The Upper Library of the Geological Society of London was transformed into its previous incarnation as the Society’s Museum, in order to provide the venue for ‘an elementary class on fossils’ given by Edward Charlesworth (1813-1883).
A new evaluation of geological history might help resolve the riddle of the ‘Cambrian explosion’, the rapid diversification of animal life in the fossil record 530 million years ago.
Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924) was an eminent Victorian geologist, having been President of both the Geological Society of London, and the Royal Society, the only geologist ever to have held both positions. He retired in 1901 and moved to Haslemere in 1913 where he became chairman of the Haslemere Museum in 1914, after the death […]
In 1930 James Richey and Herbert Thomas, working for the British Geological Survey, completed their mapping of Ardnamurchan, one of four extinct volcanoes on Scotland’s northwest coast that mark the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean 60 million years ago. Their meticulous work revealed that indeed it was an ancient volcano, with the famous […]
Two exhibitions of particular interest to historians of geology are on at the moment. Fossils: the evolution of an idea can be seen at the Royal Society in London until Friday 8 November, 2013. It combines an exhibition of books and archives from the Royal Society Library with fossils from the Sedgwick Museum of […]
Marie Tharp was born July 30, 1920 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. As a young girl she followed her father, a soil surveyor for the United States Department of Agriculture, into the field. However, she also loved to read and actually wanted to study literature at St. John’s College in Annapolis, but as women were not admitted […]
This year the Geological Society of London has awarded its Sue Tyler Friedman Medal to Professor Henry (Hank) Frankel of the Department of Philosophy,UniversityofMissouri–Kansas City,USA. The award was established by Gerry Friedman in 1987 by a gift of the Northeastern Science Foundation Inc. of Troy,New York, and dedicated to his wife Sue Tyler Friedman. The […]
In a recent issue of GSAToday Dave Montgomery of Seattle has written an excellent short account of the history of Creationism. Following all recent scholars like Ron Numbers he traces the roots of Young Earth Creationists (YEC) to about 1900 in the Seventh Day Adventist church, rather than presenting the view that it is a […]
As part of Manchester’s Science Festival, HOGG Secretary, Leucha Veneer, will be giving a talk on the curator and cave hunter, William Boyd Dawkins (1837-1929). Boyd Dawkins found and recorded tools from Neolithic and Bronze Age man in the caves of Cresswell Crags, a limestone gorge honeycombed with caves. Using his knowledge of geology from […]
