David Dale Owen (1807-1860)
geologist, artist

David Dale Owen was a leading nineteenth-century American geologist. He resided in New Harmony, Indiana, a town purchased by his father, social reformer Robert Owen, in 1825. In New Harmony, Dr. Owen headquartered two federal geological surveys and the first official state geological surveys of Indiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas.

The definitive biography is

Walter Brookfield Hendrickson, David Dale Owen: Pioneer Geologist of the Middle West, Indiana Historical Bureau, Indianapolis, 1943.

A magnificent shorter treatment, within the context of other early American geological surveys, is

Mary C. Rabbitt, Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, volume 1, Before 1879, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1979.

dophoto
Image of David Dale Owen used by permission of Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU 7177, George P. Merrill Collection.

I became interested in David Dale Owen because of his connections with Joseph Granville Norwood at the time that Dr. Norwood came into possession of the fossilized jawbone of the first-known dire wolf. These connections are presented in

C. Kimberling, "David Dale Owen and Joseph Granville Norwood: Pioneer Geologists in Indiana and Illinois," Indiana Magazine of History, 92 (March 1996) 2-26.

David Dale Owen Drawings: Arkansas I
David Dale Owen Drawings: Arkansas II
Lead Mine Drawn by David Dale Owen
David Dale Owen's Megalonyx
Archimedes, a genotype authored by David Dale Owen
Didymophyllum owenii, a species of tree named in honor of David Dale Owen
Special Sandstone of the Smithsonian "Castle"
NMNH Fossil Brachiopod Type Register (Enter the register and search "Owen" for species authored by D. D. Owen)
New Harmony Scientists, Educators, Writers & Artists
Clark Kimberling Home Page