(Born: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., 21 January 1857; Died: Montgomery County Hospital, Maryland, U.S.A., 8 September 1920) American petrologist & mineralogist.

Iddings moved to Orange, New Jersey at age of 10. In 1877, he graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he became interested in mineralogy and petrology. He traveled to Europe, becoming a student from 1879 to '80 of Harry Rosenbusch [1836-1914] at the University of Heidelberg. Upon returning to America in 1880, he went to work for U.S. Geological Survey. There he helped survey the Eureka district of Nevada and Yellowstone National Park. Iddings accepted an appointment as professor of petrology at the University of Chicago in 1895, where he remained until 1908. Then Iddings retired to a private life of scholarship.

Biographical references: ABA: I 820, 65-72. • American Journal of Science: 4th Series, 200 (1920), 316. • Barr, Index to Biographical Fragments, 1973: 131. • Bulletin of the Geological Society of America: 44 (1933), 352-74. • DAB: 5, 457-58. • DSB: 7, 5-6 [by H.S. Yoder]. • Elliott, Biographical Index, 1990: 116. • Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography. • Lambrecht & Quenstedt, Catalogus, 1938: 217. • National Academy of Science Biographical Memoirs: 69 (1996), 114-47, portrait. • Obituary Record of Yale Graduates. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 2, 1367-8. • WBI. • World Who's Who in Science: 854.

Rock Minerals, 1906

1. English, 1906 [First edition].
Rock Minerals | Their Chemical and Physical Characters and | their Determination in Thin Sections | By | Joseph P. Iddings | First Edition | First Thousand | New York | John Wiley & Sons | London: Chapman & Hall, Limited | 1906.

8°: [i]-xii, [1]-548 p., 2 plates (one colored), illus., folding diagram (p. 204). Page size: 228 x 146 mm.

Contents: [i-ii], Title page, verso "Copyright, 1906."; iii-v, "Preface."-signed Joseph P. Iddings, 2 October 1906.; [vi], Blank.; [vii]-xii, "Contents."; [1]-526, Text.; [527], Sectional title page, "Tables."; [528], Blank.; 529-541, Tables of minerals with determination characteristics.; [542], Blank.; 543-548, "Index."

Scarce. The advance of petrology during the late nineteenth century is clear in Iddings textbook. Here the emphasis is on determining the mineral species that make up rock aggregates. The numerous illustrations show apparatus, diagrams and many excellent crystal drawings probably copied from Dana's Sixth Edition, which was also a Wiley publication.

Bibliographical references: Dana's 7th (Bibliography): p. 74. • NUC. • USGS Library Catalog.

2. English, 1911 [2nd edition].
Rock Minerals: their chemical and physical characters and their determination in Thin Sections ... Second edition. New York & London, 1911.

8°: xiii, 627 p., 1 plate (colored), 2 diagrams, illus. Very scarce.

Bibliographical references: BMC: 6, 498. • Dana's 7th (Bibliography): 74. • NUC. • USGS Library Catalog.

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