Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/297

 GIBBS

GIBBS

friemlship tlius formed with Professor Silliman, Jlr. Gibbs deposited his collection at Yale college and later that institution purchased it for §20,000, which amount was procured by Professor Silli- man. Jlr. Gibbs continued to add to the collec- tion and to develop new mineral localities. He off are i prizes to Yale students to stimulate the study of mineralogy, especially in the direction of useful discoveries and observations. He was elected a vice-president of the New York lyceuni of natural history in 1823, and contributed arti- cles to the American Mineralogical Journal and to the American Journal of Science. He was married to Laura, daugliter of Oliver Wolcott, secretary of the treasury under Washington and John Adams. He received the degree of M.A. from Brown in 1800, and from Yale in 1808. He died at "Sunswick," Astoria, N.Y., Aug. 6, 1833.

QIBB5, Qeorge, geologist and philologist, was horn in Astoria, N.Y., July 17, 1815; son of George and Laura (Wolcott) Gibbs, and grandson of George Gibbs of Newport, R.I. He was edu- cated at Round Hill school, Northampton, Mass. his instructors being George Bancroft and Joseph G. Cogswell, and was graduated in law at Harvard in 1838. He practised liis profession in New York city in the office of Prescott Hall. In 1849 he made a journey to the Pacific slope with the U.S. mounted rifles, and located at Columbia, Oregon. In 1854 he was appointed by President Fillmore collector of Astoria. While in the far west he studied Indian dialects and made researches in geology and natural history. He was a member of the Northwest boundary commission, and was geologist under Gen. Isaac I. Stevens in tlie sur- vey of the North Pacific railroad. In 1857 he was appointed to the Northwest boundary sur- vey, and at its close made an elaborate report of the geology and natural history of the country. When the civil war threatened in 1860 he re- turned to New York and in 1861 helped to defend the national capitol and to suppress the draft riots in New Y'ork. He was secretary of the Hudson Bay claims commission, and aided the Smithsonian institution in arranging manuscript reports on the ethnology and philology of the In- dian tribes, largelj- made up of his own contribu- tions to the institution. He served as secretary of the New York historical society, 1842-48. He published: Memoirs of the Administrations of Wash- ington and John Adams, edited from the papers of his grandfather, Oliver Wolcott (1846); Instruc- tions for Besearch relative to the Ethnology and Philolorjy of America (1863) ; A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon or Trade Langiiage of Oregon (1863); Comparative Vocabularies (1863); and Suggestions relative to Ohjects of Scientifc Investi- gation in Russian America (1867). He died in New Haven, Conn., April 9, 1873.

GIBBS, Josiah Willard, philologist, was born at Salem, Mass., April 30, 1790; son of Henry and Mercy (Prescott) Gibbs. He was graduated at Yale in 1809; was a tutor there, 1811-15; professor of sacred literature, 1824-61, and librarian of the university, 1824-43. He was given the honorary degree of A.M. by Harvard in 1818, and that of LL.D. by the College of New Jersey in 1853. He was one of the publishing committee of the American Oriental society for several years, and contributed frequently to the Christian Spectator, the Biblical Beposiumj, the New Englander, and the American Journal of Science. Among liis pub- lications are a translation of Storr's Historical Sense of the Neio Testament (1817) ; a translation of Gesenius's Manual Hebrew Lexicon (1824-27); an abridgment of the same (1828) ; Philological Stud' ies (1856); A JVcjo Latin Analyst (1859); and Teii- tonic Etymology (1860). He died in New Haven, Conn., March 25, 1861.

GIBBS, Josiah Willard, scientist, was born irr New Haven, Conn., Feb. 11, 1839; son of Prof. Josiah Willard and Mary Anna (Van Cleve) Gibbs. He was graduated from Yale iu 1858, and continuing mathematical studies there took the degree of Ph.D. in 1863. He was a tutor at Y'ale, 1863-66, and then spent several years in European study. In 1871 he was appointed professor of mathematical physics at Y'ale. He was elected a, member of the National academy of sciences in 1879, lectured at Johns Hopkins in 1880, and in 1886 was vice-president of the mathematics and astronomy section of the American Association for the advancement of science. He was also elected a member of various European scientific associations and was the recipient of the Rum- ford medal of the American academy of arts and sciences for his researches in thermodynamics. In 1893 he received the degree of Ph.D. from Erlangen university, Bavaria, and that of LL.D. from Williams college. He published a number of papers, including Graphical 3Icthods in the Tliermodynamics of Fluids (1873) ; A Method of Creometrical Represeyitation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Stib.^l.mr, s hij Means of Surfaces (1873) ; Equilibrium of II, tii-:'ii<'iit'ous Sub.statices (1876- 78); Electro-iuayiiilic Tlimry of Light (1882-S3). He died iu New Haven, Conn., April 28, 1903.

GIBBS, Oliver Wolcott, chemist, was born in New 'York city, Feb. 21. 1822; .son of George (1776-1833) and Laura (Wolcott) Gibbs. He was graduated at Columbia, A.B., 1841, A.M., 1844, and at the College of physicians and surgeons in 1845. He studied chemistry at the University of Berlin in the laboratories of Rose and Rammels-. berg, and subsequently spent five months with Liebig in Giessen. He afterward attended courses of lectures on physics in the College of France in Paris. He was lecturer on chemistry.