Eaton, Amos [key], 1776–1842, American naturalist, b. Chatham, N.Y., grad. Williams College, 1799. After practicing law for a time, he conducted pioneer geological surveys in Albany and Rensselaer counties, N.Y. (1820–21), and along the Erie Canal (1822–23). His report on the canal was published in 1824. He then became professor at the scientific school opened by Stephen Van Rensselaer (1824) in Troy, N.Y. (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). Besides a number of textbooks, he wrote the Manual of Botany (1817; 8th ed., with John Wright, North American Botany, 1840) and An Index to the Geology of the Northern States (1818).
See biography by E. M. McAllister (1941).
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