Katharine Woodley Carman (1906 – 2008)[1] was an American petroleum geologist. In a 1938 profile, she was described as "the only woman geologist in the United States employed by an oil company to work in the field exploring for oil".[2]
Katharine W. Carman | |
|---|---|
 Katharine Woodley Carman, from the 1927 yearbook of Wellesley College | |
| Born | Katharine Woodley Carman 1906 New York City |
| Died | 2008 (aged 102)[1] |
| Occupation | Geologist |
Early life and education
editCarman was born in New York City,[3] and raised in Colorado[2] and in Evanston, Illinois,[4] the daughter of George Washington Carman and Ruth Anne (Woodley) Carman.[5] Her father was president of an investment brokerage; her mother was a Northwestern University graduate.[6] She graduated from Evanston High School in 1923 and from Wellesley College in 1927.[7] She completed a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1933,[8] with a dissertation titled "The Shallow-Water Foraminifera of Bermuda."[9][10]
Career
editCarman was a micropaleontologist in the petroleum industry.[11][12] She was an analyst for the Petroleum Administration Board from 1934 to 1936, and was based in Texas and Nebraska as a geologist for the Felmont Corporation from 1936 to 1939.[2][5] She was exploration manager for North Central Oil Corporation from 1939 to 1941. In 1943, she returned to the Petroleum Administration for wartime planning and economic analysis.[3] Her expertise was cited and her testimony was read into the record of several Congressional committees,[13][14][15] including a 1942 Senate hearing on mineral resources and public lands.[16]
Carman was the Illinois district geologist for the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation from 1943 to 1946. Beginning in 1946, she was a partner in the Buckhorn Oil Company, based in Indiana.[3] She lived in Colorado in the 1950s.[17]
Publications
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Reference to Katharine Carman's death in 2008, aged 102, geolsoc.org.uk. Accessed March 11, 2024.
- ^ a b c "Woman Geologist Working for Big Oil Corporation Finds Her Work Interesting". The Tyler Courier-Times. 1938-04-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-10-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory. Bowker. 1949. p. 385.
- ^ "Diplomas Awarded to 195 by Evanston High School". Chicago Tribune. 1923-06-22. p. 23. Retrieved 2023-10-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Harbour, Kenneth (1937-06-22). "Dr. Katharine Carman Directs Field Crews in Geophysical Tests for Oil". Star-Herald. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved 2023-10-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Northwestern University (1903). Alumni record of the College of liberal arts, 1903. The Library of Congress. [Chicago] The University. p. 363.
- ^ Wellesley College, Legenda (1927 yearbook): p. 35.
- ^ "Most Prominent Figures at M. I. T. Graduation; Twelve Women in Procession". The Boston Globe. 1933-06-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-10-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Carman, Katharine W. "The shallow-water foraminifera of Bermuda." PhD diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1933.
- ^ Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research (1933). Contributions from the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research. p. 31.
- ^ Burek, Cynthia. "Review of Robbie Rice Gries, Anomalies – Pioneering Women in Petroleum Geology: 1917-2017". The Geological Society of London. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
- ^ Shrock, Robert Rakes (1977). Geology at MIT 1865-1965: A History of the First Hundred Years of Geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Department Operations and Projects. MIT Press. p. 686. ISBN 978-0-262-19211-8.
- ^ Commerce, United States Congress House Committee on Interstate and Foreign (1935). Petroleum Investigation ... Report: Pursuant to H. Res. 441 (73d Cong.) ... U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 4.
- ^ United States Energy Resources Committee (1939). Energy Resources and National Policy. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 210.
- ^ United States Congress House Temporary National Economic Committee (1940). Investigation of Concentration of Economic Power: Hearings Before the Temporary National Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Seventy-fifth Congress, Third Session. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 9549.
- ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys (1942). Development of Mineral Resources of the Public Lands of the United States: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, United States Senate, Seventy-seventh Congress, First Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 53, a Resolution Providing for an Investigation with Respect to the Development of the Mineral Resources of the Public Lands of the United States and Laws Relating Thereto. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ^ "Estate Closed". Fort Collins Coloradoan. 1955-12-27. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-10-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Carman, Katharine Woodley (September 1929). "Some Foraminifera from the Niobrara and Benton formations of Wyoming". Journal of Paleontology. 3 (3): 309–315.