Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/73

 NEWCOMB

NEWEL

the sun. He had charge of a party which took observations of the transit of Venus at the Cape of Good Hope in 1883. He left the observatory in 1877, and directed the American Ephemeris and Nautical Alnuinac until 1897, when, having

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reached the age of sixty-two, he was retired from the navy. He acted as professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins university, 1884- 94, and for his services in mounting the great telescope ordered by the Russian government, the Pulkowa observatory in the name of the Czar presented him with a magnificent vase of jasper mounted on a marble pedestal. He also took part in planning the telescope for the Lick observatory. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Columbia. 1874. Yale, 1875, Harvard. 1884. Col- umbia, 1887, Edinburgh, 1891, Jolins Hopkins, 1903; that of Math, and Ph.Nat.D. from Leyden, 1875; that of Ph.D. from Heidelberg, 1886; that of S.D. from Dublin, 1892, and that of Phil.Nat.D, from Padua, 1892. He was also made a member of the important scientific societies in America, and an honorarj- or corresponding member of most of the academies of science of Europe. He was awarded the gold medal of the Royal As- tronomical society, 1874, being the second Ameri- can to receive that honor; received the cross of the Legion of Honor of France, and was made an associate of the Institute of France, being the first American since Franklin thus honored. He also received the first gold medal from the As- tronomical Society of the Pacific, the Huygens medal, given only once in twenty years for the best astronomical work during those years, and numerous other honors. In 1899 the University of Japan presented him with two vases of their finest workmanship. He edited the American Jounial of Mathematics, 1884-94, and is the author of: A Critical Examination of our Political Polic]) during the Rebellion (1865); The A. B. C. of Finance (1877); Popular Astronomy (1877): a series of text books comprising Algebra ^1881); Geometry {\mi); Trigonometry Logarithms (1882); School Algebra (1882); Analytic Geometry (1884); Essentials of Trigonometry (1884), and Calculus (1887); ^4 Plain Man's Talk on the Labor Ques-

tion (1886); Principles of Political Economy (1886); Elements of Astronomy {1^00); The Stars (1901); His Wisdom the Defender (1901), and many papers on astronomical topics.

NEWCOMB, Wesley, conchologist, was born in Pittstown, Rensselaer county, N.Y., Oct. 20, 1808; son of Dr. Simon and Sarah (Follett) Xew- comb; grandson of Simon and Sarah (Mead) New- comb, and of William and Lois (Burnham) Follett, and a descendant of Capt. Andrew Newcomb, an English mariner who settled in Boston. Mass., probably before 1663. He was a student at White Plains academy and at the Vermont Medical school at Castleton; attended medical lectures in New York and Philadelphia, and visited hospitals in France. He practised medicine in Albany, N.Y., with Dr. Henry Van Antwerp. He was married, Feb. 20, 1838, to Mrs. Helen H. Post, daughter of Eliphalet and Hannah (Swift) AVells of Manchester, Vt. He became one of the most distinguished conchologists in America, re- siding at Honolulu five years, where he collected the land shells of the entire group and described over 100 new species of the genus " achatinella," published in scientific magazines and in the pro- ceedings of various scientific societies of America and Europe. He made explorations in Europe, the West Indies, South America, Central America and Europe; practised medicine in Oakland, Cal.. 1857-69, where he described many of the helices of that state, also fresh water and marine species, and delivered courses of lectures on natural his- tory at Mills college, Oakland. He accompanied the Santo Domingo commissioners as a sanitary expert in 1870, and discovered the locality of La Marcke helicina viridis; was appointed in 1871 one of the three commissioners to investigate the Sutro Tunnel, and spent the winter of 1872-78 in Florida. His famous collection of shells was pur- chased by Ezra Cornell for Cornell university in 1869, and occupied the top floor of the university museum in the McGraw building. He served as curator of the collection, 1869-92. and as instruc- tor in conchology, 1886-88, He died in Ithaca, N.Y.. Jan. 27, 1892.

NEWEL, Stanford, diplomatist, was born in Providence, R.I., June 7, 1839; son of Stanford and Abby Lee (Penneman) Newel. He removed to St. Anthony's Falls, Minn. Ter., in May, 1855; was graduated from Yale college, A.B., 1861, A.M., 1864, and from Harvard Law school, LL.B., 1864. He commenced his practice of the law in St. Paul, Minn., in 1864, and gained prominence in his pro- fession and as a politician. He was chairman of the Republican state committee and delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1888 and 1892. He was married, June 24, 1880, to Helen F., daughter of Ernest and Helen M. Felder of New York city. He was appointed by President