In the middle of the 19th century, one American scientist quietly laid down an intellectual framework that would influence generations of geologists, miners, and collectors across the globe. James Dwight Dana developed a system for classifying minerals that brought a sense of order to the bewildering array of crystals, metals, and minerals found in the earth.
Dana was born in Utica, New York, in 1813, a time when science education in America lagged behind Europe’s great universities and institutions. From a young age, he gravitated toward rocks and chemistry, interests that carried him to Yale College.
