Adam Seybert

Adam Seybert
Member of theUnited States House of Representativesfor Pennsylvania's1stcongressional district
In office 1809-1815
Preceded by	Benjamin Say
Succeeded by	William Milnor
In office 1817-1819
Preceded by	William Milnor
Succeeded by	Thomas Forrest
Personal details
Born	(1773-05-16)May 16, 1773 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,U.S.
Died	May 2, 1825(1825-05-02)(aged 51) Paris, France
Resting place	Laurel Hill Cemetery,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Democratic-Republican

Adam Seybert(May 16, 1773 – May 2, 1825) was an American politician who served as aDemocratic-Republicanmember of theU.S. House of RepresentativesforPennsylvania's 1st congressional districtfrom 1809 to 1815 and 1817 to 1819. He was a faculty member at theUniversity of Pennsylvaniaand amineralogistwho organized the first mineralogy collection in the United States in the 1790s.

Early life and education

Seybert was born on May 16, 1773, inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.He graduated in 1793 with a degree in medicine from theUniversity of Pennsylvania.He continued his studies inEurope,and attended schools inEdinburgh,Göttingen,andParis.He studied mineralogy at theEcole des Minesand was the first American to study mineralogy in Germany.He returned to Philadelphia with a collection of mineralsand worked as a physician for a short time before establishing himself as a "druggist, chemist and apothecary".He was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania.He was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1797,and a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1824.

Political career

Adam Seybert tombstone inLaurel Hill Cemetery

In 1809, Seybert was elected to the11th United States Congressas a Democratic-Republican representative forPennsylvania's 1st congressional districtto fill the vacancy caused by the resignation ofBenjamin Say.He was reelected to theTwelfthandThirteenthCongresses. He was chairman of theUnited States House Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Businessduring the Twelfth Congress. He was again elected to theFifteenthCongressand served from 1817 to 1819.He visited Europe from 1819 to 1821 and again in 1824 and settled in Paris, France, where he died May 2, 1825. He was originally interred atPère Lachaise Cemeteryin Parisand re-interred toLaurel Hill Cemeteryin Philadelphia.

Mineralogy

Seybert established the first mineralogy collection in the United States in the 1790s. The collection contained over 1,725 crystals and rocks. The noted mineralogist,Benjamin Silliman,was known to have traveled to Philadelphia to view the collection,and have Seybert analyze minerals from Silliman's collection.In 1812, Seybert sold his mineralogy collection to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.His political career took priority over his interest in mineralogy, and whenParker Cleavelandwrote to him in December of 1813 with questions on mineralogy, he replied that he had lost interest in the science.

Legacy

After Seyberts' death, his mineralogy collection was put on display at the Free Natural History Museum of theAcademy of Natural Sciencesin Philadelphia.

The University of Pennsylvania philosophy department named a chair in the department the Adam Seybert Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. The chair was funded by Adam's son, Henry Seybert. The duties of the chair included hosting the Adam Seybert committee which investigated the possibility of thespirit world.The committee met from 1883 to 1887 but was unable to discover any evidence and subsequent holders of the chair were freed from continuing the investigations.

Publications

• Experiments and Observations on Land and Sea Air,Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1799
• An Inaugural Dissertation: Being an Attempt to Disprove the Doctrine of the Putrefaction of the Blood of Living Animals.,Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1793
• Statistical Annals: Embracing Views of the Population, Commerce, Navigation, Fisheries, Public Lands, Post-Office Establishment, Revenues, Mint, Military and Naval Establishments, Expenditures, Public Debt and Sinking Fund of the United States of America,Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson & Son, 1818

References

Citations

Sources

• Greene, John C. (1969).The Development of Mineralogy in Philadelphia, 1780-1820.The American Philosophical Society.ISBN9781422371428.

External links

• Adam Seybert commonplace book, 1810 - from the American Philosophical Society Library