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University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library

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Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113, USA
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Bela Hubbard papers, 1837-1893

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Summary

Creator:
Hubbard, Bela, 1814-1896
Abstract:
Pioneer Michigan geologist, assistant to state geologist Douglass Houghton on the Michigan Geological Survey, 1837-1842, completed portions of U.S. Land Survey of the Upper Peninsula begun by Douglass Houghton, 1845-1846. Later active in family's land business and lumber trade. Papers consist of notebooks containing field notes, sketches and maps; private journals covering Michigan geological expeditions and other trips, including the peninsula coast survey, Lake Superior and Upper Peninsula surveys and surveys of Wayne, Monroe and other counties; also weather memoranda, 1835-1864; miscellaneous accounts; and other papers largely relating to geology.
Extent:
0.75 linear feet (in 2 boxes)
1 oversize folder
Language:
English
Call Number:
851637 Ac Aa 2
Authors:
Finding aid created by Leonard A. Coombs (reprocessed, 1988)

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection consists primarily of Hubbard's pocket-size field notebooks. The notebooks are arranged, for the most part, chronologically for the period 1837 to 1893. Several notebooks that do not fit the chronological sequence are placed at the end of the series of notebooks. The notebooks for the years 1837 to 1840 have been bound, probably by Hubbard, into larger volumes. For convenience the later notebooks have been grouped into "volumes" by the library. Each "volume" is in a separate case. The notebooks contain personal journals, geological notes, and meteorological registers, along with sketches of landforms, scenery, and people, geological sections, and maps.

A few loose papers are found at the end of the collection.

The most extensive notebooks are those written between 1837 and 1840, when Hubbard was working for the Michigan Geological Survey, and in 1845 and 1846, when he was conducting the combined land and geological survey of the Upper Peninsula. In addition to the main sequence of notebooks for those years (volumes 1-8 and 10-12), that period is represented by separate meteorological registers (volumes 18 and 22), separate geological field notes for the 1840 expedition to the Lake Superior region (volume 21), and three reports on Hubbard's 1846 surveys (volumes 23-24 and loose papers).

This finding aid contains two appendixes. The first, compiled by the initial cataloger of the collection in 1958, specifies where many of the topics indexed in the card catalog for this collection can be found in the series of notebooks. The second contains an inventory of the maps found in the collection.

Several portions of the collection have been published.

The notebooks for May 23-August 8, 1840 (volumes 7-9 and parts of 21) have been published as Lake Superior Journal: Bela Hubbard's Account of the 1840 Houghton Expedition}, edited by Bernard C. Peters. Marquette, Mich.: Northern Michigan University Press, 1983. [MHC call number EA/91/H875/L192]

The "Catalogue of the Geological Specimens, Hubbard & Ives Survey, 1846" (volume 23), the "Report on the Geology &c. of District Surveyed by Messrs. Higgins & Hubbard, 1846, Lake Superior, with Catalogue of Minerals, Sections, etc." (volume 24), and the "Report upon the Geology & Topography of the District on L. Superior Subdivided in 1846 by Hubbard & Ives" (loose material) have been published in Report on the Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the Mineral Lands of the United States in the State of Michigan .., by Charles T. Jackson. Washington, D.C.: Printed for the House of Representatives, 1849. (31st Congress, 1st Session, House Executive Document 5, Part 3) [MHC call number EA/153/U58/M583]

The reports of Hubbard's surveys for the Michigan Geological Survey, based on his notes have been published in Geological Reports of Douglass Houghton: First State Geologist of Michigan, 1837-1845. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Historical Commission, 1928. [MHC call number EA/153/MG345/G345]

Hubbard's autobiography has been published as Memorials of a Half-Century. New York: Putnam's, 1887. [MHC call number EA/60/H875/M533]

Other Bela Hubbard papers are found at the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.

Biographical / Historical:

Bela Hubbard is noted as one of the pioneer geologists of Michigan as a result of expeditions undertaken, while in his twenties, with Douglass Houghton, Sylvester Higgins, and William Ives. For the rest of his long life, he occupied himself as a Detroit land speculator and lumber dealer.

Hubbard was born in Hamilton, New York, in 1814, but moved as a child to Utica, New York. In 1834 he graduated from Hamilton College, and soon thereafter moved to Detroit to join his brother Henry in managing the family's farm and land agency. Hubbard was active in the Detroit Young Men's Society, serving as corresponding secretary and, in 1845, as president.

In 1837, shortly after the Michigan Legislature established a geological survey to conduct a comprehensive study of the state's natural resources, the new state geologist, Douglass Houghton, appointed Hubbard his assistant. Hubbard served the Geological Survey from 1837 to 1841. Major field work undertaken by Hubbard for the survey included a coast survey of the Lake Huron and Michigan shores of the Lower Peninsula, done with Houghton in 1838; surveys of Wayne and Monroe Counties, also in 1838; and a survey of the Lake Superior coast and the copper region of Keweenaw Point with Houghton, in 1840. After 1840 the work of the Geological Survey was reduced, and Hubbard left the agency.

Hubbard returned to Detroit in 1841 to study law. He began writing a column in the Western Farmer, becoming the editor in 1842. The journal ceased publication in 1843.

In 1843 Houghton proposed that the U.S. land survey of the Upper Peninsula be combined with the state geological survey of the area. The following summer he contracted to perform the combined surveys. After Houghton's death in the fall of 1845, the surveys he had contracted to do were taken over by Hubbard and others. Hubbard surveyed the Huron Mountains area of Marquette and Baraga Counties with William Ives in 1845 and 1846. He also surveyed parts of Houghton and Ontonagon Counties in those years with Sylvester Higgins. Also in 1846 Hubbard edited and published with William Burt a report on the copper region based on Houghton's notes from his 1845 survey.

After 1846 Hubbard left the field of geological survey, concerning himself more with the family land business. In 1854 he entered the lumber trade. Hubbard died in 1896, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit.

Acquisition Information:
The collection came to the library in two accessions. In 1947, Josephine Sherzer (donor 2331 ), the daughter of Eastern Michigan University geologist William H. Sherzer, donated Hubbard's notebooks for 1838 and 1873-1884 and two notebooks of weather observations. It is unclear how these notebooks came into the possession of the Sherzer family. In 1958, Helen M. Martin (donor 3485 ), research geologist for the Michigan Geological Survey, donated Hubbard's notebooks for 1837-1852 and other material. These papers had been given to the Geological Survey, apparently in the 1920s, by a grandson of Hubbard, also named Bela Hubbard.
Accruals:

No further additions to the papers are expected.

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open to research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[item], folder, box, Bela Hubbard papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

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Collection

Bela Hubbard papers, 1837-1893
Call Number 851637 Ac Aa 2
Total components 36
Last indexed 2023-12-08