Lardner Vanuxem

Lardner Vanuxem (July 23, 1792 – January 25, 1848), was an American geologist. He was graduated at the Ecole des mines, Paris, in 1819. After his education, he became the chair of chemistry and mineralogy in Columbia College in South Carolina. Lardner married Mary Ann Newbold in 1831, and they had seven children. In 1826 he retired from the college and devoted his attention exclusively to geology as a profession. During that year he published in the newspapers and in Robert Mills's "Statistics of South Carolina" reports on the geology of the state.

He visited Mexico to examine mining property. From 1827 to 1828, he studied the geological features of the states of New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, under the auspices of the state of New York, and made his report to its legislature. On the establishment of the geological survey of New York in 1836, Professor Vanuxem was assigned to the charge of the 3d geological district, and continued in the active work of the survey until 1841.

At the close of the survey he spent some time in Albany in arranging the state geological cabinet, out of which has grown the New York State Museum. Professor Vanuxem's private collection of mineral and geological specimens was considered at the time of his death as "the largest, best arranged, and most valuable private collection in the country." He was a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

Vanuxem saw the need for a uniform system of nomenclature in the United States which led him to form a collaborative group that in 1847 became the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Vanuxem was an intensely religious man. Raised in the Presbyterian Church, he abstained from alcohol and tobacco and was a strong advocate of human rights. He even advocated women's equality.