Personal Papers
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7062, Fielding B. Meek Papers
Fielding B. Meek (1817-1876) was born December 10, 1817, in Madison, Indiana, of Irish Presbyterian ancestry. His father was an eminent local lawyer who died when Meek was only three years old. Meek's early education in Indiana, and later Kentucky, was constantly interrupted due to ill health. Health problems, including deafness and tuberculosis, continued to plague him throughout his life. Meek attended good public schools, but was largely self-educated in the natural sciences. His first practical scientific experience was gained as an assistant in David Dale Owen's U.S. Geological Survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in 1848 and 1849. During 1852-1858 (excepting three summers) Meek was employed at Albany, New York, by the paleontologist James Hall. The summer of 1853 was spent in the Bad Lands of Nebraska in association with Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, while those of 1854 and 1855 were spent with George Clinton Swallow's Geological Survey of Missouri. Meek's association with Hall was terminated in 1858 when a dispute arose over the discovery of the occurrence of Permian fossils in North America.
Meek joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution in 1858 as the Institution's first full-time paleontologist. In lieu of salary, Joseph Henry allotted Meek living quarters
in the Smithsonian Castle Building. Until his death, Meek continued to live in the Castle, eventually gaining the title of resident collaborator in paleontology. At the Smithsonian
Meek also renewed his acquaintance with F. V. Hayden, joining him on many of Hayden's surveys of the western territories. Meek and Hayden's most notable resulting publication
was
The collection consists of correspondence 1849-1876, mostly incoming, concerning specimens and geological observations; notebooks, 1846-1872 and diaries, 1871-1875, resulting from Meek's field work; manuscripts and original plate illustrations; and miscellaneous personal papers, including a catalogue of the Meek library made soon after his death.
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Meek's Cat Lives in the "Castle" [Image No. 92-15019 (from Negative in Acc. 11-009)]
Sketchbook - Kentucky and Minnesota, undated [Field Book Registry Item 470]
Kentucky, 1846 (Geological Definitions) [Field Book Registry Item 471]
David Dale Owen's Survey, ca. 1848 [Field Book Registry Item 473]
David Dale Owen's Survey, April 1848-July 1848 [Field Book Registry Item 475]
Kentucky, 1846 [Field Book Registry Item 6924]
David Dale Owen's Survey, ca. 1848 [Field Book Registry Item 6926]
David Dale Owen's Survey, April 1848-July 1848 [Field Book Registry Item 6932]
David Dale Owen's Survey, July 1848-November 1848 [Field Book Registry Item 477]
David Dale Owen's Survey, 1849, Part I [Field Book Registry Item 478]
David Dale Owen's Survey, July 1848-November 1848 [Field Book Registry Item 6938]
David Dale Owen's Survey, 1849, Part I [Field Book Registry Item 6939]
David Dale Owen's Survey, 1849, Part II [Field Book Registry Item 483]
Notes ca. 1852 [Field Book Registry Item 484]
Notes, 1853 [Field Book Registry Item 485]
Missouri Geological Survey, 1853-1854, catalogue of Prof. James Hall's library, n.d. [Field Book Registry Item 488]
Missouri Geological Survey, notebook no. 2, 1854 [Field Book Registry Item 489]
Kentucky, 1857; account with Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, 1857-1859; Montana and Wyoming, n.d.; list of addresses of foreign geologists, n.d.; list of books on paleontology in S.I. library, n.d. [Field Book Registry Item 490]
Nebraska Territory (?), 1858 [Field Book Registry Item 491]
Wisconsin, Missouri, etc., 1858-1859, Washington, D.C., 1862 [Field Book Registry Item 492]
Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, New York, 1860-1869 [Field Book Registry Item 494]
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 1862 [Field Book Registry Item 497]
New Jersey, 1863 [Field Book Registry Item 499]
Iowa and Nebraska, 1867 (also contains loose material from Kansas and Missouri, n.d.) [Field Book Registry Item 500]
Ohio, 1870-1871 [Field Book Registry Item 501]
Diary, 1872 [Field Book Registry Item 502]
Union Pacific Railroad (with Henry M. Bannister), 1872 [Field Book Registry Item 504]
Diary, 1873 [Field Book Registry Item 507]