Henry Garber Hanks

Henry Garber Hanks was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12, 1826. His father Jarvis Frary Hanks was a local portrait painter; his mother was Charlotte Garber Hanks.[1]

Around the age of 16, Hanks left Ohio for Boston, taking work as a seaman. In 1842, his ship sailed to Calcutta in British India, where he worked and traveled for about a year.[1] He then served as a seaman on another ship returning to New York. He then traveled around the continental United States while conducting scientific studies before returning to Cleveland to work as a house and sign painter.[1] Around the age of 25, Hanks left Ohio to join the Gold Rush in California.[1] Between 1852 and 1856, he worked as a miner and businessman around Sacramento. By 1860, he was mostly occupied with selling paint in San Francisco.[1]

In 1866, Hanks established Pacific Chemical Works, an assaying company. Hanks was also a founding member of the Microscopical Society of San Francisco (founded 1872) and its first president.[2]

He represented California as its mineral commissioner and the United States as its mineral superintendent at the 1878 Paris Exposition.[1] Following the State Geological Society's reorganization as part of the State Mining Bureau on 16 April 1880,[3] Henry was chosen by Governor Perkins on 15 May[4] to head the new organization as California's first state mineralogist.[5] Based in San Francisco,[4] he was responsible for inspecting and classifying geological specimens submitted to the bureau,[5] as well as providing studies, annual reports, and various special publications.[4] Taking charge of the old geological society's collection and other property, he established a public museum and library.[1] He served until 1886[4] at a salary of $3000 per year. He was responsible for the mineral exhibits of California and the United States at the 1884 New Orleans and 1893 Chicago World's Fairs.[1]

In 1867, Hanks married Ellen Francis Barker. They had five children. One of his children Abbott joined Hanks's company as an assayer.[1]

On June 19, 1907, Hanks died in Alameda County, California.[1]

A doubly-terminated hexagonal crystal of hanksite

Henry G. Hanks was the namesake of hanksite, a sulfate mineral identified by William Earl Hidden based on a specimen from Searles Lake in California in 1885.[6]

• "Borax Deposits on the Pacific Coast", The Overland Monthly, rgn=full+text, size=100, view=image Vol. XI, San Francisco: John H. Carmany & Co, July 1873, pp. 71–74.
• Catalogue: Private Collection of Henry G. Hanks, San Francisco, 1880.
• Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, from June 1, 1880, to December 1, 1880, San Francisco, 1880.
• Second Report of the State Mineralogist of California, from December 1, 1880, to October 1, 1882, Sacramento: California State Office, 1882.
• First Annual Catalogue of the State Museum of California..., Sacramento: California State Office, 1882.
• Third Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, Parts I & view=1up, seq=7 II, Sacramento: California State Office, 1883.
• Fourth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist for the Year Ending May 15, 1884, Sacramento: California State Office, 1884.
• Catalogue of the State Museum of California, view=1up, seq=5 Vol. 2, Sacramento: California State Office, 1884.
• Catalogue of Books, Maps, Lithographs, Photographs, Etc. in the Library of the State Mining Bureau at San Francisco, Sacramento: California State Office, 1884.
• Fifth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, for the Year Ending May 15, 1885, Sacramento: California State Office, 1885.
• Sixth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, view=1up, seq=7 Part I, Sacramento: California State Office, 1886.
• The Deep Lying Auriferous Gravels and Table Mountains of California, San Francisco: F.H. Abbott, 1901.