Joseph Le Conte | |
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| Born | (1823-02-26)February 26, 1823 Liberty County, Georgia, US |
| Died | July 6, 1901(1901-07-06) (aged 78) Yosemite Valley, California, US |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupations | Physician, scholar, professor and conservationist |
| Spouse | Caroline Nisbet |
Joseph Le Conte (alternative spelling:Joseph LeConte) (February 26, 1823 – July 6, 1901) was a physician,geologist, professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, early California conservationist, and eugenicist.
OfHuguenot descent, he was born inLiberty County, Georgia, to Louis Le Conte, patriarch of the notedLeConte family, and Ann Quarterman.[1] He was educated at Franklin College inAthens, Georgia (now theFranklin College of Arts and Sciences at theUniversity of Georgia), where he was a member of thePhi Kappa Literary Society. After graduation in 1841, he studied medicine and received his degree at theNew York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1845.[2] (In 1844 he travelled with his cousinJohn Lawrence LeConte for over one thousand miles along theUpper Mississippi River in a birchbark canoe.[3]) After practising for three or four years inMacon, Georgia, he enteredHarvard University and studied natural history underLouis Agassiz.[2] An excursion made with Professors J. Hall and Agassiz to theHelderberg mountains ofNew York developed a keen interest in geology.
After graduating from Harvard, Le Conte in 1851 accompanied Agassiz on an expedition to study theFlorida Reef.[2] On his return he became professor of natural science atOglethorpe University, which was located inMidway, Georgia, at the time,[4] and from December 1852 until 1856 professor of natural history and geology at Franklin College (the sole college at the University of Georgia at that time).[2] From 1857 to 1869 he was a professor of chemistry and geology at South Carolina College, which is now theUniversity of South Carolina.[5]
On January 14, 1846, he married Caroline Nisbet, a niece ofEugenius A. Nisbet. The couple had four children grow to adulthood: Emma Florence Le Conte, Sarah Elizabeth Le Conte, Caroline Eaton Le Conte, andJoseph Nisbet Le Conte.
During theCivil War Le Conte continued to teach in South Carolina. He also produced medicine and was involved inresearch and development operations of theConfederateNitre and Mining Bureau, associated with theConfederate Secret Service. In his autobiography he wrote that he foundReconstruction intolerable. He referred to "acarpet-bag governor,scalawag officials, and a negro legislature controlled by rascals" and stated that the "sudden enfranchisement of the negro without qualification was the greatest political crime ever perpetrated by any people".[6]
Discouraged by unsettled postwar conditions at the University of South Carolina, in 1868 he accepted an offer of a professorship at the newly establishedUniversity of California. In September 1869, he moved west toBerkeley, California.[4] His older brotherJohn had come to California in April 1869, also to join the faculty of the new university as a professor of physics. Joseph was appointed the first professor of geology and natural history and botany at the university, a post which he held until his death.
He was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1873.[7]
He published a series of papers onmonocular andbinocular vision, and also onpsychology.[2] His chief contributions, however, related to geology. He described the fissure-eruptions in western America, discoursed on earth-crust movements and their causes and on the great features of the Earth's surface.[2] As separate works he publishedElements of Geology (1878, 5th edition 1889);Religion and Science (1874); andEvolution and its Relation to Religious Thought (1888). This last work anticipates in structure and argumentTeilhard de Chardin's "Phenomenon of Man".(1955).[8] LeConte endorsedtheistic evolution.[9]
In 1874, he was nominated to theNational Academy of Sciences.[10] He was president of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science in 1892,[10] and of theGeological Society of America in 1896.[11] Le Conte is also noted for his exploration and preservation of theSierra Nevada ofCalifornia, United States. He first visitedYosemite Valley in 1870, where he became friends withJohn Muir and started exploring the Sierra.[10] He became concerned that resource exploitation (such assheepherding) would ruin the Sierra, so he co-founded theSierra Club with Muir and others in 1892.[10] He was a director of the Sierra Club from 1892 through 1898. His son, Joseph Nisbet LeConte, was also a noted professor and Sierra Club member.
He died of a heart attack in Yosemite Valley, California, on July 6, 1901, right before the Sierra Club's firstHigh Trip.[12][13][3] The Sierra Club built theLeConte Memorial Lodge in his honor in 1904. TheLe Conte Glacier,Le Conte Canyon,Le Conte Divide,Le Conte Falls,Le Conte Mountain andMount Le Conte were named after him.[14] LeConte Hall, which houses the Department of History at theUniversity of Georgia, was named for him and his brother.[15] LeConte College, which houses the Department of Mathematics and Statistics near the Horseshoe at theUniversity of South Carolina,Le Conte Middle School inHollywood, and Le Conte Avenue in Berkeley also honor the two brothers.[16]
Leconte, along with other founders of the Sierra Club were advocates ofwhite supremacy and supporters of theeugenics movement in the United States.[17][18] The elementary school at 2241 Russell Street in Berkeley was named for Joseph LeConte from 1892 until 2018,[19] when it was renamed due to concerns regarding his views on race.[20]
Another building at UC Berkeley was also renamed, as announced on July 7, 2020, due to the LeConte brothers' support of white supremacy and vigorous white supremacy writings in that regard.[21][22][23][24]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Le Conte, Joseph".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 355–356.
