechanistic view but believing in the overwhelming evidence of the age of the earth, discarded his early Neptunism and adopted the theories of Georges Cuvier (1769-1856), William Buckland (1784-1856), and Elie de Beaumont (1798-1874) who were Catastrophists, believing in periods of sudden cataclysmic changes, such as those that had perhaps raised the Alps.

Such were the geologic theories at the time Sedgwick was doing his most important field work. In the field, Sedgwick had a flair for grasping the regional significance of local details, developing ideas on stratigraphical continuity that effectively showed links between formations. Among the important field work he did was to explain the nature of the New Red Sandstone (a term no longer used) by using the distinctive Magnesia Limestone of northeastern England and them to correlate the Sandstone with classic successions in Germany. In his "Remarks on the Structure of Large Mineral Masses" (1835) Sedgwick used his mathematical training along with his skill in the field to clearly analyze the effects of diagenesis; in the same paper he provided the crucial technical key to interpreting complex folding by distinctively explaining stratification, jointing, and cleavage. Also, in collaboration with Robert Impey Murchison (1792-1871), Sedgwick discovered that some rocks in Devonshire were lateral equivalents of the well-known Old Red Sandstone and in so doing named a new geologic period: Devonian.

A long and often bitter controversy with Murchison was a significant feature of Sedgwick's career. Both men desired to be the discoverer of the strata where the first fossils were to be found. Sedgwick's Cambrian System, which he was first to define, was very thick, and its upper reaches contained fossils of invertebrate fauna. The fossil record seemed to begin in the Cambrian. Murchison began to assert, however, that the Upper Cambrian was in reality part of "his" Silurian System of younger rock; he eventually added almost all of the fossiliferous Cambrian to the Silurian System. The dispute was aggravated by what Sedgwick viewed as editorial tampering by the Geological Society with one of his papers. In a display of temper (Sedgwick's least attractive characteristic) Sedgwick broke off ties with the Society.

Sedgwick eventually discovered that Murchison had confused strata in two places, which in one instance created a spurious uniformity in Silurian fossils. Murchison, however, would not admit his errors, so the two men remained estranged. Later, other geologists discovered more fossils that were defined as Cambrian and added a geologic age with representative fossils named the Ordovician that comprised Sedgwick's Upper Cambrian and Murchison's Lower Silurian.

Sedgwick's most famous student was Charles Darwin, who accompanied Sedgwick on a trip to Wales. The lessons in practical geology provided great dividends when Darwin put them to work during his Beagle voyage. Sedgwick also furthered Darwin's career by reading some of his work to the Geological Society. However, Sedgwick did not believe in the transmutation of species as laid out in Darwin's Origin of Species.

The root of Sedgwick's opposition was that in removing God from the origin of flora and fauna, and thus removing intelligent design from the natural world, human moral responsibility is undermined. The universe is governed by an active intelligence, present in the design and purpose observable in the natural world of mutual dependence. The world is old, as the geologic evidence shows, but that does not preclude species coming and going over time due to catastrophes originating from the Creator, a force beyond human comprehension. Contemplating nature leads one closer to the mind God. Sedgwick was far from a fundamentalist. He attacked simple Mosaic interpretations of natural history, but he also believed that materialists ignored evidence of design.

Despite all the controversies, and despite being viewed late in his long life as a superannuated figure, Sedgwick was widely admired as a warmhearted and noble person. His contributions to geology were recognized with the award of the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society in 1833 and the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1863. His greatest legacy might be his role in developing university science education. He died in 1873.

The 37 letters in the collection were acquired at various times, mainly through purchase, and assembled for the collection. The letters span the dates 1825-1870. Individually the letters are not especially significant, but collectively they touch on most aspects of Sedgwick's life and career. There are letters about Sedgwick's work on university reform, the Geological Museum at Cambridge, lectures, colleagues, travel, health, and family. Only one letter in the collection delves into any detail about Sedgwick's geologic work.

Several letters contain material about Sedgwick's prominent role in university reform. A letter from 1832 explains the use of the Royal mandamus petition to grant degrees. In a letter to his boyhood friend George Peacock, dating probably from March 1847, Sedgwick notes that he did his "utmost to keep good humour" around him during the recent election of Prince Albert to the Chancellorship of Cambridge. Lord Monteagle has just informed Sedgwick that the Prince has accepted the post.

Another topic of the letters is the Geologic Museum. A letter from 1829 talks about mineral specimens and the fact that "Mr. Tennant succeeded Mawe" in the Strand shop; both Mawe and Tennant were prominent mineralogists and dealers familiar professionally to Sedgwick as colleagues and providers of specimens. One letter from 1842 notes the upcoming inspection and audit of the museum, the first since the move into the new building in 1841. Sopwith ( Thomas Sopwith, a mining engineer also known for his geologic models) is mentioned in the letter, as is one "Sowerby," a member of the distinguished family of naturalists. Another letter, from March 1856, concerns raising funds for the purchase of the paleontology collection of Rev. T. Image, a drive that was eventually successful.

Five letters from 1842-3 discuss the creation of a model for his lectures. The letters could be to Thomas Sopwith, but the correspondent is unidentified. The model is to be similar to the one belonging to Henry Thomas de la Beche of the Forest of Dean. There are specific instructions about making the model with a stout cover so that it can be used as a table during a lecture.

More than a few letters feature colleagues, or life at the university, usually in routine matters such as arranging to meet. One letter (undated, but from 1848) notes that while Henry De La Beche was to be knighted, "I hope now that he mounts his spurs he will not drop his hammer." Another (June 19, 1854) notes that Sedgwick wants to return to Cambridge to "attend Hall," that is, to dine at Trinity College, where he is "Master & Lord of the Spit" and where he is needed because his antiquarian friends tend to forget to eat.

Sedgwick did not travel out of Britain very often, though he did travel frequently about the country, visiting relatives, friends, and of course on trips to the field. A letter (January 30, 1830) notes that he saw a blast that brought down some chalk cliffs at Dover. In a charming letter (undated, but from August 14, 1850) to an unidentified correspondent about a visit to the Duchess of Argyll, Sedgwick playfully notes his inability to be at Cambridge now because since the Duchess has invited him to stay, it is his policy that whenever "duty & inclination have a fight, [Sedgwick] thinks it best & most manly that inclination should win"; it is "a severe code of morals for a poor old Monk" but he will ask for the Duchess' "grace and absolution" tomorrow. Two letters discuss trips taken to spas for Sedgwick's health, one referring to his extended stay in Wiesbaden (undated, but from 1844), another about a brief stop in Bath (April 11, 1870).

The spa letters are part of the half of the collection that has some mention of Sedgwick's health. Bronchitis, colds, "influenza," gout, and "sluggish liver" are some of the conditions mentioned. A letter from April 26, 1842, says that Sedgwick is suffering from "suppressed gout," and he wishes that it would "show its face at the surface instead of lurking among my vitals, & poisoning the fresh air of life."

Several letters discuss aspects of Sedgwick's family life. In two Sedgwick writes to relatives of people he had known in earlier life. One (1864) reminisces about the correspondent's father, who was ordained with Sedgwick. The other (1847) reminisces about the correspondent's father, "Mr. Foster of Hebblethwaite Hall" in Sedbergh, a friend of the Sedgwick family from his youth. Mr. Foster was a man of "uncommon stamp." But the last time Sedgwick visited Sedbergh, it seemed that all the people he knew were gone.

Finally, one letter in the collection discusses in some detail Sedgwick's geology. It was written in (probably January) 1842 to an unidentified correspondent. Sedgwick writes that he is sending the correspondent a box of "Bala fossils" (there are today a town, a limestone formation, and a geologic sub-period of that name) collected by the late "Mr. Bowman" (probably John Eddoes Bowman, 1785-1841). The correspondent saw the Bala fossils Robert Murchison and Sedgwick collected in 1834. The Bala fossils "may contain some new species." The new fossils "should be brought into some comparison with those of Coniston water Head," that is, fossils found at the head of Coniston Water, the third largest lake in the English Lake District. Sedgwick now thinks that the Bala fossils "are on a lower parallel than that of Coniston" though many of the species are certainly the same. Sedgwick adds that the Snowdons "lie many thousand feet lower still, but the old species still show their faces."

Provenance

Assembled from the following manuscript purchases, listed by accession date and number: 1955 1030ms; 1955 1031ms; 1967 2641ms; 1971 1189ms; 1971 1667ms; 1971 1819ms; 1972 434ms; 1972 476ms; 1974 1450ms; 1975 92ms; 1976 1490.fms; 1979 1519ms; 1979 1661ms; 1980 1301ms; 1981 1963ms; 1983 780ms; 1984 196ms; and from the following manuscript collections: AL1.2; B: AL1.3; B Se25L. Accession and call numbers are found at the end of the description of each letter.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Adam Sedgwick Collection, American Philosophical Society

Processing information

Recatalogued by Charles Greifenstein, 2004

Related material

As was typical of his milieu, Sedgwick was a voluminous letter writer. The largest collections of Sedgwick material are found at Cambridge University. The University Library holds most of his correspondence as well as material gathered for the biography by Clark and Hughes (at least 20 linear feet total). Trinity College Library also has Sedgwick correspondence. The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences has Sedgwick's field notebooks, specimens, personal artifacts, and material related to the production of Museum catalogs.

A large group of almost 300 letters is found at the Geological Society of London in the Robert I. Murchison Papers. There is a collection of over 100 letters to John Phillips at the Museum of Natural History at Oxford University. In addition, there are smaller holdings in collections throughout Great Britain and elsewhere.

Sedgwick letters are found in the following APS collections:

1. Charles Darwin Papers (B D25L), letters from Sedgwick to Charles Lyell
2. William Hutton Papers (B H978)
3. J. P. Lesley Papers (B L56)
4. Letters of Scientists (509 L59)
5. Sir Charles Lyell Papers (B L981)
6. Samuel Pickworth Woodward Collection (B W854)
7. APS Archives (506.73 Am4Le, vols. I and III), letters on nomination for membership and acknowledging election

Bibliography

Early American History Note

The Adam Sedgwick Collection consists primarily of correspondence among English scientists in the middle of the nineteenth century.

• Geological Society of London
• Sedgwick Museum
• University of Cambridge.

• Scientific Correspondence

• Sedbergh (England)

• Airy, George Biddell, 1801-1892
• Clift, William, 1775-1849
• De La Beche, Henry T. (Henry Thomas), 1796-1855
• James, John. K., Sir, bart., 1
• Lloyd, Humphrey, 1800-1881
• Lonsdale, W. (William), 1794-1
• Palmerston, Henry John Temple, Viscount, 1784-1865
• Peacock, George, 1791-1858
• Procter, Joseph, b. 1829
• Sedgwick, Adam, 1785-1873
• Sopwith, Thomas, 1803-1879

• Beyond Early America
• Geology -- Great Britain
• Geology -- Study and teaching (Higher)
• Religion