Florence Bascom

Florence Bascom
Florence Bascom
Born	July 14, 1862 Williamstown, Massachusetts
Died	Williamstown, Massachusetts
Nationality	United States
Fields	Geology
Institutions	Ohio State University Bryn Mawr College
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin–Madison Johns Hopkins University

Florence Bascom (July 14, 1862 – June 18, 1945) was an American geologist known for her innovative use of petrography in studying crystalline rocks and identifying their origins. In 1896, she became the first woman hired by the United States Geological Survey.

Early life and education

She was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts on July 14, 1862. Her father, John Bascom, was a professor at Williams College, and later President of University of Wisconsin-Madison and her mother, Emma Curtiss Bascom, was a women's rights activist involved in the suffrage movement. Her parents were steadfast supporters of women's rights and encouraged women to obtain a college education. Florence Bascom earned a B.A. and a B.Litt. degree in 1882, and her B.S. in 1884 from the University of Wisconsin, and stayed there to obtain her M.S. degree in 1887. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University, which she did in 1893. While studying at Johns Hopkins she was forced to sit behind a screen so as not to disturb the men. She was the second American woman to earn a Ph.D. in geology. She started her college teaching career in 1884 at the Hampton School of Negroes and American Indians (currently known as Hampton University), working there for a year before going back to university of Wisconsin for her masters. Once completed with her masters she taught mathematics and science at Rockford College from 1887 to 1889, and later at Ohio State University from 1893 to 1895. Leaving Ohio State University to work at Bryn Mawr College where she could pursue being able to conduct original research, and teach higher level Geology courses. There she founded the Department of Geology, and started a graduate program that trained many of the first women geologists of the 20th century. Bascom retired from teaching in 1928 but continued to work at the U.S. Geological Survey until 1936.

Work

Bascom received the position of assistant geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in 1896, the first woman to be appointed. From 1896 to 1908, she was an associate editor of the magazine American Geologist. Bascom was promoted to geologist in 1909 by the USGS and assigned the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont region of the United States. A great deal of her work involved the crystalline rocks and geomorphology of this region. This work is still influential in the 21st century. She created well-known U.S. Geological Survey folios on Philadelphia (1909), Trenton (1909), Elkton-Wilmington (1920), Quakertown-Doylestown (1931), and Honeybrook-Phoenixville (1938). She was given 4 stars in the first edition of American Men and Women of Science (called American Men of Science at the time), a very high honor for a scientist of any gender.

Bascom's dissertation, on the re-identification of certain rocks thought to be sedimentary as actually metamorphic rocks formed from lava, used cutting-edge petrographic techniques and was highly influential to the field of geology.

She had several students who would become members of the USGS: Eleanora Bliss Knopf, Anna Jonas Stose, Louise Kingsley, Katharine Fowler-Billings, Mary Porter, and Julie Gardner, as well as Ida Helen Ogilvie.

In 1894, Florence Bascom was the second woman elected to the Geological Society of America. She became a councilor in 1924 and a vice-president of the society in 1930. She was a member of the United States National Research Council and of the American Geophysical Union. The Geological Society of Washington allowed her to present a paper, the first woman who was afforded that honor.

Florence Bascom died of a stroke on June 18, 1945.

Named in honor of Florence Bascom

• Bascom Crater on Venus
• 6084 Bascom, an asteroid discovered in 1985.

Publications

Florence Bascom published over 40 articles on genetic petrography, geomorphology, and gravel. Her own account of her youth in Madison may be found in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Mar 1925.

• "The Geology of the Crystalline Rocks of Cecil County" Maryland Geological Survey (1902)
• "The ancient volcanic rocks of South Mountain, Pennsylvania" Pennsylvania US Geological Survey Bulletin No. 136 (1896)
• "Water resources of the Philadelphia district" US Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper No. 106 (1904)
• "Geology and mineral resources of the Quakertown-Doylestown district, Pennsylvania and New Jersey" Edgar Theodore Wherry and George Willis Stose. US Geological Survey Bulletin No. 828 (1931)
• "Elkton-Wilmington folio, Maryland-Delaware-New Jersey-Pennsylvania" with B.L. Miller. Geologic atlas of the United States; Folio No. 211 (1920)

External links

• Think quest
• Geological history society article mentioning the Wissahickon controversy
• Florence Bascom at Find a Grave