George Gibbs III, Colonel Gibbs

Male

January 7, 1776

August 6, 1833

Newport, RI

Sunswick (Ravenwood), NY

Laura Wolcott Gibbs (December 27, 1810)

    George Gibbs III was born on January 7, 1776 to George Gibbs II. and Mary Channing Gibbs. His father was a successful merchant in the West Indes and China. In 1796, Gibbs was sent by his father to study the mercantile business in Canton, China. During his travels, Gibbs studied in Europe and went to Lausanne, Paris. In Paris he studied mineralogy with Heinrich Struve and bought Jean Gigot d'Orcy collection in 1804. Gibbs was fascinated by minerals and became friends with prominent leading European mineralogists: Francois Gillet de Laumont, J.F. d'Aubuisson, and Count de Bournon.
    In 1805, Gibb's collection grew too large and he stored it in a house near his Newport mansion. The same year, the Governor of Rhode Island appointed Gibbs as "Aide de Camp" ...and given the title of Colonel. In 1807 Gibbs became friends with Yale Professor Benjamin Stillman and together they put an exhibit of Gibbs collection at Yale in 1811. In 1825, Gibbs sold his entire twenty-thousand specimen collection for $20,000 to Yale.
    Colonel Gibbs published papers in The American Mineralosical Journal and The Amerian Journal of Science.
    George Gibbs married Laura Wolcott on December 27, 1810. Together the couple had four sons and three daughters. His children led notable lives like their father. Colonel Gibbs passed away on August 6, 1833 and is interred at Saint Mary's Episcopal Churchyard in Newport Rhode Island.
[more][less]

The mineral, Gibbsite is named after George Gibbs

Attended Yale

Other; West Indies Trade

Vice President of Geological Society in New Haven, CT
Vice President of New York Lyceum of Natural HIstory

WILSON, Wendell E. (2016)
Mineralogical Record
Biographical Archive, at www.mineralogicalrecord.com.]

http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us00000y

Morley, Edward Williams. Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, 1822-1908. 197th ed. Vol. 49. Phila.: American Philosophical Society, 1910. Print.