SKETCH OF THOMAS EGLESTON. 257 



written chapter in American history. He proposes to publish these 

 researches, together with much other material relating to our colonial 

 history, in which he is an enthusiastic student. 



He was born in New York, on December 9, 1832. As a boy 

 he took considerable interest in certain aspects of science, and at the 

 age of thirteen had gathered a collection of minerals and rocks. He 

 attended Yale College, and in the later years of his course took 

 special elective work in chemistry. After graduating there in 1854, 

 he was for a time an assistant to Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr. Sub- 

 sequently he went abroad, partly for his health, and *was advised to 

 spend some time in Paris. With no special professional purpose, but 

 from a general desire to improve his time, he began attending lec- 

 tures on geology and chemistry at the Jardin des Plantes, under 

 D'Orbigny (a brother of the eminent writer) and Hilgard, and he 

 worked with much energy in the laboratories of those departments 

 at the Jardin. He thus attracted the attention of some of the 

 faculty of the Ecole des Mines, who offered him larger facilities in 

 that institution, which he at once accepted. After much very in- 

 teresting study in the paleontological laboratory there, he decided 

 to go regularly through the entire course, and accomplished that 

 purpose with notable success and honor, graduating in 1860. He 

 had worked as an assistant in every laboratory of the school, and 

 in the summers had traveled through much of France, becoming 

 familiar with its geology, mineral resources, mining works and 

 processes, and gaining a mastery at first hand of all branches of 

 those subjects. Those years were to him full of interest and enjoy- 

 ment; friendships were formed that have enriched his whole life; 

 and in it all the man was being remarkably prepared for the work 

 of developing those forms of science and of industrial progress in 

 our own country. Professor Egleston has always retained a strong- 

 feeling of attachment toward the Ecole des Mines, which has like- 

 wise been warmly reciprocated. He has shown his interest by two 

 gifts to the institution, of five thousand dollars each. 



Returning hither in 1861, just as the war cloud was darkening 

 over the land, he received almost immediately an appointment at 

 Washington, to take charge of the mineralogical collections and 

 laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution. After two years there 

 he conceived the purpose that determined his whole career, and has 

 so greatly influenced both American science and American mineral 

 development that of a school of mines at New York. 



At that time there were, indeed, in this country schools of sci- 

 ence, well organized and well equipped the Sheffield School at 

 Yale, the Lawrence Foundation at Harvard, the Rensselaer Poly- 

 technic Institute at Troy, and others. But their scope was rather 



VOL. LV. 20 



