Benjamin West

Who was Benjamin West?

Benjamin West was an American astronomer, professor, and almanac publisher. He is the son of John West, a farmer.

Born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, he was largely an autodidact. After a school he started in Providence, Rhode Island proved unprofitable, he worked as a store owner, then made clothes during the American Revolutionary War. He and Joseph Brown observed the transit of Venus on June 3, 1769, publishing An Account of the Observation of Venus upon the Sun the Third Day of June 1769. He observed Lexell's Comet in July 1770, the same year he earned honorary degrees from Harvard University and Rhode Island College. He also earned an honorary degree from Dartmouth College in 1772.

The publication of An Almanack, for the year of our Lord Christ, 1763 In 1781 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and began teaching as a professor of mathematics and natural history at Rhode Island College after 1786.