Samuel Calvin
1840-1911
Samuel Calvin was born on February 2, 1840, in Wigtownshire, Scotland and in 1851, he and his family immigrated to Saratoga, New York. In 1855, the family settled on a farm in Buchanan County, Iowa.
After finishing his primary education, Calvin began attending Lenox College, however the school closed when the president of the college enlisted to fight in the Civil War. On April 30, 1864, Calvin enlisted in the Union Army as member of the Company C of the 44th Regiment Iowa Infantry. He was stationed near Memphis, Tennessee working as a carpenter, but had to be transferred to a Davenport hospital due to illness. After recovering, Calvin married Mary Louise Jackson on September 5, 1865, and they had one child, Alice, born in 1866.
Following his time in the military, Calvin returned to Lenox College to finish his studies. After graduation he went on to receive his MA in 1874 from Cornell College in Iowa and his PhD from Lenox College in 1888. Calvin later received his LL.D in 1904 also from Cornell College.
Calvin began teaching at the age of 16, at a school near Quasqueton, Iowa and served as County Superintendent of Schools for Delaware County. After serving as the college's president and professor of natural sciences from 1864-1869, Calvin resigned from Lenox College to become a principal of a school in Dubuque, Iowa and to teach science. In 1874, he joined the University of Iowa as an "Acting Professor of Natural Science and Curator of the University Cabinet" yet quickly became a full professor later in 1874.
While at the University of Iowa, Calvin was the first head of the geology department, and was appointed the State Geologist of Iowa in 1892. His research interests focused on paleontology, but also included zoology and botany. As curator of the University Cabinet, Calvin made his personal fossil collections available to students. Throughout Calvin's career he named over 300 new species and 11 species have been named after him. In addition to his paleontology collections, Calvin was an avid photographer taking over 7000 lantern slide photographs of the geology, people and places of the Iowa City area. Much of Calvin's photograph collection is at the University of Iowa and has been digitized.
Professionally Calvin served as the president of the Geological Society of America. He was a member of the Paleontological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Geographic Society, the Iowa Academy of Sciences, and the Davenport Academy of Science. He was also a founding member of the Baconian Society and the American Geologist.
Samuel Calvin died on April 17, 1911, just short of his goal of 40 years of being a professor at the University of Iowa.
Calvin quote regarding natural environment of the state of Iowa:
"The grandeur and dignity with which today these hills look from a height of four hundred feet upon the placid current of the Mississippi is the same that they have worn for centuries...There is something about them, either in themselves or in their settings and surroundings, or in their associations with bygone centuries, or in all together, that stirs the soul and sends a thrill of pleasure through the mind of the appreciative observer.... What is the essence of this thing we call beauty in nature...?"
"Professor Calvin was a great teacher and his students loved him. His simplicity, his gentleness, his love of justice and truth, his intolerance of deceit and shame, his deep sympathy, his high regard for religion, his lofty ideas- These were the characteristics by which he influenced the lives of those who had the privilege of knowing him."- George F. Kay July 28, 1911.
For more information on Calvin follow the links below:
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/archives/guides/RG99.0083.html
http://www.uiowa.edu/~calvin/Calvinbio.htm
To view Calvin's photograph collection: