UNDOING THOMAS COOPER: ROBERT WILSON GIBBES'S 1849 CAMPAIGN TO REHABILITATE THE SCIENCE OF GEOLOGY IN SOUTH CAROLINA

In September 1849, Robert Wilson Gibbes (1809-1866) delivered a lecture at the South Carolina Institute entitled “The Present Earth the Remains of a Former World.” Gibbes saw this work, along with his 1849 review of Michael Tuomey's South Carolina state geological survey report, as part of an effort to remove the anti-geology prejudice created in South Carolina by “Dr. Cooper's anti-Mosaic geology.” In the early 1830's, Thomas Cooper (1759-1839), while professor of chemistry and president at South Carolina College, felt compelled to provide his students with a counter-view to Benjamin Silliman's appendix to the American edition of Robert Bakewell's Introduction to Geology. Silliman's appendix was intended to reconcile the Mosaic history of the earth with then current geological knowledge. Cooper responded by attempting to demonstrate that the Mosaic history was irrelevant as the first five books of the Bible were forgeries, not divinely inspired scripture. Gibbes's campaign had three purposes: to strike a blow for the cause of reconciliation; to convince the legislature of South Carolina to more fully support the state geological survey; and to return geology to the course offerings at South Carolina College, from which it had been “banished” after Cooper.