Alexander Dallas Bache

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Alexander Dallas Bache (July 19, 1806 – February 17, 1867) was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mideastern United States coastline. Originally an army engineer, he later became Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, and built it into the foremost scientific institution in the country before the American Civil War.

Early life and education

Bache was born in Philadelphia,Template:Sfnp the son of Richard Bache, Jr., and Sophia Burrell Dallas Bache. He came from a family prominent in American politics. He was the nephew of Vice-President George M. Dallas and naval hero Alexander J. Dallas, the grandson of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Dallas, and the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin.Template:Sfn

Career

United States Army

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1825, as first in his class, he was an assistant professor of engineering there for some time.Template:Sfnp As a second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, he was engaged in the construction of Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island.Template:Sfnp Bache resigned from the Army on June 1, 1829.

University of Pennsylvania

Bache was a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1841 and again from 1842 to 1843.Template:Sfnp He spent 1836–1838 in Europe on behalf of the trustees of what became Girard College; he was named president of the college after his return.<ref>Template:Cite BDA1906</ref> Abroad, he examined European education systems, and on his return he published a valuable report.Template:Sfnp From 1839 to 1842, he served as the first president of Central High School of Philadelphia, one of the oldest public high schools in the United States.Template:Sfnp

U.S. Coast Survey

In 1843, on the death of Professor Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, Bache was appointed superintendent of the United States Coast Survey.Template:Sfnp Whereas Hassler had faced continual doubts from Congress, Bache succeeded in convincing legislators of the value of geodesy in addition to geomagnetic and meteorological research.Template:Sfnp With many contacts, friends, and family among the nation's political and military leaders, Bache won liberal appropriations to build up his agency and greatly expand its work. By the mid 1850s it had become the federal government's leading scientific bureau. In 1849, it began study of the Pacific Coast, which the US had newly acquired via the US-Mexico War and Oregon Treaty. Assisted by Isaac Stevens, his number two in Washington, DC, Bache reorganized the Coast Survey so that it could complete initial mapping of the entire US coast.<ref>James Tejani, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and America (New York, 2024) Template:ISBN, pp. 21–25, 70-79.</ref>

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Smithsonian, and "Lazzaroni"

By the 1840s, a clique of leading US scientists began to coalesce around Bache with the goal of professionalizing their fields. They formalized with establishment of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists in 1843 (renamed the American Association for the Advancement of Science five years later) and the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. Informally, Bache and his circle called themselves the Scientific Lazzaroni. Together, the groups created and enforced standards of intellectual merit with the goal of elevating the nation and its reputation. This meant discrediting charlatans but, at times, also denying research funding or academic appointments to others. Perhaps most important, the groups advised and even mentored politicians and army engineers. Bache would lead the AAAS until 1851 and serve on the Smithsonian's board of regents throughout his term as Coast Survey superintendent.<ref>Lillian Miller, The Lazzaroni: Science and Scientists in Mid-Nineteenth Century America (Washington, DC, 1972), pp. 2–7, 9-17.</ref>

Civil War and Later Life

As the sectional crisis worsened through the late 1850s, Coast Survey budgets became ensnared by polarization and conflicts in Congress. Then, the start of war in 1861 brought a stop to work along the South's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Bache withdrew Survey ships from the region so they would not fall into secessionists' hands. At the same time, some staff resigned to join the Confederacy. A number of trusted friends and Democratic allies, including senators Jefferson Davis and Stephen Mallory, would lead the rebellion — acts that Bache took as both political and personal treachery.

Yet the Civil War enhanced the Coast Survey's stature in Washington, DC. By this time, the agency had amassed charts of southern harbors, rivers, and coastal terrain. The research gave a critical advantage to the Union military. Meanwhile, Bache continued to lead scientists to greater influence in government, helping to establish the U.S. Sanitary Commission and National Academy of Sciences.

Official duties and private worries contributed to Bache's declining health. By 1864 he had suffered a stroke, which left him handicapped and unable to work without his wife's assistance.<ref>James Tejani, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and America (New York, 2024) Template:ISBN, pp. 174, 272-273.</ref>

Bache served as head of the Coast Survey for 24 years (until his death).

Awards and honors

Elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1829.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1845.<ref name="AAAS">Template:Cite web</ref>
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on March 15, 1858,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society on May 24, 1860.

After the Civil War, Bache was elected a 3rd Class Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) in consideration of his contributions to the war effort.

Personal life

He married Nancy Clark Fowler on September 30, 1838, in Newport, Rhode Island. She was born in Newport and died on January 13, 1870, in Philadelphia. She assisted in the publication of much of his work. They adopted one son, Henry Wood Bache (1839–1878).<ref name="henrywoodbache">Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

File:AD Bache Tomb 1.JPG

Bache's gravesite at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

He died at Newport, Rhode Island on February 17, 1867, from cerebral softening.Template:Sfnp He was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., under a monument designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson.

Legacy

Two survey ships were named for him, the A. D. Bache of 1871 and its successor in 1901.

The cydippid ctenophore Pleurobrachia bachei A. Agassiz, 1860 was named for him; it was discovered in 1859 by Alexander Agassiz who was working as an engineer on a ship surveying the United States-Canada border between Washington state and British Columbia.<ref>Agassiz, G.R. 1913. Letters and recollections of Alexander Agassiz, with a sketch of his life and work, ed. by G.R. Agassiz. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 454 pages</ref>

Bache-Martin School, a public elementary school in Philadelphia, has its 5th-8th grade building named after him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notes

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References

Attribution:

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External links

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