by Robert T. McMaster Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864) was not the only star in the firmament of American science in the nineteenth century, but he was certainly one of the brightest. Raised among the wheat and rye fields of Deerfield, Massachusetts, he was expected to pursue a farmer’s life, but early in life he developed a “strong relish” for science. With little formal education, he went on to become one of the most eminent scientists of his time. Hitchcock is best known for his pioneering work in paleontology, especially in deciphering the fossilized tracks of dinosaurs in the sandstone of the Connecticut Valley. But he was also one of the first American geologists to embrace such revolutionary ideas as Hutton’s views on the age of the Earth and Agassiz’s theory of continental glaciation. He published forty books on geology and authored more than 100 articles in the foremost scientific journals of