Download Astronomical Geography: An Examination of the Early American

Astronomical
Geography: An
Examination of the Early
American Literature
James W. Vining
Western Illinois University
30
Judging from textbooks in geography, there must be educational
value in starting with the general and
proceeding to the specific, an application of the deductive approach. It
is not uncommon today for introductory physical geography and
earth science textbooks to precede
the examination of the planet's interior, land-water surface, and atmosphere with a brief survey of the
fundamentals of astronomy. Not only
is this true today, it has been true
from the beginnings of American
geography, as this study documents. Specifically, this paper examines the information on astronomy in geography school books
published before 1850 for the purposes of determining the kinds of
information presented and the degree to which teleology played a role
in the presentation of that information. '
Jedidiah Morse published his first
geography textbook in 1784, and by
1800 he was being hailed by his
contemporaries as "our first American geographer" and "the father of
American geography.,,2 Perhaps his
most classic work, The American
Geography, published the year
George Washington became President, contained a four-page introductory section on astronomy which
began with this paragraph :
"A complete knowledge of Geography cannot be obtained without some acquaintance with Astronomy. This Compendium ,
therefore, will be introduced with
a short account of that Science.
Astronomy treats the heavenly
bodies and explains their mo-
tions, times, distances and magnitudes. The regularity and beauty
of these, and the harmonious order in which they move, show that
their Creator and Preserver possesses infinite wisdom and
power.,,3
edge of Geography without an attention to the heavens. . .'''4
In both books Morse included a
table presenting information about
the known planets. The one from
Elements of Geography is reproduced in Figure 1. The seventh planet
from the sun is identified in these
tables as "Herschel." In The American Geography Morse stated about
this planet:
Morse began the section on "Astronomical Geography" in his Elements of Geography (1801), a tiny
introductory geography bound in
wooden covers, with these lines:
"The lately discovered planet,
Herschel, was first observed in
1782 by the celebrated astronomer William Herschel. In Great
Britain, it is called Georgium Sidus; but in France and America it
has obtained the name of Herschel, in honour to its learned discoverer.,,5
"By Astronomical Geography you
are to understand such a knowledge of Astronomy, or of heavenly bodies, as has been considered intimately connected with,
and even necessary to, the study
of Geography. 'It is impossible,'
said Strabo, 'either for an illiterate person or a man of learning
to acquire the necessary knowl-
sun and Ilantts.
}
- Sun
0
Mercury
Venus
~
Eayth
E9
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Herichel
~
J"
1J.
f.,
Both of these early books by
Morse also induded sections on
I Diameters
in
1\1' Ies.
,ng r
E
11
I 1
I
Mean difl:anccs
from the Sun.
I
877,54·7
3, I 89
7, 60 9
7,9 28
5, T95
9 2 ,4 I 4
7 H: 2 36
3 .~ ,95+
*1
----- - - --------_._---
3 6 ,3 8 7,5 8 3
67,993,3 62
94,000,474
143,227,5 82
47 1 ,97+,5 8 5
89 6 ,7 0 5,3 01
I ,7 8 3,69 ~~ , 244
------- -- --- _._--._- .
I
I
Figure 1. A Very Early Solar System Table. From Jedidiah Morse's Elements
of Geography (1801).
31
"fixed stars" and comets, which
Morse said were "vulgarly called
blazing stars." In The American Geography (1789) he stated:
"The number of stars visible to the
naked eye at anyone time in the
upper hemisphere is not more
than a thousand. A thousand more
are supposed to be visible in the
lower hemisphere; and by the help
of a telescope, a thousand more
have been discovered; so that the
whole number of stars are reckoned at 3000."6
By the time Elements of Geography
was published twelve years later,
Morse had revised his statement
about the number of stars:
"The number of stars visible to the
naked eye is reckoned not much
to exceed 1,500. How many there
are beyond these, none but their
Creator knows; there may be millions."7
Morse, a Congregationalist minister as well as a geographic writer,
included in both books different but
similar teleological statements which
suggest the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligent life . Nearly two
centuries later, it seems that the
suggestion of extraterrestrial life in
a geography school book of that time
was a bold step. Morse, however,
implied that he was only reporting a
view that was commonly held by astronomers. In Elements of Geography Morse stated:
"To suppose all these stars to be
suns, with planets revolving
32
around them like those of our
system, and these again revolving around one common centre, a
system of systems, and all filled
with inhabitants, how does the
mind expand with a pleasing
amazement at the grandeur of
GOD, who created, who supports,
governs, and minutely and continually inspects the immense
whole!"8
In a third school geography by
Morse, Modern Geography, over
twenty pages were devoted to "Astronomy as Connected with the Science of Geography." The known
planets were described in the 1814
edition in considerable detail, and the
book included only this short introductory paragraph on planetary satellites:
"A satellite, or moon, is a body
revolving round a planet, and, in
company with the planet, round
the sun . Of these there are 18 in
our solar system, distributed in the
following manner: 1 to Earth ; 4 to
Jupiter; 7 to Saturn; and 6 to Herschel.,,9
Uranus, of course, has only five
known satellites, and only two of
them had been discovered by the
time this book was published in
1814-both discovered by Herschel
in 1787. Morse was not alone, however, in reporting six satellites for this
planet. Almost every geography book
published for the next three decades
reported six satellites for Uranus.
This was because Herschel had announced his discoveries of four other
satellites in the 1790s-discoveries
not later verified by other astronomers.
In the 1814 edition of Modern Geography, Morse's section on " fixed
stars" proposed larger numbers of
stars than earlier geog raphies :
" The fixed stars . .. are found to
be collected in clusters. When a
small magnifying power is used,
these clusters appear like small
light clouds, and hence have been
called nebulae .... When these
nebulae are examined with a telescope of great magnifying power,
they are found to consist of immense multitudes of stars. Dr.
Herschel is of the opin ion that the
starry heaven is replete with these
nebulae; that each nebula is a
distinct and separate system of
stars; and that each star is the sun
or centre of its own system of
planets. In examining (the Milky
Way) in the space of . .. 41 minutes, he (Herschel) saw 258,000
stars pass through the field of his
telescope. It is probable that each
nebula in the heavens is as extensive, and . . . if this be true, the
number of 75,000,000, which
Lalande assigned as the whole
number of fixed stars, will be seen
to fall far short of the truth ."'o
Unlike his earlier works cited in
this study, Morse's Modern Geography did not include in the section
on astronomy a statement of his teleological views. Neither were there
any explicit teleological observations in the astronomy section of The
Rudiments of Geography (1814) by
early Morse competitor John Hubbard. One of the more interesting
passages on astronomy by Hubbard
is the short section on the masculine sun:
"The sun is an immense globe of
matter, supposed to be of fire,
placed in the centre of our system ; diffusing light, heat and life
to the animal and vegetable creation. He is not perfectly at rest,
but revolves around his axis from
west to east, in 25d . 15h. Dark
spots are frequently seen on the
sun . By the motion of these his
revolution is ascertained ." "
The teleological presentation of
information about astronomy was
better well exemplified in J. A. Cummings' An Introduction to Ancient
and Modern Geography (1817) than
any other early geography. It appears that Cummings took the teleological statements from Elements of
Geography (1801) by Morse and
greatly embellished and elaborated
them . His observations on the existence of extraterrestrial life, like those
of Morse, seem striking, considering
the time in which they were published. Some poetic lines from Cummings' book follow :
"When the shades of night have
spread their veil over the plains,
the firmament manifests to our
view its grandeur and its riches.
The sparkling points, with which
it is studded, are so many suns,
suspended by the Almighty in the
immensity of space , to worlds
which roll around them .... The
heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament sheweth his
handy work. The royal poet.
33
was not aware that the stars he
contemplated were in reality suns.
He anticipated these times and first
sang that majestick (sic) hymn,
which future and more enlightened ages were to chant forth in
praise to the great Creator ....
The assemblage of these vast
bodies is divided into different
systems, the number of which
probably surpasses the grains of
sand which the sea casts upon its
shores. Each system has for its
centre a star or sun , which shines
by its native, inherent light; and
round which revolve several orders of opaque globes, reflecting,
with more or less brilliancy, the
light they borrow from it, and
which renders them visible. What
an august, what an amazing conception does this give of the works
of the Creator; thousands of
thousands of suns, multiplied
without end . . . attended by ten
thousand times ten thousand
worlds . . . and these worlds,
doubtless, peopled with myriads
of beings, formed for endless
progression in perfection and felicity! From what we know of our
own system, it may be reasonably concluded that all the rest are
with equal wisdom contrived, situated, and provided with accommodations for rational inhabitants.,,12
None of the books cited thus far
in this paper were illustrated, except
by an occasional map, but during the
1820s several well-illustrated geographies were published. One was The
Rudiments of Geography by William
C. Woodbridge. The short section on
34
astronomy in the 1825 edition included the diagram reproduced in
Figure 2. It shows Uranus (Herschel)
with six moons and the orbits of the
four largest asteroids, as well as
those of the other known planets.
There was no hint of teleology in the
astronomy section of this book.13
Another well-illustrated geography published in the 1820s was The
Malte-Brun School Geography by
Peter Parley, pseudonym of geographer S. G. Goodrich. Like Morse
and Cummings, Parley described a
universe created and directed by
God, a universe containing numerous stars having solar systems:
brilliant orbs which occupy
the heavens are all of them worlds,
some of them larger and some
smaller, all moving in their appointed courses, and all fulfilling
the will of the Almighty Architect,
who made them . . .. They are
undoubtedly all of them vast
worlds, shining like the sun by
their own light, and attended each
by its own system of planets, satellites, and comets.,,14
fl •
••
J . E. Worchester's Elements of
Geography (1827) presented information about celestial objects in a
section called "Mathematical Geography." Worcester was another early
geographer who either did not believe that the universe is the product
of divine plan or, if he did believe
so, did not take advantage of the
opportunity to propose that view
when he wrote on the subject of astronomy. His book may have been
the earliest geography to identify the
seventh planet as "Uranus" rather
The Solar Syslern.
\
Figure 2. Solar System Diagram . From Rudiments of Geography (1825) by
William C. Woodbridge.
than "Herschel." It was very likely the
earliest to present the relative sizes
of planets diagrammatically-in an
illustration reproduced in Figure 3.15
Years later William C. Woodbridge, who authored the 1825 book
cited above, was still referring to the
seventh planet as Herschel. His
splendidly-illustrated A System of
Universal Geography (1836) contained the engraving shown in Figure 4. Like his earlier work, this book
contains no trace of teleology in the
treatment of astronomy.16
Each decade brought new revelations from the rapidly-advancing
35
exhibiting the order in which the planets move ro~nd
the SUD, their relative distances, and comparahve
. Dlagnitudes.
J
Earth
PenUE
o o
~
Ma,.~,
o
Mt:,.cIU"Y
o
Figure 3. Orbits and Relative Size of Planets. From J. E. Worcester's Elements of Geography (1827).
36
Figure 4. Comparative Size of Planets. From William C. Woodbridge's A System of Universal Geography (1836) .
science of astronomy. The geography textbook writers of the 1840s
were able to provide more accurate
information about the solar system
and universe beyond . Perhaps the
most substantial and attractive high
school geography book of the 1840s
was A Pictorial Geography of the
World (1842) by S. G. Goodrich. This
was the first nineteenth-century geography to suggest that Uranus may
have fewer than six satellites; Goodrich said that it has "certainly two,
probably five or six" moons.'7 It was
also the first nineteenth-century geography to illustrate the concept of
the ecliptic. The engraving is reproduced in Figure 5.
Goodrich quoted from "the celebrated astronomer Herschel" in providing this interesting analogy for the
relative sizes and distances of celestial objects in this solar system :
"Choose any well-levelled field or
bowling green. On it place a globe
two feet in diameter; this will represent the sun; Mercury will be
represented by a grain of mustard seed, on the circumference
of a circle 164 feet in diameter for
its orbit; Venus a pea, on a circle
284 feet in diameter; the Earth also
a pea, on a circle of 430 feet; Mars
a rather large pin's head, on a circle of 654 feet; Juno, Ceres, Vesta,
37
Figure 5. The Ecliptic and Zodiac. From A Pictorial Geography of the World
(1842) by S. G. Goodrich.
and Pallas, grains of sand, in orbits of from 1000 to 1200 feet; Jupiter a moderate-sized orange in
a circle nearly half a mile across;
Saturn a small orange, in a circle
of four-fifths of a mile; and Uranus a full-sized cherry or small
plumb upon the circumference of
a circle more than a mile and half
in diameter."ls
There is no evidence of teleology
in the astronomy section of Goodrich's book.
Neptune and its largest moon
were discovered in 1846, but not
early enough to be announced in the
1846 edition of J. Olney's A Practical
System of Modern Geography, one
of the most popular school geogra-
38
phies of the 1840s. Olney was like
Morse, Cummings, and Parley in
suggesting the possible existence of
extraterrestrial intelligent life:
"The stars being at such an immense distance cannot receive
their light from the sun as the
other planets, but must shine by
their own light; and hence they are
supposed to be suns to other systems, and to have worlds revolving around them, inhabited, perhaps, by intelligent and immortal
beings.,,19
This suggestion of the possible existence of extraterrestrial immortal
beings would indeed be strange unless Olney was referring to spiritual
immortality. There is no copy in the
astronomy section of the Olney book
that is overtly teleological.
Conclusions
The roots of the practice of beginning introductory physical geography and earth science textbooks
with a survey of existing knowledge
about other celestial objects and the
general nature of the known universe are as old as American geography. Not just physical geography
textbooks, but nearly all of the school
geographies published before 1850
began with a chapter or section devoted to "astronomical geography"
or, as a few authors called it, " mathematical geography."
The types of information presented varied little from book to
book; the principal difference was in
the depth of coverage provided. Most
early geographies included two to six
pages of information about astronomy. A few contained 15 to 30 pages
of "astronomical geography." The
most common subsections were devoted to planets, planetary satellites, asteroids, comets, and "fixed
sta rs."
One of the most surprising discoveries of this inquiry was the fact
that some early nineteenth century
geographers voiced their belief inor at least proposed the possibility
of-the existence of planets revolving around the stars. No such
planets, of course, can be seen from
Earth, and it was well over a century
later, in the late 1960s, that Peter Van
de Kamp presented evidence for a
planet revolving around Barnard's
star. Four of the 11 books and half
of the authors cited in this study
mentioned other stellar worlds. Perhaps even more surprising was the
suggestion of the probability or possibility of intelligent life on those
planets. Three of the four authors
who wrote about planets revolving
around other stars told of the likelihood of intelligent life. Speculation
about extraterrestrial life is not unusual today, but it seems strange in
hundred-and-fifty-year-old geography books published in conservative and religious New England .
Nonetheless, Jedidiah Morse implied that the astronomers of his time
held such views.
Finally, teleology is not as well
exhibited in the " astronomical geography" of the pre-1850 geography
textbooks as might have been expected . Although a chapter or section on astronomy presented the authors a perfect opportunity to
expound teleological principles, only
four of the 11 books cited in this
study included explicitly teleological
statements. Teleology in the early
American geographies reached its
zenith in J. A. Cummings' An Introduction to Ancient and Modern Geography, published in 1817.
FOOTNOTES
1. Such books are scarce. many of them rare. (In the American Geographical Society Collection. all of them are
classified as rare.) Few university and public libraries have
very many of these books and there are few sizable private collections.
2. Ralph H. Brown. " The American Geographies of Jedidiah Morse." Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, Vol. 31 , No. 3 (September, 1941), p. 147.
3. Jedidiah Morse, The America n Geography (Elizabethtown, New Jersey : Shepard Kollock, 17891. p. 1.
4. Jed idiah Morse, Elements of Geography (Boston : I.
Thomas & E. T. Andrews, 1801), p. 15.
5. Morse (1789), p. 2. Actually, Uranus was discovered in
1781 , not 1782.
6. Ibid., p. 3.
39
7. Morse (1801 I, p. 22.
14. Peter Parley, The Malte-Brun School Geography (c. 18261.
Title page missing from only known copy.
8. Ibid.
9. Jed idiah Morse, Modern Geography (Boston : Thomas &
Andrews, 18141, pp. 25-26.
IS. J. E. Worcester, Elements of Geography (Boston : HiI·
liard, Gray, Linle & Wilkins, 18271, p. 10.
10. Ibid., p. 34.
16. William C. Woodbridge, A System of Universal Geography (Hartford : John Beach, 1836).
" . John Hubbard, The Rudiments of Geography (Barnard,
Vermont : Joseph Dix, 1814), pp. 3-9.
17. S. G. Goodrich, A Pictorial Geography of the World (Boston : C. D. Strong , 18421, p. 18.
12. J. A. Cummings, An Introduction 10 Ancient and Modern
Geography (Boston : Cummings & Hilliard, 18171, pp. 222223.
18. Ibid, pp. 20- 21 .
13. William C. Woodbridge, The Rudiments of Geography
(Hartford : Oliver D. Cooke & Sons, 1825).
40
19. J . Dlney, A Practical System of Modern Geography (New
York: Pran, Woodford & Co., 18461, p. 286.