Biografie von Charles Thomas JACKSON (1805-1880)

Birth place: Plymouth, MA

Death place: Somerville, MA

Addresses: Massachusetts

Profession: Topographical draftsman

Comments: Received his M.D. from Harvard in 1829. After visiting Europe and practicing medicine in Boston for several years, he gave it up for chemistry and mineralogy. He is most noted for a series of geological surveys which he conducted for Maine, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire between 1837 and 1844. Some of his sketches for this project were reproduced in his Views and Map Illustrative of the Scenery and Geology of New Hampshire (1845), as well as in others of the nearly one hundred publications accredited to him. In later life he became embroiled in controversy because of his claims of having discovered the electric telegraph, guncotton, and surgical anesthesia. In 1873 he was apparently considered insane.

Sources: G&W; DAB; Union Cat., LOC.