Florence Bascom

Florence Bascom

Infobox Scientist
name = Florence Bascom
box_width =


image_width =150px
caption = Florence Bascom
birth_date =14 July 1862
birth_place = Williamstown, Massachusetts
death_date =18 Jun 1945
death_place =
residence =
citizenship =
nationality =
ethnicity =
field = geology
work_institutions =
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =

Florence Bascom (1862 – 1945) was the first woman hired by the United States Geological Survey. She was of Huguenot and Basque ancestry.

She was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She came from an academic background as her father, John Bascom, was President of Williams College. In the 1880s she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1893 and two years taught at Bryn Mawr College.

She received her position at the USGS in 1896 and continued there until 1936. She also had three students who would also become members of the USGS. Two of those students, Eleanora Bliss and Anna Jonas Stose, were also important in other respects to her story.

A great deal of her work involved the crystalline rocks and geomorphology of the Piedmont. This led to an unusual, for the time, example of a scientific dispute solely among women. The two students of Florence Bascom's mentioned above came to a different conclusion than her regarding the age of Wissahickon schist/gneiss. She contradicted them in a dispassionate way and the dispute is recorded as civil on the part of the three. That said by the 1930s it had broadened to most of those studying Appalachian geology and at times these individuals became more vehement than the original disputants.

Features named for her


*Bascom crater on Venus
*6084 Bascom: An asteroid discovered in 1985.

External links

* [http://www.usgs.gov/125/articles/bascom.html USGS site]
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/20117/bascom.html Think quest]
* [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:2rFT3GoIEd8J:www.as.wvu.edu/hess/Abstracts/18-2.pdf+%22BECOMING+A+GEOLOGIST:+FLORENCE+BASCOM+IN%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 WVU article]
* [http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2006AM/finalprogram/abstract_114300.htm Geological history society article mentioning the Wissahickon controversy]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Florence Bascom — 1893 Florence Bascom (* 14. Juli 1862 in Williamstown, Massachusetts; † 18. Juni 1945, ebenda) war eine US amerikanische Geologin. Bascom untersuchte mineralische Kristalle, indem sie diese im Mikroskop betrachtete. Sie untersuchte zudem… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bascom — may refer to:Places and sites;United States * Bascom, Florida * Bascom, Ohio * Bascom Hill, University of Wisconsin Madison * Bascom Lodge, Mount Greylock, Massachusetts * Bascom (VTA), LRT station in San Jose, California * Fort Bascom, New… …   Wikipedia

  • Bascom — ist die Bezeichnung mehrerer Städte in den Vereinigten Staaten: Bascom (Florida) Bascom (Georgia) Bascom (Kentucky) Bascom (Montana) Bascom (Ohio) Bascom (Texas) sowie einer Programmiersprache, siehe BASCOM Bascom ist der Familienname folgender… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bascom, Florence — ▪ American educator and scientist born July 14, 1862, Williamstown, Mass., U.S. died June 18, 1945, Northhampton, Mass.       educator and geological survey scientist who is considered to be the first American woman geologist.       Bascom earned …   Universalium

  • John Bascom — was born in Genoa, New York, on May 1, 1827. He was a graduate of Williams College with the class of 1849, and held many scholarly and honorary degrees from that and other institutions of learning. He was professor of rhetoric at Williams College …   Wikipedia

  • Basque-American — Infobox Ethnic group group = Basque American caption = Notable Basque Americans: Florence Bascom,Ted Williams, Jose Iturbi, John Garamendi flagicon|Basque Country flagicon|United States poptime = Basque 57,793 Americans popplace = California,… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Basques — This is a list of famous Basque people. It includes people born or resident in the Basque Country and people born elsewhere with significant Basque ancestry.Artists* Carlos Alazraqui, Television actor * Isabel Allende, writer. * Jean Anouilh,… …   Wikipedia

  • Women in geology — concerns the history and contributions of women to the field of geology. There has been a long history of women in the field, but they have tended to be underrepresented. In the era before the eighteenth century science and geological science had …   Wikipedia

  • Liste der Biografien/Bas–Bat — Biografien: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liste von Geologen — Die Liste von Geologen enthält ein alphabetisch geordnetes Verzeichnis berühmter oder herausragender Geologen oder Geowissenschaftler. Viele darunter haben Auszeichnungen wie die Gustav Steinmann Medaille, die Penrose Medaille oder die Wollaston… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”