Lindgren was born in
Vassmolösa,
Kalmar Municipality,
Småland,
Sweden, the son of Johan and Emma Lindgren. Johan was a judge and member of parliament, Emma the daughter of a clergyman. He attended the
Freiberg Mining Academy,
Germany, graduating as a
mining engineer in 1882. In 1884, Lindgren began a 31-year career with the
U.S. Geological Survey, working on ore deposits in the
Rocky Mountains. In 1905, he helped found the journal
Economic Geology. In 1912, he was appointed head of the Department of Geology at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lindgren was elected to the United States
National Academy of Sciences in 1909, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1912, and the
American Philosophical Society in 1917. He was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1931. He was a fellow of the
Mineralogical Society of America. He was president of the
Geological Society of America in 1924 (winning its
Penrose Medal in 1933) and of the
Society of Economic Geologists (winning its
Penrose Gold Medal in 1928). Lindgren's published writings run to nearly 200 titles, not counting discussions, reviews, and more than 1,000 abstracts. Most are on the great ore deposits. Editions of
Mineral Deposits, his widely used textbook, were published in 1913, 1919, 1928 and 1933. Lindgren died in 1939 in
Brighton, Boston. ==Publications==