Processed by: Archives Staff ; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig
Robert Peter papers, 1828-1905
1854-1905 (bulk dates)
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
No discernible arrangement.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Robert Peter papers, 1828-1905, 1854-1905 (bulk dates), 1M47M68, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
28 volumes, 339 pieces.
Chemist, physician, teacher. Robert Peter was born in England but emigrated to America in 1817. He lived for a time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After attending the Rensselaer School, in Troy, New York and lecturing on chemistry at Western University of Pennsylvania, Peter moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he became a professor of chemistry at Transylvania University. He also studied medicine at Transylvania, and received his medical degree in 1834. He only practiced medicine for a short while, but served on the medical faculties of Transylvania and of the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville. Peter supervised military hospitals in Lexington during the Civil War and later served as a professor of chemistry at what is now the University of Kentucky. He also served as chemist for two geological surveys of Kentucky and one each of Arkansas and Indiana.
This is a collection of notes and correspondence of Robert Peter. It includes laboratory notebooks, correspondence and loose, random notes pertaining to the geological surveys. There are copies of the surveys of Indiana and of Arkansas in the collection. There are also catalogues of plants Peter identified in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area from 1828 to 1833 and in the Lexington, Kentucky area from 1833 to 1835. The unbound material is largely on the subject of chemical analyses made by Dr. Peter.