THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
VOL. XXXV. JANUARY, 1905. No. i. 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF WILLIAM HENRY PETTEE. 
By Israel C. Russell, Ann Arbor, Mich. 
PORTRAIT, PLATE I. 
William Henry Pettee was born in Newton Upper Falls, 
Mass., January 13, 1836, of representative New England 
parentage. His father was a manufacturer of cotton fabrics 
and of mill machinery. In boyhood his studious tastes had 
to be restrained and his college preparation delayed out of 
regard to his somewhat slender bodily frame. He entered 
Harvard College at nineteen years of age, took high rank in 
the required classical course of that period, was selected to 
deliver a Latin oration in his junior year, and graduated 
with distinction in the class of 1861. He continued in grad- 
uate work in the same university for over three years, receiv- 
ing the degree of master of arts in 1864, studying at first in 
the engineeing department of the Lawrence Scientific School 
and later in the college, where at the same time he was an 
assistant. 
From 1865 to 1869 he traveled and studied in Europe, 
his main work being in the Royal Mining Academy of Sax- 
ony, at Freiberg, with vacations in the mining regions of 
Germany. 
In 1868 Mr. Pettee returned to Harvard University as a 
teacher in the School of Mining and Practical Geology then 
estabUshed under the direction of Josiah D. Whitney. His 
appointment in 1869, was that of instructor in mining, but 
in 1 87 1 he was advanced to the rank of assistant professor 
in the same branch, and provision made for work upon geo- 
