AIME Founding Fathers 1871

Many thanks to SME Pennsylvania Anthracite Past Chair, Mike Korb, for sharing his research via links below on historical information about AIME's Founders.

The First 22 23 -- More than mining and, as today, representing industry, academia, government

Below are the names and information of AIME's Founding Fathers, starting with "The First 23" who attended Day 1 of the meeting, followed by those who joined them on Days 2 and 3. Note that all references in AIME archives talk about “the 22”, not 23.  AIME President from 1872-1874 (and Secretary for 27 years), Rossiter Raymond, noted in 1918, shortly before he died, that Martin Coryell was at the organizing meeting on May 16, 1871 and acted as Secretary. However, he forgot to include his own name on the list of attendees and, thus, formally joined on Day 2 of the meeting. This oversight has been rectified here.

As you can see by the backgrounds of the founding members below, they were diverse, as "mining" engineer was more broadly defined in 1871.  They included some trained in civil engineering, metallurgy, and chemistry.  In fact, AIME’s first President and Honorary Member, David Thomas, was a blast furnace expert.

First AIME Meeting - Day 1 - May 16, 1871