William W. Jefferis
William Walter Jefferis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | February 23, 1906 (aged 86) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Mineralogist, banker, curator, professor |
| Years active | 1843–1898 |
| Known for | Curator of William S. Vaux Collection; assembled 35,000 mineral specimens |
William Walter Jefferis (January 12, 1820 – February 23, 1906) was a distinguished American mineralogist and served as curator of the William S. Vaux Collection at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences between 1883 and 1898. Over his career, he assembled and documented approximately 35,000 mineral specimens, which he later sold to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1905.
Life and career
Jefferis was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, as the oldest among seven siblings. His father held a position as a teller at the Bank of Chester County. After completing his education at West Chester Academy, Jefferis began working at his father’s bank in 1843 as a clerk. He progressed to the role of cashier—second in command—at the Bank of Chester County from 1857 until 1883. Notably, during the Panic of 1873, he oversaw the liquidation process for the Bank of Brandywine after its collapse.
Following four decades in the banking sector, Jefferis retired in 1883 and relocated to Philadelphia. There, he undertook extensive travels throughout Europe, engaging with naturalists and visiting various museums. Subsequently, he assumed the curator position for the William S. Vaux Collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences, having been elected as a member in 1882. In 1899, he was appointed vice director of the academy’s Mineralogical and Geological Section. Jefferis retired from his curatorship in 1898 and passed away in New York City in 1906 at age eighty-six.
His final resting place is Oaklands Cemetery near West Chester. Jefferis was married to Elmira Cherrington and fathered four children: Emma Clara, Alonzo Potter, William Alger, and Elsie Louise.
Mineralogy
Jefferis began assembling mineral specimens as early as 1837 when he joined West Chester’s Cabinet of Natural Science. During this time, he collaborated with notable naturalists such as William Darlington and Lewis White Williams. He actively exchanged minerals with collectors worldwide and contributed to James Dwight Dana’s System of Mineralogy. Over many years, Jefferis curated a collection comprising up to 35,000 specimens, including a vermiculite variety named Jefferisite after him and an important brucite sample from Lancaster County. His assemblage was considered among the finest private mineral collections in the United States and was frequently lent to museums and researchers.
In 1904, industrialist Andrew Carnegie acquired Jefferis’s entire collection for $20,000 and gifted it to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Due to its extensive size and significance, transporting the collection required two boxcars. The specimens were displayed for nearly four decades before being placed into storage because of space constraints. When the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems opened in 1980, many minerals from Jefferis’s collection were featured; notably, ninety percent of Pennsylvania’s exhibit minerals originated from his holdings, with approximately 12,000 pieces still maintained by the museum.
Alongside his banking career, Jefferis also taught mineralogy at West Chester State Normal School and was eventually honored with the title of professor emeritus. He authored Minerals of Chester County (1864) and co-wrote "Mineral Localities of Philadelphia and Vicinity" in 1892, contributing valuable insight to regional geological literature.