Special Features - Slideshow

Representing Fossil Footprints

James Deane letter to Edward Hitchcock, May 20, 1835. Image courtesy of Edward and Orra White Hitchcock Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library.

About this Image

This is one of the first drawings of a fossil footprint. It is by James Deane, who included it in a letter to Edward Hitchcock just two months after the discovery of footprints in Greenfield. At this point, Hitchcock still had not seen the tracks in person, and he did not take Deane's word (or drawing) for it that the tracks had been made by birds. It is easy to see why: Drawings are always personal interpretations, and since Hitchcock had never seen such a fossil footprint before, he can be excused for thinking that Deane's imagination was running away with him. This is particularly true taking into account the idealized nature of the drawing.