Wilkes, Charles

Life Span
to
Dickinson Connection
James Croxall Palmer, class of 1829, was an officer on Wilkes' 1838-1842 explorations of the western coast of North and South America and the Antarctic.
    Full name
    Charles Wilkes
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    5
    Family
    John de Ponthieu Wilkes (father), Mary Seton (mother), Jane Jeffrey Renwick (first wife), Mary Lynch Bolton (second wife)
    Occupation
    Military
    Other
    Other Occupation
    Explorer
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    Union Navy
    US military (Post-Civil War)

    Charles Wilkes (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    [Wilkes's] most important command, the U.S. Exploring and Surveying Expedition to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, 1838-1842, represented the first governmental sponsorship of scientific endeavor and was instrumental in the nation's westward expansion. Specimens gathered by expedition scientists became the foundation collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Significant American contributions in the fields of geology, botany, conchology, anthropology, and linguistics came from the scientific work of the expedition. Wilkes's evaluations of his landfalls influenced later U.S. positions in those areas.
    Roberta A. Sprague, "Wilkes, Charles," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-01124.html.
    Chicago Style Entry Link
    Symonds, Craig L. Lincoln and his Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. view record
    How to Cite This Page: "Wilkes, Charles," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12204.