Florence Bascom

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Florence Bascom 1893

Florence Bascom (born July 14, 1862 in Williamstown , Massachusetts , † June 18, 1945 ibid) was an American geologist , petrologist and mineralogist. She is a pioneer as a woman in geosciences in the United States.

life and work

Florence Bascom was the daughter of a professor of rhetoric at Williams College and from 1874 president of the University of Wisconsin, Madison , who was also a promoter of women's education (from 1875 women could study at the University of Wisconsin with restrictions). She studied from 1877 at the University of Wisconsin and earned a BA in 1882 and a BS (Bachelor of Science) in 1884. In 1887 she earned a master's degree in geology and continued her studies at Johns Hopkins University , where she received her doctorate in geology in 1893, the second woman in the United States. At that time she was only allowed to attend lectures there, shielded from the male students by an umbrella, so as not to distract them according to official reasons.

After her bachelor's degree, Bascom worked as a teacher, first in 1884/85 at the Hampton School of Negroes and American Indians (now Hampton University ), from 1887 to 1889 at Rockford College in Ohio and from 1893 to 1895 at Ohio State University . After receiving her doctorate, she taught at Bryn Mawr College (an all-women university) from 1895 , where she founded the Faculty of Geology. In 1928 she officially retired as a professor, but continued teaching until her death from a stroke. Many eminent geologists and mineralogists in the United States were her students at Bryn Mawr.

From 1896 she worked in the summer as an assistant geologist and from 1909 as a geologist for the US Geological Survey on the mapping of Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. She was the first woman the USGS hired as a geologist.

Bascom examined minerals and rocks with the microscope and immediately made progress in her dissertation when she recognized certain metamorphic rocks as of volcanic origin, which were previously considered converted sediments. The regional focus of her research was the central Appalachian Mountains ( Piedmont ) and she was considered a leading expert on the crystalline rocks there.

She was the first woman to hold a senior position with the Geological Society of America (as Vice President in 1930) and the first woman to be admitted to membership in 1924. From 1896 to 1905 she was Associate Editor of the American Geologist.

literature

  • Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie : Women in science. Antiquity through the nineteenth century. A biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography. 3rd printing. MIT Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1991, ISBN 0-262-65038-X , p. 36 f.
  • Alexander E. Gates: A to Z of Earth Scientists. Facts on File, New York NY 2003, ISBN 0-8160-4580-1 , pp. 15-16, ( digitized ).

Web links

Commons : Florence Bascom  - collection of images, videos and audio files

designation

after her are named:

References and comments

  1. ↑ Access to the library and sports were restricted and she could only hear the lecture if the benches were not occupied by male students
  2. ↑ The first was Mary Holmes, who received her PhD in geology from the University of Michigan in 1888
personal data
SURNAME Bascom, Florence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Williamstown, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1945
Place of death Williamstown, Massachusetts