Emmons, Ebenezer; American Geology containing a Statement of the Principles of the Science with full Illustrations of the Characteristic American Fossils. Parts 1 & 2 & 6 (all published). Albany, Sprague & Company, 1855-1857. Quarto, Part 1, pp. xvi, 194, frontispiece, 1 double page plate, 46 illustrations. Part 2, pp. 251, 18 double page plates, 84 illustrations. Part 6, pp. x, 152, 12 plates and a section, (many are folded, plates are randomly numbered and do not correspond to text notation for plates).
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The set is in a later linen with paper spine labels. The bindings are tight and clean. All are from the library of Mrs. M. Schuyler Elliot and bequeathed to the American Museum of Natural History with their book plate, stamp and cancellation stamp. The text for parts 1 and 2 are very clean, text for part 6 has light toning, clean plates, inked notation on title page denoting parts 3 through 5 were never published. In very good condition.
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An American physician, chemist and geologist; Emmons (1800-1863) was a member of the Geological Survey of New York from its inception until 1850. After his infamous dispute with James Hall over Emmons "Taconic System" he joined the North Carolina Geological Survey in 1851 and remained with that survey until just before his death in Massachusetts in 1863.
Emmons dedicated this work to his teacher and friend Chester Dewey of Williams College. After leaving the New York Survey, Emmons spent several years as the State Geologist for North Carolina but returned to the Berkshires of Massachusetts where he continued to practice medicine and teach occasionally at Williams College until his death.  His three volumes of  "American Geology" was intended as a compendium on the geology of America, and was to have contained six volumes and an atlas but only the above volumes were published before his death. Part one is an introduction to geology, mineralogy and mining and their practical applications. Part 2 covers his controversial "Taconic System", its fossils, and its stratigraphic position throughout the eastern United States. He completes part two with an introduction to other invertebrate fossils. Part 6 is the rarest part and rarely seen. In it Emmons discusses the vertebrate fossils and plants and fossil foot prints of the Permian and Triassic in the eastern parts of North America. Complete sets of the three published parts of this work are very rare, even in institutions.