Arthur Edmund Seaman was born in Casnovia, Michigan in 1858. As a young boy he worked in the woods near his home; however, the white pine stands in southern Michigan were beginning to show signs of exhaustion and the loggers headed to the Upper Peninsula. Seaman went with them. He started work as a timberman but developed a knowledge of rocks and minerals on his own and was taken into the Michigan Geological Survey by C.E. Wright in 1885. After Wright died, Dr. Wadsworth of the geological survey and also director at the Michigan Mining School, retained Seaman. Between 1890 and 1893 Seaman became a fulltime instructor at the Michigan College of Mines (now Michigan Technological University). He was connected with the college until his death in 1937. Professor Seaman was a noted authority on the pre-Cambrian geology of the Lake Superior region, and conducted much research along these lines. He had the reputation among many educators of having a wider, first-hand knowledge of the geology of the Lake Superior region than any other man. He retired in 1928 with the title of professor emeritus of mineralogy and geology, and at the same time he was made curator of the mineralogy and geology museum. In June, 1932 the museum was named in his honor, "A. E. Seaman Museum" (now A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum).
Seaman's son, Wyllys Arthur Seaman followed in his father's footsteps. He graduated from the Michigan College of Mines in 1907 with his bachelor's and mining engineer degrees and for forty years was a member of the faculty at the college. He was a professor in the Department of Geology, and in 1943 he was appointed curator of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum. He retired from the college in 1948 and joined the public sector as the geologist and mineralogist for Republic Steel Corporation of Mexico, working in the titanium field in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Wyllys Seaman passed away in 1972 in Oaxaca.
From the description of Seaman Family Collection, 1882-1945. (Michigan Technological University). WorldCat record id: 698771648
