THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST 
Vol. IV. JULY, 1889. No. 1 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SHUMARD. 
In the current literature of geology forty years ago there 
were few American names that appeared more frequently and 
stood more honorably than that of Dr. B. F. Shumard of St. 
Louis. With the exception of that of Dr. D. D. Owen, his was 
associated with more of what was known of the geology of the 
country west of the Mississippi than any other. In the car- 
rying out of a purpose to gather together in the Geologist brief 
memoirs of the early geologists of the western and particularly 
of the northwestern part of the country, we are impressed with 
the record of careful paleontological work which Dr. Shumard 
accomplished under the constraint of unfavorable circumstan- 
ces, and with the general correctness of the ideas which he enter- 
tained of the geology of the country. His work extended from 
Minnesota and Oregon to Texas, but was interrupted by the 
war of the Rebellion. The following sketch is condensed from 
information furnished chiefly by Dr. A. Litton of St. Louis, 
and from biographical sketches of Shumard, one by Dr. L. P. 
Yandell, published in the Western Journal of Medicine, In- 
dianapolis, Dec. 1869, and another by Mr. L. Gray, which ap- 
peared first in the editorial columns of the ^''Missouri Republi- 
can^'' and subsequently in Vol. xlviii (2nd ser.) of the Ameri- 
can Journal of Science. The accompanying portrait is re- 
produced from a photograph in the possession of Dr. Litton. 
