Samuel Calvin (February 2, 1840 – April 17, 1911) was Iowa's first systematic geologist, helping to make the first bedrock and landform maps of Iowa, as well as leading geological research throughout the state. He was born in Scotland, attended Lenox College (now defunct) in Hopkinton, Iowa, where he later taught. One of his collaborators was Thomas Huston Macbride, the notable Iowa naturalist. Calvin became a University of Iowa professor in 1873 and the Iowa State Geologist in 1892, and led the Iowa Geological Survey from 1892 until his death. Calvin documented the Devonian and Aftonian beds of Iowa, and was an expert on Pleistocene fauna. He was a founder of the American Geologist journal.[1][2] Calvin Hall at the University of Iowa is named for him. His photographic collection of Iowa scenes is an important collection for historians and geologists. Calvin was president of the Geological Society of America in 1908.[3][4]
References
edit- ^ Calvin obituary, The Journal of Geology, July 1911, pp. 385-391.
- ^ Shimek, Bohumil (1912). "Memoir of Samuel Calvin in Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 23". Internet Archive. New York: Geological Society of America. pp. 4–6. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
- ^ Fairchild, Herman LeRoy, 1932, The Geological Society of America 1888-1930, a Chapter in Earth Science History: New York, The Geological Society of America, 232 p.
- ^ Eckel, Edwin, 1982, GSA Memoir 155, The Geological Society of America — Life History of a Learned Society: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Memoir 155, 168 p., ISBN 0-8137-1155-X.
External links
edit- Calvin Photographic Collection
- University of Iowa biography
- The Samuel Calvin Papers are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.