Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
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Online Publication Date: 05 Nov 2007

The Rogers-Hotchkiss Geological Maps of Virginia and West Virginia

Page Range: 84 – 97
DOI: 10.17704/eshi.14.1.h6201380623n0332
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During the years 1835 to 1841, the first geological survey of Virginia, and what is now West Virginia, was conducted under the leadership of William Barton Rogers. His geological work was produced in seven annual reports presented to the Board of Public Works, which were reprinted in 1884 as a single volume by his widow. However, the first geological map from Rogers' survey of Virginia was only published in 1876 by Jedediah Hotchkiss.

Rogers gave his geological map to Hotchkiss in 1873 for use in Hotchkiss' book published 3 years later. During the following 10 years, this geological map was produced 13 more times, mostly by Hotchkiss, and each version is slightly different. Some changes are obvious, such as scale, base map, or cross sections, whereas other modifications are subtle, including stratigraphic units, title, or colors. Three versions are hand colored; the others are lithographs. The known versions, by date, are two in 1874, one circa 1875, five in 1880 and one circa 1880, one in 1881, one in 1882, and three in 1884. Interestingly, none of these 14 versions modified Rogers' original geology, although Rogers modified his original stratigraphic nomenclature. A fifteenth version, apparently done without Rogers' knowledge for the Union army in 1862, is the hand colored geological map by Thomas S. Ridgway.

Aldrich, M. L., 1979, "American State Geological Surveys, 1820-1845," in Schneer, C. J., editor, Two hundred years of geology in America, University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, p. 133-143.
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Aldrich, M. L., and Leviton, A. E., 1982, "William Barton Rogers and the Virginia Geological Survey, 1835-1842" in Corgan, J. X., editor, The geological sciences in the antebellum south, University of Alabama Press, University, AL, p. 83-104.
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Evans, C. A. 1899, Confederate military history, Confederate Publishing Co., Atlanta, GA, v. 3, 692 p.
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Gerstner, P. A., 1979, "Henry Darwin Rogers and William Barton Rogers on the nomenclature of the American Paleozoic rocks," in Schneer, C. J., editor, Two hundred years of geology in America, University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, p. 175-186.
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Hotchkiss, J., 1876, Virginia—A geographical and political summary, Richmond, VA, 319 p.
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Hotchkiss, J., 1880-1885, The Virginias, a mining, industrial and scientific journal devoted to the development of Virginia and West Virginia, Staunton, VA, v. 1, 196 p., v. 2, 192 p., v. 3, 196 p., v. 4, 196 p., v. 5, 202 p., v. 6, 171 p.
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LeGear, C. E., compiler, 1951, The Hotchkiss map collection in the Library of Congress, 1977 reprint, Sterling Press, Falls Church, VA, 76 p.
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Lessing, P., 1989, "Early geological maps of West Virginia," Earth Sciences History, 8:14-35.
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Lessing, P., 1993, A catalog of West Virginia geological maps, 1752-1992, West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Circular C-45, 75 p.
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Milici, R. C., and Hobbs, C. R. B., Jr., 1987, "William Barton Rogers and the first geological survey of Virginia, 1835-1841," Earth Sciences History, 6:3-13.
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Rogers, E. S., editor, 1884, A reprint of annual reports and other papers, on the geology of the Virginias, D. Appleton and Co., New York, 832 p.
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Rogers, E. S., editor, 1896, Life and letters of William Barton Rogers, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston and New York, v. 1, 427 p., v. 2, 451 p.
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Roper, P. W., 1991, "Jed Hotchkiss and the geological map of Virginia: Earth Sciences History," 10:38-43.
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Sanchez-Saavedra, E. M., 1975, A description of the country-Virginia 's cartographers and their maps 1607-1881, Virginia State Library, Richmond, VA, 130 p. (includes separate portfolio of nine facsimile maps).
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Shaler, N. S., 1880, Preliminary report concerning the resources of the country adjacent to the line of the proposed Richmond and Southwestern railway, Cambridge, MA, 54 p.
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