Charles Lyell’s debt to North America: his lectures and travels from 1841 to 1853

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Abstract Charles and Mary Lyell visited North America four times from 1841 to 1853. During the first three visits, Lyell lectured and they travelled widely. The lectures were great successes with the American public in spite of Lyell’s poor elocutionary skills. Comparisons of lecture topics covered over a decade provide insights into the rapid development of the young science of geology and of Lyell’s changing preoccupations. Included were crustal movements; uniformity of causes through time; coral reefs and oceanic subsidence; Carboniferous conditions; the early appearance of reptiles; palaeoclimate; the submergence of land and the origin of drift; biogeography; and a uniform organic plan with arguments against transmutation and historical progression. The Lyells saw more of the United States and Canada than had most citizens. Their conveyances included horseback, stagecoach, train, railroad handcar, and steamboat. Accommodation varied from elegant hostelries to dirt-floored shacks. Their travels took them from the Atlantic coast to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and from the St Lawrence valley to the Gulf Coast. America gained from Lyell the enhancement of the stature of geology, several original contributions to the understanding of its geology, and a positive impression of the New World conveyed back to Britain. Lyell’s reward was greater, however, thanks to the generosity of American guidance in his field work. He gained many fresh geological examples for his books, published two travel journals and more than 30 journal articles and presented at least eight lectures in Britain about American geology, making him the local British authority on America. He especially gained new evidence for his opposition to biological progression and for his submergence theory for the drift. Besides enhancing his geological reputation, Lyell also made an incisive comparison of British and American education, which drew him into public reforms at home sponsored by Prince Albert. Finally, his exposure to American Unitarianism, coupled with disenchantment with the Anglican Church, caused Lyell to shift his religious allegiance.