Adolf Carl Noé

Carl Adolf Noé (originally Adolf Carl Noë of Archenegg , * 28. October 1873 in Graz ; † 10. April 1939 in Chicago ) was a from Austria originating American palaeobotanist .

Noë von Archenegg studied botany from 1894 to 1897 with Constantin von Ettingshausen at the University of Graz . After von Ettinghausen's death, he continued to study at the University of Göttingen from 1897 to 1899 . In 1899 he went to the USA and in 1900 earned an AB at the University of Chicago . However, he only found a job as a German teacher, first in Burlington (Iowa) , then at Stanford University . He returned to the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate in German in 1904 and taught there from 1905, first as an instructor for German, and from 1910 as an assistant professor of German literary studies. From 1910 to 1920 he also worked part-time as an assistant librarian in the university library. Towards the end of the First World War he changed his name to Adolf Carl Noé due to the anti-German hostility in the USA at the time. After the war, interest in studying German language and literature in the USA waned, and in 1920 Noé began teaching German specifically for students of the natural sciences and courses in paleobotany in the departments of geology and botany. In 1921 he became an assistant professor of palaeobotany, but continued to give German courses until 1923. From 1924 until his death in 1939 he was Associate Professor of Paleobotany and Curator of Fossil Plants at the Walker Museum, University of Chicago.

From 1921 Noé also worked for the Illinois Geological Survey , in 1922 for the Kentucky Survey , and from 1923 to 1925 for the Iowa Survey . The local coal mines were a main source of fossil plants and Noé was able to use his knowledge of the formation of coal and its geology for the coal industry. He particularly examined peat dolomite (English coal balls ). He amassed a collection of over 25,000 fossil plants for the Walker Museum. Noé was one of the first to teach paleobotany in the United States and had numerous students. In 1936 he became the first chairman of the new paleobotanical division of the Botanical Society of America .

Publications (selection)

See the full bibliography in Proceedings of the Geological Society of America 1939, pp. 225-227.

• Young Germany and Goethe . Chicago 1910 (= dissertation).
• Pennsylvanian Flora of Northern Illinois (= State of Illinois, Department of Registration and Education, Division of the State Geological Survey Bulletin 52) Urbana, Illinois 1925 ( digitized ).
• Ferns, fossils and fuel. The story of plant life on earth . Rockwell, Chicago 1931.
• Golden Days of Soviet Russia . Rockwell, Chicago 1931.
• Fossil palms . In: Bror Eric Dahlgren : Index of American palms (= Botanical series. Field Columbian Museum of Natural History Vol. 14). Field Museum, Chicago 1936, pp. 439-456 ( digitized ).
• Otto Stutzer : Geology of coal . Translated and revised by Adolph C. Noé. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1940.

literature

• Carey Croneis: Memorial to Adolf Carl Noé . In: Proceedings of the Geological Society of America 1939, pp. 219-227.
• Carey Croneis: Adolf Carl Noé . In: Science . NS 89, 1939, pp. 379-380.
• EJ Kraus: Adolf Carl Noé . In: Botanical Gazette 101, 1939, p. 231.
• Helmuth Zapfe : Index Palaeontologicorum Austriae (= Catalogus fossilium Austriae issue 15). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1971, p. 81 online (PDF; 430 kB)

Web links

• Finding aid for the estate in the University of Chicago Library