State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
STATE GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CONNECTICUT NATURAL RESOURCES CENTER DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECI’ION A HISTORY OF THE STATE GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CONNECTICUT By ROBERT J. ALTAMURA Reprint from THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS - A HISTORY Published by the Association of American State Geologists 1988, p.48-69 1989 Reprinted from THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS - A HI~IX)RY 1 1988 Directors of the State Geological and Natural Histo~, Survey of Connecticut (-established in 1903) William North Rice, Superintendent, 1903-1916 A HISTORY OF THE STATE GEOLOGICAL Herbert Ernest Gregory, Superintendent, 1916-1921 Henry Hollister Robinson, Superintendent, 1921-1925 AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY Wilton Everett Britton, Superintendent, 1925-1939 Edward Leffinwell Troxell, Director, 1939-1954 John Becker Lucke, Director, 1954-1960 Joe Webb Peoples, Director, 1960-1974 BY ROBERT J. ALTAMURA Hugo Frederick Thomas, State Geologist, 1974- Connecticut Geological & Natural History Survey 165 Capitol Avenue Hartford, CT 06106 Early Official Geological Surveys of the State of Science. The early volumes of James Gates Percival (Geological survey of Connecticut with map) 1835-1842 FOUNDATIONS OF THE SURVEY Charles Upham Sbepard (Mineralogical survey of Connecticut) 1835-1837 Silliman’s Journal, as it was then There was a growing interest in known, contained a number of papers on geology in the early part of the 19th Connecticut mineralogy and geology, century, not only in Connecticut, but many by Silliman himself. elsewhere. By that time, James Hutton, Silliman’s students carried their the founder of modern geology, had knowledge to other parts of the country. presented his epoch-making Theory of In 1824, Denison Olmsted went to head the Earth to the Royal Society of the North Carolina Survey. Edward Edinburgh in 1785. Europeans, who had Hitchcock went to Amherst College in studied the natural sciences for some Massachusetts and conducted the geo- time, continued to pursue the subject of logical survey of that state beginning in geology. Here in the United States, 1830, which ~nspired and stimulated foreign literature stimulated interest in other states to get surveys under way. natural science, including geology and Amos Eaton went to Williams College in biology, and people were becoming Massachusetts and later to Rensselaer increasingly aware of the natural world. Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, In 1802, the President of Yale where he worked on a geological survey College in New Haven, Connecticut, in eastern New York, and James Gates hired Benjamin Silliman, who just had Percival stayed in Connecticut to lead completed his training in law, to head a the state’s first systematic geological department and offer courses in science. survey. Before he began teaching, Silliman In the United States, the period from attended lectures in chemistry at a 1830-80 has been referred to as the "Era NOTE FOR THE READER medical school in Philadelphia and had of the State Surveys" (Merrill, 1924}. This history of the State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut is a studied natural science in Europe. By William W. Mather, who taught at reprint of an article that was prepared for a volume containing the history of each of the 1806, Silliman had published a sketch of Wesleyan University in Middletown, fifty state geological surveys. Space limitations for this volume necessitated that this the mineralogy of New Haven and in Connecticut from 1833-34, was one of history of the Connecticut Survey be somewhat abbreviated, and greater detail is provided on geologic topics than on natural history (biology) topics. 1818 he founded The American Journal four state geologists who mapped New 1This paper was written for inclusion in The Stale Geological Surveys - A History. a 500-page volume including papers on the histoties of state geological surveys of the fifly states. ~’his project ~,as edited by Arthur A. Socolow and published by the Association of American State Geologisis (AAS G) in 1988. The Connecticut chapter is reproduced here with the permission of the AASG as a Connecticut Geological & Natural History Survey reprint~ 49 5O York State from 1836-42, and in 1841 Drinkwater Cope of the Academy of preparation for analysis that a gas was Edward Hitchcock completed the Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Also being emitted. Several years later, geological survey of Massachusetts: at this time, geological instruction and helium was isolated as a stable decay The first systematic study of the investigations were under way by John product of uranium. In 1904, Ernest geology of Connecticut was made when a Rutherford of McGill University pre- Johnston and William North Rice at survey of the state was authorized by the Wesleyan. Rice had received a Ph.D. sented ideas on how progressive accumu- Legislature on June 15, 18~35. James lation of daughter products might be from Yale in 1867. This was the first Gates Percival was placed in charge of used to measure geologic time. Those the geology and Charles Upham Ph.D. in geology given by an American university. The title of his dissertation ideas were put to use by Bertram B. Shepard, the mineralogy. A passage Boltwood of Yale, who, in 1906, from the Annual Message of 1835 from was The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species. Rice, a graduate of Wesleyan following a suggestion made by Governor Henry Edwards may provide Rutherford, looked at analyses of urani- in 1865, returned to become professor of insight into the thinking of the times, um minerals, including Hillebrand’s geology and in 1903 became the first which led to the birth of that first uraninite analyses, and made the first geological survey of the state. Superintendent of the State Geological and Natural History Survey of radiometric age determinations. Radio- metric age dating indicated that the The mineralogical treasures which have been Connecticut. Rice was also an ordained developed within a few years and which are expanse of geologic time was much constantly coming to light in different parts minister. Charles Upham Shepard greatdr than geologists previously of our country, give us reason to believe, that taught and conducted numerous thought. we have not as yet availed ourselves to the investigations at Washington College Around the turn of the century, extent that we might of this source of wealth, (later to become Trinity College) in and suggests the expediency of a move Hartford during this time. Key William H. Hobbs of the USGS con- systematic examination than has hitherto ducted pioneering lineament studies in taken place.. ~ (from Shepard, 1837). contributions to Connecticut geology and Connecticut, a field that today receives a mineralogy appeared in The American Shepard’s A Report of the Geological significant amount of attention. Survey of Connecticut was published in Journal of Science. During the 19th century, people in 1837, but it wasn’t until 1842 that Figure 1.--James Gates Percival--student of Shortly after its formation in 1879, Benjamin Silliman and author of the first the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Connecticut also turned their attention Percival published his Report on the geological map of Connecticut, which was to biology. For example, around the time Geology of the State of Connecticut, published in 1842. began work in Connecticut. William of Percival and Shepard, Eli Ives of Yale, Morris Davis, who was a professor at which was a comprehensive geological a professor of botany and medicine, investigation. By 1841, Percival (fig. 1) Harvard and also worked for the USGS, published three papers on plants in studied and mapped the Mesozoic rocks had surveyed the entire state in E-W the value of Percival’s observations, in Silliman’s Journal. Ives later made a list of Connecticut. Davis accomplished part traverses at 2-mile intervals, which preparing the 1985 Bedrock Geological that included the names of more than a means that he touched every square mile Map of Connecticut, John Rodgers of of this work by leading the Harvard thousand plants growing near New of the state. By the time Percival Yale used Percival’s map to help resolve College summer geology school to the Haven (Troxell, unpub, ms.). Troxell also accomplished this task, the Legislature conflicts. Meriden area for geological mapping. re~orts that Amos Eaton and John and new governor William Ellsworth From 1842 to 1903, the State Later, Davis worked with S. Ward Loper, Pierce Brace pursued similar interests. became impatient for a final report. initiated no new geological investiga- a farmer who later became curator of the Brace later studied plant life in the Requests for further appropriations were tions. However, studies were conducted geology museum at Wesleyan. Loper Litchfield, Connecticut, region, and his helped confirm Davis’ structural models denied, and Percival was forced to report by various university and federal herbarium was donated to Williams for block faulting in the Connecticut his work in "a hasty outline" of 495 geologists. In the last half of the 19th College. pages with a map (the first state century, instruction and investigations valley b~ locating specific fossil fish and About 1856, professor Daniel Cady geological map, scale 1:250,000). in geology were conducted primarily at fossil plant marker horizons. Eaton and other members of the Percival’s report on the geology of three Connecticut universities. At Yale, One of Davis’ geological assistants was William North Rice (fig. 2). Another Sheffield Scientific School of Yale Connecticut delineates all the major Benjamin Silliman, James Dwight produced a catalog of the higher plants rock types with particular attention to Dana, his son Edward S. Dana, and was Lewis Gardner Westgate, also a found in the vicinity of New Haven, detail. His observations are descriptive George Brush, made early contributions graduate of Wesleyan, who did listing about 1,230 species (Troxell, with little interpretative bias.