The United States Astronomical Expedition to Chile, 1849-1852

URING THE NINETEENTH century, many United States Government activities had the effect of disseminating knowledge of scientific techniques and led to valuable cultural and economic interchanges between this and other nations. Some of these efforts have been studied by historians. Others, among them the United States Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, led by Lieutenant James Melville Gilliss of the United States Navy, have been neglected.1 Gilliss, born in Washington, D. C., in 1811, entered the Navy as a midshipman at an early age. He became interested in following a scientific career in the Navy and, in furtherance of this aim, studied at the University of Virginia in 1833 and in Paris from 1835 to 1836. At the end of his work in Paris, Gilliss succeeded Lieutenant Charles Wilkes as head of the Naval Depot of Charts and Instruments and in 1838 was assigned to making astronomical observations.2 During the next few years he worked toward completion of a naval observatory. However, when the observatory was completed in 1844, Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury was placed in charge by virtue of his position as head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, in which post he had succeeded Gilliss on July 11, 1842.3

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