A Guide to the William Morris Fontaine Letters 1874-1885
A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession Number 1227
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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Processed by: Special Collections Department
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions
See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.
Preferred Citation
William Morris Fontaine Letters, Accession #1227, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
Acquisition Information
This collection was given to the Library by Wilbur A. Nelson of Charlottesville, Virginia on September 20, 1941.
Scope and Content Information
This collection consists of 31 letters, 1874-1885, to William Morris Fontaine, Professor of Chemistry and Geology at West Virginia University in Morgantown, chiefly from geologists concerning the study of plant life, minerals, fossils, and the strata of West Virginia and Virginia. Correspondents include Elisha Benjamin Andrews (1844-1917), Charles Albert Ashburner (1854-1889), Persifor Frazer, Jr. (1884-1909), William Schaeffer Glenn (1858-1931), Hilary Pollard Jones (1863-1938), Washington Caruthers Kerr (1827-1885), J. Peter Lesley (1819-1903), Fielding Bradford Meek (1817-1876), James Constantine Pilling (1846-1895), William Barton Rogers (1804-1882), Eugene Allen Smith (1841-1927), John James Stevenson (1841-1924), and Israel C. White (1848-1927). The correspondents were officers of such organizations as the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Coast Survey.
William Morris Fontaine (1835-1913) was educated at the University of Virginia, receiving his masters degree in 1859, and at the Royal School of Mines in Freiberg and Saxony, Germany, 1869-1870. He was professor of chemistry and geology at West Virginia University from 1873 to 1878, and professor of geology and natural history at the University of Virginia from 1878 to 1911. He was a fellow of the Geological Society of America, and wrote several geological publications.