Deep Archive of an Important American Scientist

[Mining]: Crosby, Frank W.:

[Substantial Archive of Correspondence and Personal Papers Documenting the Life and Career of Captain Francis W. Crosby, Mining Engineer, Geologist, and Explorer].

[Various locations: 1876-1909]. Approximately 250 autograph letters, signed, totaling over 1,000 pages, plus various manuscript documents, two manuscript maps, a group of typed transcripts of letters, and a handful of contemporary family photographs. Minor occasional wear and toning, but overall a well-preserved group. Very good. Item #5281

An extraordinary collection of original correspondence written by noted scientist Francis W. Crosby over the course of more than thirty years, and sent mostly to his son, William O. Crosby, also a noted scientist. Captain Francis William "Frank" Crosby (1823-1909) was a prominent mining engineer, geologist, and explorer active in the last half of the 19th century. He was born in Schenectady, New York, attended the Lancaster School (with classmate Leland Stanford), and taught in rural schools in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri. In 1849, he married one of his students, Miss Hannah Everett Ballard. When the Civil War broke out, Crosby enlisted as a private in the Eleventh Iowa Infantry; he served for the entirety of the war, rose to first lieutenant, then was breveted a captain at the conclusion of the conflict. After the war, Crosby worked in the mining business in North Carolina, Venezuela, South Dakota, Nevada, Colorado (where he was a principal in Judd & Crosby Silver Reduction & Mining in Clear Creek in 1879), Missouri, and California, then spent most of his later career as a geologist. In that capacity, Crosby made extensive trips through Europe and Asia, where he spent some of his time as a collector of geological samples for the Smithsonian Institution. He spent most of his later career studying the eruption of Vesuvius and other volcanoes, and was known as the first scientist to bring attention to the sea mills of Cephalonia, Greece.

Many of the most interesting aspects of Crosby's pursuits are documented in the present collection. Crosby’s letters include some written to his wife, his daughter, and others, but the great majority are addressed to Frank's son William Otis Crosby (1850-1925), himself a prominent geologist and long-time professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When he was young, William would accompany his father to geological sites through Frank's work in the mining industry. While in Colorado on one such trip, William met a party of students from MIT; he would soon after enroll there, where he graduated in 1876, then went on to work for the school's geological department before becoming a full professor and eventually head of the department. He became an expert on mining problems, water supply, and dam construction; likely with great assistance from his father, whose letters to him here include much about the former subject. William published extensively, and is best known for this three-part study, Geology of the Boston Basin (1893-1900).

The majority of Frank Crosby's letters here document mining and geological work in North and South America. Frank's letters to William, in fact, begin here the year the latter graduated from MIT. Many of the letters include geological drawings, diagrams, maps, and other illustrations corresponding to various subjects in the letters. Many of Frank's letters constitute de facto geology reports, often written in multiple parts over different days and totaling many pages in length, often with detailed manuscript diagrams. The letters include valuable descriptions and observations on the locations Crosby is visiting, including detailed descriptions of the geological and topographical features of the land, as well as the structures Crosby encounters along the way. The first batch of letters were written by Frank while he was in Washington, D.C. and then working in Loudon, Tennessee in the Spring of 1876. A few of these letters contain detailed geological descriptions of the areas Frank is working in Tennessee, five of which include at least one geological drawing.

Some of these letters also include discussions by Frank of his impending expedition to South America. Crosby served as the superintendent of the Carata Gold Mining Company in Venezuela in 1876 and 1877. The present collection includes about fifty letters from his time in Venezuela, providing critical inside information on his mining activities there. The letters often encompass information over multiple days due to the infrequency of the postal system in the interior of Venezuela. While in South America, Crosby also writes a detailed account of his visit to Pitch Lake (an asphalt deposit in Trinidad); discusses the difficulties of managing the work of his employees, whom he variously refers to as "the darkest of darkies" and "these West Indian darkies" while blaming their laziness on "the hammock;" reports on local scenery, agricultural products, the difficulty of navigating the densely-wooded terrain, the lack of stable government in the region, and on numerous other subjects. In one letter, Crosby details various products he wishes William to send him from the U.S., including a bucksaw and small brass nails, both of which he draws in the letter.

Crosby's observations on the racial composition of the local population bears mention: "I suppose there are 100 persons who claim to be Spaniards with blood drawn pure from the old country. Then there is a small class of half breeds so mixed with white, Indian & negro that they don't know themselves as to what race they belong." And as to the local Black population: "I think there is a little pure African dialect in much of their language, for many of these negroes are not more than one generation removed from their transatlantic home. All the labourers in the mills and mines are negroes excepting now and then a white engineer, or a machinist. Except in their language, the blacks are not much different from the blacks of N[orth] C[arolina] unless it is that they are more turbulent, and more difficult to control. This is accounted for by the fact that most of them were born free, a general enfranchisement having taken place in all the British Isles in 1838, and therefore, having never felt the sting of the lash nor gall of chain, they are what our sweet Democrats would call 'sassy impudent n-----s by Gawd, sir.'"

Frank also provides detailed observations on the indigenous population: "We have now come down to the aborigine, and I don’t feel quite sure that I ought to put the entire race at the bottom. There is a tribe of so-called 'Dirt Eaters' along the Oronoco that I guess properly belong to the lowest strata, but the Indians of this part are a fine looking race physically, and where they have settled down soon become farmers and stock raisers and are fully half civilized. The wild Indians are the only people who are practically naked here, that is adults, children of 10 to 12 may be seen anywhere with no other covering than nature gave. The Indians often come right into our villages among a large population of women and children -- the men absolutely naked and the women with only a microscopic apron about 5 x 4 inches hung by a string around the hips. This apron is sometimes of dark cloth, but more commonly of beadwork and gay colors." He continues to describe the indigenous people and their customs for another two pages or so.

Crosby's letters from Venezuela continue throughout 1877. In his first letter from that year, Frank includes the first two parts of a "Scientific Series" describing chiggers he has removed from his own feet. He continues to report on his activities at the Caratel Mine, as well as his exploration around Bolivar, his observations of insect and animal life (lightning bugs, ants, snakes, and more), the death of one of his American employees, W.H. Chase, and much more. Towards the end of the year, Crosby reports on his own struggles with disease in South America, where he suffered a bout of malaria. In one letter, he includes a long list of supplies needed for Venezuela, one of many attempts to prepare William should he decide to come to Venezuela to work with his father. Overall, Frank's letters from South America total over 200 pages of detailed reportage on a myriad of subjects relating to American economic diplomacy in the late-19th century.

The effects of malaria seem to have driven Crosby out of Venezuela and home to Washington, D.C. in early 1878. Crosby sends about a dozen letters to William from Washington, D.C. before returning to his geological adventures in Madisonville, Tennessee in November 1878. While there, he sends William a geological description of the valley around Knoxville, including a detailed cross-section of the area near Madisonville. He also describes other geological phenomena in the area, and in his last letter details an expedition from the Tellico Plains to the "wilds of Unaka" (the Unaka Mountains) in Tennessee; this letter includes a detailed sectional diagram tracking the elevation over the course of the fifteen-mile journey. The collection also includes significant concentrations of letters from Frank in 1884, 1893, 1894, 1899, and 1900. Most of Crosby's 1884 letters were written from various locations in Florida, including Anclote, Sand Key, and Ballast Point. Crosby was apparently recuperating in Florida from another illness; his letters often provide informative descriptions of his surroundings in Florida.

Crosby's 1893 letters emanate mostly from Naples, Italy, and are mostly written to his sister. In his first letter from Naples, he discusses a favorite geological site: "My darling Vesuvius is getting ready I hope for an outburst. Last night the red hot lava was very conspicuous & bright & to-day the smoke and steam rolls out in heavy volumes." His next letter details the volcanoes around Stromboli, Italy, and includes a handsome diagram of the volcanoes in relation to each other. While in Italy, Crosby also complains about street beggars, provides a description of the city of Girgenti (along with a small map of the area showing its location), the Campo Santo cemetery, and the city of Pompeii; as with most of his observations, Crosby's descriptions of Italian places tends heavily towards the geological. Crosby is still tooling around Italy in 1894, where he continues to observe volcanoes. That year he also spent time in Egypt, where he writes a handful of letters home; and Germany, where he visits Berlin and Dresden in the Fall.

In late Spring that year, Crosby also visited Greece, where he writes a long letter detailing various geological aspects of the area around Malesina; he draws two diagrams of the area, including a "Sketch of the fractures from Atalanta to Chalkis - about 60 kilometers" along the coastline of the North Euboean Gulf. This letter is also notable for what sounds like Crosby's first awareness of the Cephalonian sea mills: "Baedeker says that near Argostolic on the island of Cephalonia is a 'sea mill' which is run by a stream flowing from the sea into clefts & fissures in the limestone rock. It seems almost incredible, but a gentleman here says he has seen it." There is also here a two-and-a-half-page manuscript poem in Crosby's hand titled, "The drive on Cephalonia."

The next significant batch of letters emanate from 1899, a busy year for Crosby. He discusses volcanic activity around Naples, describes a geological formation near Corso in January (with two drawings), and details a trip to Vesuvius (with two further drawings and a mention of plans to send a "cask" of lava forms back to the Smithsonian) in January; takes a trip to Portugal in March; writes about being home in Washington, D.C., celebrating his fiftieth wedding anniversary in June and working at the Smithsonian in July; describes and illustrates a geological formation in Quonochontaug, Rhode Island in September; and is back in Joplin, Missouri in November and December, checking on his mining interests.

Crosby remained in Joplin through the first half of 1900, where he wrote almost fifty letters to William between January 6 and May 30. Again these letters are chock full of information about the Crosby mining interests in Missouri, with long descriptions of the geological aspects of the mines, as well as discussions about potential land acquisitions in the area; per usual, these letters occasionally include drawings or diagrams, and in a few cases, Crosby has glued newspaper clippings to the margins documenting his own activities. The collection also includes a few letters from Crosby in Toledo, Ohio; Hudson, Wisconsin; and St. Paul, Minnesota in the late Summer and Fall, where he largely reports on leisure activities such as a visit to the Minnesota State Fair. He spends some time late in the year in Kennedy, New York, visiting sick family; while in upstate New York, he also mentions plans to visit Elbert Hubbard, "the founder of the Roycroft Shop, where they print the finest books ever made in America." The bulk of Crosby's correspondence concludes here, though there are a few additional letters from 1902-1909.

The collection also includes some notable non-epistolary items, as follows:

[Original Poetry by Frank Crosby]. Beginning in 1876, the collection includes numerous pieces of original poetry by Frank Crosby, often written specifically to some member of his family. Most of the poetry is, understandably, addressed to his wife, Hannah. His earliest piece here is a six-page poem titled, "Life in the Mountains: A Poem with Marginal Notes by a Tennessee Traveler," written while Frank was prospecting in Tennessee before he went to Venezuela. There is also a black cloth-bound notebook containing almost thirty pages of manuscript poetry by Crosby.

Notes of a Trip to East Tenn[essee] in April & May 1876. Geological, Ethnological, Historical, and Comical [manuscript title]. A twenty-three-page manuscript report on Frank's work in East Tennessee before he went to Venezuela. Frank discusses in detail the geological features of the area, and adds thirteen diagrams and cross-sections illustrating his subjects.

[Manuscript Map of Carata Gold Fields]. Near Nueva Providencia: 1876. 10 x 15.75 inches. Frank has drawn a map showing the various buildings which make up his encampment in Carate, keyed to a list at left. He also draws a plat map of the small town of Nueva Providencia, as well as the location of orange, mango, banana, plantain, and mulberry trees.

Track of Bark Antelope from New York towards Port Spain Island Trinidad. Sailed July 19th 1876 [manuscript title]. A detailed and skillfully-drawn map of Crosby's trip to South America in 1876. The map plots the path of Crosby's ship each day and connects the dots, revealing the ship's path to Port Spain, the location from which Crosby arrived in Venezuela. Crosby wrote a note on the verso to his son, asking him to preserve it and stating that the map was drawn for him by Captain Simpson of the Antelope.

The collection is rounded out by the inclusion of two patents in Crosby's name, dated 1866 and 1871, both pertaining to processes for treating metallic ores; a manuscript legal document in which Crosby appoints William as his attorney to sell his half share in a separate patent secured in 1881; a manuscript and accompanying typed prompt copy of an undated speech by Frank about a missionary organization called the Christian Alliance; typed copies of several Crosby's letters made for posterity, mostly letters to his wife from Italy in the 1890s; a handful of letters from William Otis Crosby, mostly to his mother; a few pieces of family correspondence from Ballard relatives; a handful of unidentified studio portrait photographs; newspaper clippings containing a review of a Crosby speech to the Secular League on agnosticism, letters sent by and to Crosby regarding Pitch Lake in Trinidad, a report of the eruption of Vesuvius, and more.

A wide-ranging, to say the least, archive of original correspondence and other works, providing an excellent opportunity for a deep dive into the life and career of an under-studied American scientist and businessman of the latter-19th century.

Price: $15,000