HOW GEOLOGY WAS TAUGHT AT SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE, YALE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE IN 1821-1838

In 1821 Thomas Cooper (1759-1839), South Carolina College, published a syllabus for his course in Geological Mineralogy. It attracted little attention. In 1829 Benjamin Silliman (1779-1863) of Yale issued a syllabus for his religiously oriented geology course. It attracted much attention. This syllabus was part of Silliman's American edition of a British textbook. Cooper adopted Silliman's edited volume for his own course but rejected Silliman's religious material (Cooper, 1833). Two other pioneer professors published geological syllabi. In 1835, Henry Darwin Rogers (1808-1866) described a course he taught at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1838 James Renwick (1792-1863) offered a syllabus for a course he taught in New York's Columbia College. These four syllabi and Cooper's comments on Silliman's work permit a comparison of the treatment of mineralogy-petrology, earth history, landscape, and religion in some early nineteenth century American geology classrooms.