Robert M. Patterson

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Maskell Patterson (1787-1854) was a professor of mathematics, chemistry and natural philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (1812-1828) and professor of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia (1828-1835) before serving as director of the US Mint from 1835 to 1851. In his academic and professional life, he followed in the footsteps of his father, Robert Patterson, who was also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and who served as director of the US Mint from 1805 to 1824. His mother was Amy Hunter Ewing and he was one of eight children of that marriage. The younger Patterson was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1809 and eventually became its vice-president (his father was elected in 1783) and (again, like his father) was interested mainly in astronomy and geophysics. He was asked by a committee of the APS in 1836 to write a brief report on recommendations for astronomical and physics observations to be carried out by the United States Exploring Expedition, or US Ex Ex, which sailed in 1838.