The university, founded in 1869, built mainly of basalt, has schools of arts, medicine, chemistry and mineralogy.
There are museums of mineralogy and geology, a lower school of mining, model room and scientific library.
At a later date Berzelius denoted an oxide by dots, equal in number to the number of oxygen atoms present, placed over the element; this notation survived longest in mineralogy.
In 1817 America possessed only one scientific periodical, the Journal of Mineralogy.
In 1807 he became assistant keeper, and in 1813 he was appointed keeper, of the department of natural history in the British Museum, and afterwards of geology and mineralogy, retaining the post until the close of his life.