Robert M. Patterson

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Robert Maskell Patterson (1787-1854) was a professor of mathematics, chemistry and natural philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (1812-1828) and professor of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia (1828-1835) before serving as director of the US Mint from 1835-1851. In his academic and professional life, he followed in the footsteps of his father, Robert Patterson, who was also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and who served as director of the US Mint from 1805-1824. The younger Patterson was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1809 (his father was elected in 1783) and (again, like his father) was interested mainly in astronomy and geophysics. He was asked by a committee of the APS in 1836 to write a brief report on recommendations for astronomical and physics observations to be carried out by the United States Exploring Expedition, or US Ex Ex, which sailed in 1838.

[edit] References

• Frederik Nebeker, Astronomy and the Geophysical Tradition in the United States in the Nineteenth Century: A Guide to Manuscript Sources in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, APS Publication No. 16 (Philadelphia, 1991), p. 75-76.
• Obituary: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 6, No. 52 (Jul. - Dec., 1854), pp. 60-65