WORTHEN, Amos Henry, geologist, born in Bradford, Vermont, 31 October, 1813; died in Warsaw, Illinois, 6 May, 1888. He was educated at Bradford academy and emigrated to Kentucky in 1834, where he taught. In 1836 he settled in Warsaw, Illinois, which continued to be his principal residence until his death. There he engaged in the forwarding and commission business, and later in the dry-goods trade. His attention was early directed to the geological features of his western home, and he collected specimens of the sedimentary rocks of that region, especially the geode formations that there existed in abundance. In 1842, owing to the financial depression on account of the Mormon disturbances in the west, he withdrew from business and spent two years in Boston, where he exchanged his minerals for a cabinet of sea-shells. On his return to Warsaw in 1844 he resumed his collecting, and, by comparing the fossil specimens with his shells, he became an expert palaeontologist. As his cabinet increased it attracted the attention of scientists, and by means of exchanges it grew to include forms from other parts of the country. In 1851 he became assistant on the newly established geological survey of Illinois, and in 1855 accepted a similar office in the survey of Iowa under James Hall, who intrusted him with reporting on the palaeontology of that state. This place he held until 1858, when he was appointed state geologist of Illinois and continued in the work of the survey until 1877, when the office was abolished. Meanwhile he associated with himself representative men in special fields of science, assigning the descriptions of plants to Leo Lesquereux, the vertebrate palaeontology to John S. Newberry, the invertebrate palaeontology to Fielding B. Meek, and geology to Garland C. Broadhead and Edward T. Cox, and it resulted in the publication of his reports on the "Geological Survey of Illinois" (8 vols., Springfield, 1866-'88). In 1877 he was appointed curator of the State historical library and natural history museum, which office he held until his death. In this capacity he gathered an extensive variety of minerals and fossils which he classified, and also furnished numerous collections to different colleges in the state. Mr. Worthen was elected to the National academy of science in 1872, and in 1874 was made a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science, besides membership in other American and foreign scientific bodies. His writings were confined to professional papers and the reports of the surveys.