Charles Frederick Hartt

Geologist

• Born: August 23, 1840
• Birthplace: Fredericton, New Brunswick
• Died: March 18, 1878
• Place of death: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Contribution: C. Fred Hartt was a geologist, paleontologist, collector, and explorer. He taught at Cornell University, contributed anthropological artifacts to Cornell’s University Museum, and embarked on several expeditions to Brazil, where he helped establish the Geological Commission of Brazil, the first countrywide geological survey.

Early Life and Education

Charles Frederick Hartt was born on August 23, 1840, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Jarvis William Hartt and Prudence Brown. Before he was born, his father worked as a Baptist seminary principal. After Hartt’s birth, his father switched schools and began working for Horton Academy in Horton, Nova Scotia. The young Hartt attended Acadia College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and received his bachelor’s degree in 1860; he earned a master’s degree three years later.

Soon after, Hartt’s father relocated and opened a girls’ school in Saint John, New Brunswick. Hartt taught at the school for a year before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to continue his studies at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology from 1861 to 1864. During this time, Hartt and other scientists founded the Natural History Society of New Brunswick. In 1865, Hartt embarked on his first trip to Brazil and began his geological career.

Scientific Career

Having studied under the innovative geologist Louis Agassiz at Harvard, Hartt was chosen to join him on the Thayer Expedition, and he left for Brazil for the first time in 1865. Hartt and the expedition team returned in 1866, but Hartt returned to Brazil the following year to continue his studies of the Bahia region and the coral reefs along Brazil’s coast. Upon his return home, he spoke at the Association for the Advancement of Science and Art meeting on November 12, 1867, and presented his findings. During his trip, Hartt discovered cretaceous fossils at Bahia, examined coral reefs, and found proof of ancient glaciers.

In 1868, Hartt began teaching at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a professor of natural history, but he stayed there only a short while. He instead decided to teach at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he became the head of the geology department. Although he worked at Cornell from 1868 to 1878, he continued his trips to Brazil during this time.

Hartt published The Geology of Brazil in 1870 and returned to Brazil with the Morgan Expedition. Here, along with another professor and eleven of his students, Hartt worked in the Amazonas region. The findings from this trip allowed Hartt to provide Cornell with its first collection for the University Museum (which later became part of Cornell’s Anthropology Collections). Hartt oversaw this collection until his next trip abroad.

Hartt returned to Brazil in 1874 and proposed his idea for the Geological Commission of Brazil (GCB) to the government. The Brazilian government granted his proposal and created the commission on April 30, 1875, allowing Hartt to conduct extensive research throughout the country. He continued to lead expeditions in various parts of the country for the next few years while also directing the geology section of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro.

The GCB ceased operations in 1878 due to a new ministry and extensive budget cuts. Although the GCB survived only a few years, it laid the foundation for future commissions, including the Geological and Mineralogical Survey of Brazil, founded in 1907.

Personal Life

Hartt married Lucy Lynde in 1869, and the couple had two children. In 1878, Hartt returned to Rio de Janeiro after another inland expedition, where he died of yellow fever on March 18, 1878, at the age of thirty-eight. The more than five hundred thousand specimens collected during his final expedition were donated to the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro.

Bibliography

“Anthropology at Cornell: The First Century (1870–1970).” Department of Anthropology. Cornell University, n.d. Web. 31 July 2013.

Brice, William R., and Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa. “Charles Hartt, Louis Agassiz, and the Controversy over Pleistocene Glaciation in Brazil.” History of Science 39.2 (2001): 161. Print.

Brice, William R., and Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa. “Rock Stars: Charles Frederic Hartt—A Pioneer of Brazilian Geology.” GSA Today 18 Mar. 2003: 18–19. Geological Society of America. Print.

Figueirôa, Silvia F. de M. “Charles Frederic Hartt and the ‘Geological Commission of Brazil.’” Earth Sciences History 13.2 (1994): 168–73. Print.

“Selected Highlights of the Anthropology Collections.” Department of Anthropology. Cornell University, n.d. Web. 31 July 2013.

Squires, Austin W. “Hartt, Charles Frederick.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 10. University of Toronto, 1972. Web. 31 July 2013.