Editing Josiah Willard Gibbs (section)

== Biography ==

=== Family background ===
[[File:A young Willard Gibbs.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Willard Gibbs as a young man]]

Gibbs was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He belonged to an old [[Yankee]] family that had produced distinguished American clergymen and academics since the 17th century. He was the fourth of five children and the only son of [[Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr.|Josiah Willard Gibbs Sr.]], and his wife Mary Anna, ''née'' Van Cleve. On his father's side, he was descended from [[Samuel Willard]], who served as acting [[President of Harvard University|President of Harvard College]] from 1701 to 1707. On his mother's side, one of his ancestors was the Rev. [[Jonathan Dickinson (New Jersey minister)|Jonathan Dickinson]], the first president of the College of New Jersey (later [[Princeton University]]). Gibbs's given name, which he shared with his father and several other members of his extended family, derived from his ancestor Josiah Willard, who had been Secretary of the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] in the 18th century.<ref name="Bumstead">Bumstead 1928</ref> His paternal grandmother, Mercy (Prescott) Gibbs, was the sister of [[Rebecca Minot Prescott]] Sherman, the wife of American founding father [[Roger Sherman]]; and he was the second cousin of [[Roger Sherman Baldwin]], see the [[La Amistad|Amistad]] case below.

The elder Gibbs was generally known to his family and colleagues as "Josiah", while the son was called "Willard".<ref>Cropper 2001, p. 121</ref> Josiah Gibbs was a linguist and theologian who served as professor of sacred literature at [[Yale Divinity School]] from 1824 until his death in 1861. He is chiefly remembered today as the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] who found an interpreter for the African passengers of the ship ''[[La Amistad|Amistad]]'', allowing them to testify during [[United States v. The Amistad|the trial]] that followed their rebellion against being sold as slaves.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/amistad/AMI_BGIB.HTM |title=Biography of Prof. Josiah Gibbs |last = Linder | first = Douglas |work=Famous American Trials: Amistad Trial |publisher=University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law |access-date=June 16, 2012}}</ref>

=== Education ===

Willard Gibbs was educated at the [[Hopkins School]] and entered [[Yale College]] in 1854 at the age of 15. At Yale, Gibbs received prizes for excellence in [[mathematics]] and [[Latin]], and he graduated in 1858, near the top of his class.<ref name="MacTutor">{{cite web | url = http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Gibbs.html | title = Josiah Willard Gibbs | last1 = O'Connor | first1 = John J. | last2 = Robertson | first2 = Edmund F. | year = 1997 | work = The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive | publisher = University of St Andrews, Scotland. School of Mathematics and Statistics | access-date = June 16, 2012 | archive-date = October 30, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141030174241/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Gibbs.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> He remained at Yale as a graduate student at the [[Sheffield Scientific School]]. At age 19, soon after his graduation from college, Gibbs was inducted into the [[Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences]], a scholarly institution composed primarily of members of the Yale faculty.<ref name="Rukeyser-CTAcademy">Rukeyser 1988, p. 104</ref>

Relatively few documents from the period survive and it is difficult to reconstruct the details of Gibbs's early career with precision.<ref name="Wheeler-college">Wheeler 1998, pp.&nbsp;23–24</ref> In the opinion of biographers, Gibbs's principal mentor and champion, both at Yale and in the Connecticut Academy, was probably the astronomer and mathematician [[Hubert Anson Newton]], a leading authority on [[Meteoroid|meteors]], who remained Gibbs's lifelong friend and confidant.<ref name="Rukeyser-CTAcademy" /><ref name="Wheeler-college" /> After the death of his father in 1861, Gibbs inherited enough money to make him financially independent.<ref name="Rukeyser-inheritance">Rukeyser 1998, pp.&nbsp;120, 142</ref>

Recurrent [[Lung|pulmonary]] trouble ailed the young Gibbs and his physicians were concerned that he might be susceptible to [[tuberculosis]], which had killed his mother. He also suffered from [[Astigmatism (eye)|astigmatism]], whose treatment was then still largely unfamiliar to [[Ophthalmology|oculists]], so that Gibbs had to diagnose himself and grind his own lenses.<ref name="Wheeler-astigmatism">Wheeler 1998, pp.&nbsp;29–31</ref><ref name="Rukeyser-astigmatism">Rukeyser 1988, p. 143</ref> Though in later years he used [[glasses]] only for reading or other close work,<ref name="Wheeler-astigmatism" /> Gibbs's delicate health and imperfect eyesight probably explain why he did not volunteer to fight in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] of 1861–65.<ref name="Wheeler-war">Wheeler 1998, p. 30</ref>  He was not [[Conscription in the United States#Civil War|conscripted]] and he remained at Yale for the duration of the war.<ref name="Rukeyser-war">Rukeyser 1998, p. 134</ref>

[[File:JWGibbs-tutor.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Portrait of Willard Gibbs as a Yale College tutor|Gibbs during his time as a tutor at Yale<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 44</ref>]]

In 1863, Gibbs received the first [[Doctorate of Philosophy]] (PhD) in engineering granted in the US, for a thesis entitled "On the Form of the Teeth of Wheels in Spur Gearing", in which he used geometrical techniques to investigate the optimum design for [[gear]]s.<ref name="MacTutor" /><ref name="Wheeler-PhD">Wheeler 1998, p. 32</ref><ref>{{cite book | url =http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3439123 | title =On the form of the teeth of wheels in spur gearing | last =Gibbs | first =Josiah W. | date =1863 | access-date =March 27, 2016| bibcode =1863PhDT.........1G }}</ref> In 1861, Yale had become the first US university to offer a PhD degree<ref name="ElmarsafyBernard2013">{{cite book|author1=Ziad Elmarsafy|author2=Anna Bernard|title=Debating Orientalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VP6ARP2m-D0C&pg=PA85|date=June 13, 2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-34111-2|page=85}}</ref> and Gibbs's was only the fifth PhD granted in the US in any subject.<ref name="Wheeler-PhD" />

=== Career, 1863–1873 ===

After graduation, Gibbs was appointed as tutor at the college for a term of three years. During the first two years, he taught Latin, and during the third year, he taught "natural philosophy" (i.e., physics).<ref name="Bumstead" /> In 1866, he patented a design for a [[railway brake]]<ref>US Patent No. 53,971, "Car Brake", April 17, 1866.  See ''The Early Work of Willard Gibbs in Applied Mechanics'', (New York: Henry Schuman, 1947), pp.&nbsp;51–62.</ref> and read a paper before the Connecticut Academy, entitled "The Proper Magnitude of the Units of Length", in which he proposed a scheme for rationalizing the system of units of measurement used in mechanics.<ref name="Units">Wheeler 1998, appendix II.</ref>

After his term as tutor ended, Gibbs traveled to Europe with his sisters. They spent the winter of 1866–67 in Paris, where Gibbs attended lectures at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] and the {{Lang|fr|[[Collège de France]]|italic=no}}, given by such distinguished mathematical scientists as [[Joseph Liouville]] and [[Michel Chasles]].<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 40.</ref> Having undertaken a punishing regimen of study, Gibbs caught a serious cold and a doctor, fearing tuberculosis, advised him to rest on the [[French Riviera|Riviera]], where he and his sisters spent several months and where he made a full recovery.<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 41.</ref>

Moving to [[Berlin]], Gibbs attended the lectures taught by mathematicians [[Karl Weierstrass]] and [[Leopold Kronecker]], as well as by chemist [[Heinrich Gustav Magnus]].<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 42.</ref> In August 1867, Gibbs's sister Julia was married in Berlin to [[Addison Van Name]], who had been Gibbs's classmate at Yale. The newly married couple returned to New Haven, leaving Gibbs and his sister Anna in Germany.<ref>Rukeyser 1988, p. 151.</ref> In [[Heidelberg University|Heidelberg]], Gibbs was exposed to the work of physicists [[Gustav Kirchhoff]] and [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], and chemist [[Robert Bunsen]]. At the time, German academics were the leading authorities in the natural sciences, especially chemistry and [[thermodynamics]].<ref>Rukeyser 1988, pp.&nbsp;158–161.</ref>

Gibbs returned to Yale in June 1869 and briefly taught French to engineering students.<ref name="Klein-proceedings">{{cite book | chapter = The Physics of J. Willard Gibbs in His Time | last = Klein | first = Martin J. | title = Proceedings of the Gibbs Symposium | year = 1990 |pages = 3, 7}}</ref> It was probably also around this time that he worked on a new design for a steam-engine [[Governor (device)|governor]], his last significant investigation in mechanical engineering.<ref name="Mayr">{{cite journal |doi=10.1098/rsnr.1971.0019 |title=Victorian physicists and speed regulation: An encounter between science and technology |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=205–228 |year=1971 |last1=Mayr |first1=Otto |s2cid=144525735 }}</ref><ref>Wheeler 1998, pp.&nbsp;54–55.</ref> In 1871, he was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics at Yale, the first such professorship in the United States. Gibbs, who had independent means and had yet to publish anything, was assigned to teach graduate students exclusively and was hired without salary.<ref name="Rukeyser-professor">Rukeyser 1988, pp.&nbsp;181–182.</ref>

=== Career, 1873–1880 ===
[[File:Maxwell's letters plate IV.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Maxwell's handmade sketch of the thermodynamic surface for water|right|Maxwell's sketch of the lines of constant temperature and pressure, made in preparation for his construction of a solid model based on Gibbs's definition of a thermodynamic surface for water (see [[Maxwell's thermodynamic surface]])]]

Gibbs published his first work in 1873.<ref name="MacTutor" /> His papers on the geometric representation of thermodynamic quantities appeared in the ''Transactions of the Connecticut Academy''. These papers introduced the use of different type phase diagrams, which were his favorite aids to the imagination process when doing research, rather than the mechanical models, such as the ones that [[James Clerk Maxwell|Maxwell]] used in constructing his electromagnetic theory, which might not completely represent their corresponding phenomena.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/helios/fachinfo/www/math/htmg/gibbs-bumstead.htm | title =Josiah Willard Gibbs [Reprinted with some additions from the American Journal of Science, ser. 4, vol. xvi., September, 1903.] | last =Bumstead | first =Henry A. | publisher =Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg | access-date =September 30, 2015 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140427182622/http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/helios/fachinfo/www/math/htmg/gibbs-bumstead.htm | archive-date =April 27, 2014 | url-status =dead }}</ref> Although the journal had few readers capable of understanding Gibbs's work, he shared reprints with correspondents in Europe and received an enthusiastic response from [[James Clerk Maxwell]] at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]. Maxwell even made, with his own hands, a [[Maxwell's thermodynamic surface|clay model illustrating Gibbs's construct]]. He then produced two plaster casts of his model and mailed one to Gibbs. That cast is on display at the Yale physics department.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1103/physrevseriesi.10.228 |title=Gibbs' Thermodynamical Model |journal=Physical Review |series=Series I |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=228–233 |year=1900 |last1=Boynton |first1=W. P. |bibcode=1900PhRvI..10..228B |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1996925 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://esm.rkriz.net//classes/ESM4714/methods/Gibbs.html |title=Thermodynamic Case Study: Gibbs' Thermodynamic Graphical Method |last = Kriz | first = Ronald D. |year=2007 |publisher=Virginia Tech, Dept. of Engineering Science and Mechanics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201163858/http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/ESM4714/methods/Gibbs.html|archive-date=February 1, 2014|url-status=live | access-date = September 30, 2015}}</ref>

Maxwell included a chapter on Gibbs's work in the next edition of his ''Theory of Heat'', published in 1875. He explained the usefulness of Gibbs's graphical methods in a lecture to the [[Chemical Society]] of London and even referred to it in the article on "Diagrams" that he wrote for the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.<ref>Rukeyser 1988, p. 201.</ref><ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Diagram |volume= 8 |last= Maxwell |first= James Clerk |author-link= James Clerk Maxwell | pages = 146–149 }}</ref> Prospects of collaboration between him and Gibbs were cut short by Maxwell's early death in 1879, aged 48. The joke later circulated in New Haven that "only one man lived who could understand Gibbs's papers. That was Maxwell, and now he is dead."<ref>Rukeyser 1988, p. 251.</ref>

Gibbs then extended his thermodynamic analysis to multi-phase chemical systems (i.e., to systems composed of more than one form of matter) and considered a variety of concrete applications. He described that research in a monograph titled "[[On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances]]", published by the Connecticut Academy in two parts that appeared respectively in 1875 and 1878. That work, which covers about three hundred pages and contains exactly seven hundred numbered mathematical equations,<ref name="Cropper-monograph">Cropper 2001, p. 109.</ref> begins with a quotation from [[Rudolf Clausius]] that expresses what would later be called the first and second [[laws of thermodynamics]]: "The [[energy]] of the world is constant. The [[entropy]] of the world tends towards a maximum."<ref>Quoted in Rukeyser 1988, p. 233.</ref>

Gibbs's monograph rigorously and ingeniously applied his thermodynamic techniques to the interpretation of physico-chemical phenomena, explaining and relating what had previously been a mass of isolated facts and observations.<ref name="Wheeler-thermodynamics">Wheeler 1998, ch. V.</ref> The work has been described as "the ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'' of thermodynamics" and as a work of "practically unlimited scope".<ref name="Cropper-monograph" /> It solidly laid the foundation for physical Chemistry.<ref name="Jordan1910">{{cite book |author=David Starr Jordan |title=Leading American Men of Science |year=1910 |publisher=H. Holt |url=https://archive.org/details/leadingamerican00jordgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/leadingamerican00jordgoog/page/n389 350] |quote=for it laid the foundation of the new science of physical science}}</ref> [[Wilhelm Ostwald]], who translated Gibbs's monograph into German, referred to Gibbs as the "founder of chemical energetics".<ref name="Britannica-1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Gibbs, Josiah Willard}}</ref> According to modern commentators,
{{blockquote|
It is universally recognised that its publication was an event of the first importance in the history of chemistry&nbsp;... Nevertheless it was a number of years before its value was generally known, this delay was due largely to the fact that its mathematical form and rigorous deductive processes make it difficult reading for anyone, and especially so for students of experimental chemistry whom it most concerns.
|J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson, 1997<ref name="MacTutor" />}}

Gibbs continued to work without pay until 1880, when the new [[Johns Hopkins University]] in [[Baltimore, Maryland]] offered him a position paying $3,000 per year. In response, Yale offered him an annual salary of $2,000, which he was content to accept.<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 91.</ref>

In 1879, Gibbs derived the [[Appell's equation of motion|Gibbs–Appell equation of motion]],<ref name="gibbs1879">{{cite journal |last=Gibbs |first=J. W. |year=1879 |title=On the Fundamental Formulae of Dynamics |journal=American Journal of Mathematics |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=49–64 |doi=10.2307/2369196 |jstor=2369196}}</ref> rediscovered in 1900 by [[Paul Émile Appell]].<ref name="appell_1900a">{{cite journal |last=Appell |first=P |year=1900 |title=Sur une forme générale des équations de la dynamique |lang=fr |journal=Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik |volume=121 |pages=310}}</ref>

=== Career, 1880–1903 ===
[[File:SloaneLab.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Yale University's old Sloane Physical Laboratory|Yale's Sloane Physical Laboratory, as it stood between 1882 and 1931 at the current location of [[Jonathan Edwards College]]. Gibbs's office was on the second floor, to the right of the tower in the picture.<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 86</ref>]]

From 1880 to 1884, Gibbs worked on developing the [[exterior algebra]] of [[Hermann Grassmann]] into a [[vector calculus]] well-suited to the needs of physicists. With this object in mind, Gibbs distinguished between the [[Dot product|dot]] and [[cross product]]s of two vectors and introduced the concept of [[dyadics]]. Similar work was carried out independently, and at around the same time, by the British mathematical physicist and engineer [[Oliver Heaviside]]. Gibbs sought to convince other physicists of the convenience of the vectorial approach over the [[quaternion]]ic calculus of [[William Rowan Hamilton]], which was then widely used by British scientists. This led him, in the early 1890s, to a controversy with [[Peter Guthrie Tait]] and others in the pages of ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''.<ref name="Bumstead" />

Gibbs's lecture notes on vector calculus were privately printed in 1881 and 1884 for the use of his students, and were later adapted by [[Edwin Bidwell Wilson]] into a textbook, ''[[Vector Analysis]]'', published in 1901.<ref name="Bumstead" /> That book helped to popularize the "[[del]]" notation that is widely used today in [[Classical electromagnetism|electrodynamics]] and [[fluid mechanics]]. In other mathematical work, he re-discovered the "[[Gibbs phenomenon]]" in the theory of [[Fourier series]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gibbs |first=J. Willard |date=1899 |title=Fourier's Series |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/059606a0 |journal=Nature |volume=59 |issue=606 |page=606 |doi=10.1038/059606a0|bibcode=1899Natur..59..606G }}</ref> (which, unbeknownst to him and to later scholars, had been described fifty years before by an obscure English mathematician, [[Henry Wilbraham]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1007/BF00330404 |title=The Gibbs-Wilbraham phenomenon: An episode in fourier analysis |journal=Archive for History of Exact Sciences |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=129–160 |year=1979 |last1=Hewitt |first1=Edwin |last2=Hewitt |first2=Robert E. |s2cid=119355426 }}</ref>

[[File:Sine integral.svg|thumb|left|alt=Plot of the sine integral|The [[sine integral]] function, which gives the overshoot associated with the [[Gibbs phenomenon]] for the Fourier series of a [[Heaviside step function|step function]] on the real line]]

From 1882 to 1889, Gibbs wrote five papers on [[physical optics]], in which he investigated [[birefringence]] and other optical phenomena and defended Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light against the mechanical theories of [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|Lord Kelvin]] and others.<ref name="Bumstead" /> In his work on optics, just as much as in his work on thermodynamics,<ref name=Klein1990>{{cite journal |doi=10.1063/1.881258 |title=The Physics of J. Willard Gibbs in his Time |journal=Physics Today |volume=43 |issue=9 |pages=40–48 |year=1990 |last1=Klein |first1=Martin J. |bibcode=1990PhT....43i..40K }}</ref> Gibbs deliberately avoided speculating about the microscopic structure of matter and purposefully confined his research problems to those that can be solved from broad general principles and experimentally confirmed facts. The methods that he used were highly original and the obtained results showed decisively the correctness of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory.<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 121, 124–125</ref>

Gibbs coined the term ''statistical mechanics'' and introduced key concepts in the corresponding mathematical description of physical systems, including the notions of [[chemical potential]] (1876),<ref name="Klein-proceedings" /> and [[Statistical ensemble (mathematical physics)|statistical ensemble]] (1902).<ref name="Caldi">{{cite book | editor1= Caldi, D. G. | editor2 = Mostow, G. D.  | title = Proceedings of the Gibbs Symposium | year = 1990 |pages = 143–144}}</ref> Gibbs's derivation of the laws of thermodynamics from the statistical properties of systems consisting of many particles was presented in his highly influential textbook ''Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics'', published in 1902, a year before his death.<ref name=Klein1990 />

Gibbs's retiring personality and intense focus on his work limited his accessibility to students. His principal protégé was Edwin Bidwell Wilson, who nonetheless explained that "except in the classroom I saw very little of Gibbs. He had a way, toward the end of the afternoon, of taking a stroll about the streets between his study in the old Sloane Laboratory and his home—a little exercise between work and dinner—and one might occasionally come across him at that time."<ref name="Wilson-reminiscences ">Wilson 1931</ref> Gibbs did supervise the doctoral thesis on mathematical economics written by [[Irving Fisher]] in 1891.<ref name="Fisher">{{cite journal |doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1930-04919-8 |title=The application of mathematics to the social sciences |journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=225–244 |year=1930 |last1=Fisher |first1=Irving |doi-access=free }}</ref> After Gibbs's death, Fisher financed the publication of his ''Collected Works''.<ref name="Celebrating-Fisher">{{cite book|last=Fisher |first=George W. |chapter=Foreword |title=Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2005 |chapter-url=http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/books/gean/fisher.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616203239/http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/books/gean/fisher.htm |archive-date=June 16, 2006 }}</ref> Another distinguished student was [[Lee De Forest]], later a pioneer of radio technology.<ref name="DeForest">{{cite journal |last=Schiff |first=Judith |title=The man who invented radio |url=http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/2285 |journal=Yale Alumni Magazine |volume=72 |issue=2 |date=November 2008 |access-date = December 28, 2013}}</ref>

Gibbs died in New Haven on April 28, 1903, at the age of 64, the victim of an acute intestinal obstruction.<ref name="Wilson-reminiscences " /> A funeral was conducted two days later at his home on 121&nbsp;High Street,<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 197</ref> and his body was buried in the nearby [[Grove Street Cemetery]]. In May, Yale organized a memorial meeting at the Sloane Laboratory. The eminent British physicist [[J. J. Thomson]] was in attendance and delivered a brief address.<ref>Wheeler 1998, pp.&nbsp;197–199</ref>

=== Personal life and character ===
[[File:JWGibbs.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Portrait of Willard Gibbs, circa 1895|Photograph taken around 1895. According to his student Lynde Wheeler, of the existing portraits, this is the most faithful to Gibbs's kindly habitual expression.<ref name="Wheeler-portrait">Wheeler 1998, pp.&nbsp;179–180.</ref>]]

Gibbs never married, living all his life in his childhood home with his sister Julia and her husband Addison Van Name, who was the Yale librarian. Except for his customary summer vacations in the [[Adirondack Mountains|Adirondacks]] (at [[Keene Valley, New York]]) and later at the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]] (in [[Intervale, New Hampshire]]),<ref name="Seeger-gentleman">Seeger 1974, pp.&nbsp;15–16.</ref> his sojourn in Europe in 1866–1869 was almost the only time that Gibbs spent outside New Haven.<ref name="Bumstead" /> He joined Yale's College Church (a [[Congregational church]]) at the end of his freshman year<ref name="Seeger-gentleman" /><ref name="obituary-church">{{cite book | title = Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, 1901–1910 | publisher = Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor | year = 1910 | location = New Haven | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rVkdAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA238 | page = 238}}</ref> and remained a regular attendant for the rest of his life.<ref name="Wheeler-views">Wheeler, 1998, p. 16.</ref> Gibbs generally voted for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidate in presidential elections but, like other "[[Mugwump]]s", his concern over the growing corruption associated with [[Political machine|machine politics]] led him to support [[Grover Cleveland]], a conservative [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], in the [[1884 United States presidential election|election of 1884]].<ref name="Samuelson-politics">{{cite book | last = Samuelson | first = Paul A. | author-link=Paul Samuelson | chapter = Gibbs in Economics | title = Proceedings of the Gibbs Symposium | year = 1990 | page = 255}}</ref> Little else is known of his religious or political views, which he mostly kept to himself.<ref name="Wheeler-views" />

Gibbs did not produce a substantial personal correspondence, and many of his letters were later lost or destroyed.<ref>Rukeyser 1988, pp.&nbsp;254, 345, 430.</ref> Beyond the technical writings concerning his research, he published only two other pieces: a brief obituary for [[Rudolf Clausius]], one of the founders of the mathematical theory of thermodynamics, and a longer biographical memoir of his mentor at Yale, H.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;Newton.<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 95. See also the ''Collected Works'', vol.&nbsp;II.</ref> In Edward Bidwell Wilson's view,
{{blockquote|
Gibbs was not an advertiser for personal renown nor a propagandist for science; he was a scholar, scion of an old scholarly family, living before the days when research had become ''ré''search&nbsp;... Gibbs was not a freak, he had no striking ways, he was a kindly dignified gentleman.
|E. B. Wilson, 1931<ref name="Wilson-reminiscences " />}}

According to [[Lynde Wheeler]], who had been Gibbs's student at Yale, in his later years Gibbs
{{blockquote|
was always neatly dressed, usually wore a felt hat on the street, and never exhibited any of the physical mannerisms or eccentricities sometimes thought to be inseparable from genius&nbsp;... His manner was cordial without being effusive and conveyed clearly the innate simplicity and sincerity of his nature.
|Lynde Wheeler, 1951<ref name="Wheeler-portrait" />}}

He was a careful investor and financial manager, and at his death in 1903 his estate was valued at $100,000<ref name="Seeger-gentleman" /> (roughly ${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|100000|1903|r=-1}}}} today{{Inflation-fn|US}}). For many years, he served as trustee, secretary, and treasurer of his alma mater, the Hopkins School.<ref name="Wheeler-HopkinsSchool">Wheeler, 1998, p. 144.</ref> US President [[Chester A.&nbsp;Arthur]] appointed him as one of the commissioners to the National Conference of Electricians, which convened in [[Philadelphia]] in September 1884, and Gibbs presided over one of its sessions.<ref name="Seeger-gentleman" /> A keen and skilled horseman,<ref>Rukeyser 1988, p. 191.</ref> Gibbs was seen habitually in New Haven driving his sister's [[carriage]].<ref>Rukeyser 1988, p. 224.</ref> In an obituary published in the ''[[American Journal of Science]]'', Gibbs's former student [[Henry Andrews Bumstead|Henry A. Bumstead]] referred to Gibbs's personal character:
{{blockquote|
Unassuming in manner, genial and kindly in his intercourse with his fellow-men, never showing impatience or irritation, devoid of personal ambition of the baser sort or of the slightest desire to exalt himself, he went far toward realizing the ideal of the unselfish, Christian gentleman. In the minds of those who knew him, the greatness of his intellectual achievements will never overshadow the beauty and dignity of his life.
|[[Henry A. Bumstead|H. A. Bumstead]], 1903<ref name="Bumstead" />}}