Charles Palache

Charles Palache (July 18, 1869 – December 5, 1954) was an American mineralogist and crystallographer. In his time, he was one of the most important mineralogists in the United States.

Background The expulsions of Jews in Europe (1100–1600) included Palache's Pallache family forebears.

Charles Palache came from the Pallache family of Sephardic Jews. His grandfather, John Palache, had a plantation in Jamaica. His father, James Palache, was born in New York and moved to San Francisco as a merchant. His mother was Helen Whitney. His grandchildren included Judith Palache Gregory, editor of Catholic Worker and executor of the will of Dorothy Day.

Palache's brother Whitney had two sons, James and John. Both fought in World War I: James Palache died from his wounds on May 15, 1918.

Palache died on December 5, 1954, in Charlottesville, Virginia. His wife had predeceased him on October 27, 1949.

Awards

1937 Roebling Medal 1941 Honorary doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley

Works

Writings

Palache was co-editor of the Journal of Crystallography and the American Journal of Science.

Articles: "The geological congress in Russia" in American Naturalist (1897) "Jottings from Russia" in California Alumni Association (1897–98) "The Soda-rhyolite North of Berkeley" (1893) "On Octahedrite, Brookite and Titanite from Somerville, Massachusetts, U.S.A." in Festsch. H. Rosenbusch, Issue 12 (1906) "The Minerals of Franklin and Sterling Hill" in United States Geological Survey (1935)

Articles and books co-written or co-edited: Alaska: Geology and Paleontology with Benjamin Kendall Emerson, Frank Hall Knowlton, William Healey Dall, and Edward Oscar Ulrich (Doubleday, 1904) "Bradshaw Mountains Folio, Arizona" in Geologic atlas of the United States with Thomas Augustus Jaggar (U.S. Geological Survey, 1905) Halides, Nitrates, Borates, Carbonates, Sulfates, Phosphates, Arsenates, Tungstates, Molybdates, Etc. with James Dwight Dana, Harry Berman, Clifford Frondel, and Edward Salisbury Dana (Wiley, 1951)

Dedicated to Pallache: Studies in Mineralogy: Dedicated to Charles Palache (American Mineralogist, 1937)

Minerals associated

Redpath Museum holds a collection of Palache minerals.

Charlesite Diaboleite Hardystonite Lawsonite Leucophoenicite Manganite Oxide minerals Perovskite Telluric iron Wad Wurtzite