Dr. Jonathan 'James' Freeman Dana

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Dr. James Freeman Dana

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States
Death: April 14, 1827 (33)
New York City, New York County, New York, United States
Place of Burial: 76 Coolidge Avenue, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of Captain Luther Dana (Continental Navy) and Lucy Giddings Dana
Husband of Matilda Dana
Father of Mary Giddings Dana and Matilda Freeman Dana
Brother of Samuel Luther Dana; Nathaniel Giddings Dana; Luther Dana and Thesta Dana

Managed by: Susan Angeline Schumacher Lostetter
Last Updated:

About Dr. Jonathan 'James' Freeman Dana

Dr. Jonathan 'James' Freeman Dana

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 174337443

Biography

He graduated from Harvard in 1813, and from the medical school in 1817. He studied with Dr. John Gorham, and developed such ability that in 1815 he was selected by the authorities of Harvard to procure for the chemical laboratory a new outfit of apparatus. For this purpose, he visited London, where for six months he worked in the laboratory of Friedrich Christian Accum.

On his return to the United States he settled in Cambridge, where he practised medicine and was appointed assistant to the chair in chemistry. In 1817 he was invited to lecture on chemistry at Dartmouth, and in 1820 became the first professor of chemistry and mineralogy there. He was chosen professor of chemistry in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1825, and continued as such until his death.

Works

While a student in Cambridge, he received the Boylston Prize for a dissertation on the “Tests for Arsenic,” and again, in 1817 received the same prize for an essay on the “Composition of Oxymuriatic Acid.” He contributed numerous scientific memoirs to Silliman's American Journal of Science and to the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History. His larger works are Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology of Boston and its Vicinity (Boston, 1818), coauthored with his brother Samuel Luther Dana, and Epitome of Chemical Philosophy (Concord, New Hampshire, 1825).

  • Jonathan changed his first name to James after college.
  • His remarkable life is reviewed in the Dana Memoir by James Dana, 1877, pages 29-38.
  • Philllps Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire.
  • Graduated University at Cambridge (Harvard) in 1813.
  • Studied medicine with Dr. Gorham, Harvard University Professor of Chemistry.
  • In 1815 the Harvard University Chemistry Department appointed him to go to England to "procure suitable modern apparatus" and he studied chemistry while there.
  • In 1817 he received his medical doctor (MD) degree
  • Representative to the New Hampshire state legislature.
  • p. 34, Dana Memoir: "in the summer of 1826, Professor Dana was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of War, as one of the Visitors of the National Academy at West Point."
  • Samuel B. Morse inventor of the telegraph attended Dr. Dana's lectures on electro-magnetism. The following is from p. 36 Dana Memoir: From Professor Morse's own pen, "I Learned from Professor Dana in 1827, the rational of the electromagnet, which latter was exhibited in action."

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Dr. Jonathan 'James' Freeman Dana's Timeline

1793
September 23, 1793
Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States
1826
January 26, 1826
Hanover, Grafton, NH, United States
1827
April 14, 1827
Age 33
New York City, New York County, New York, United States
September 16, 1827
Hanover, Grafton, NH, United States
????
Cambridge Cemetery, 76 Coolidge Avenue, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 02138, United States