The Early Days of the Department of Geology at the University of Chicago

THE writer has been asked, as the surviving member of the resident group composing the first Faculty of the Department of Geology at the University of Chicago, to write a brief sketch of its early history as developed under the influence of T. C. Chamberlin. Others have spoken eloquently in this Memorial Number of his scientific and philosophic accomplishments in both the study of terrestrial geology and in his interpretation of the phenomena of his planetesimal hypothesis. The writer therefore will confine his remarks to the wonderful ability with which he organized his Department and the Journal of Geology, and the efficiency in teaching and research with which he inspired all who came in contact with him, and which will long remain a forceful and beneficent influence in the years to come. The charter of the new University of Chicago was dated September ii, 1890; William R. Harper was appointed President, and he assumed the duties of his office on July i, 1891. T. C. Chamberlin was promptly appointed Professor of Geology and Head of his Department, which together with other departments, threw open its doors for students on October I, 1892. Thus within about two years after the charter was granted, a man of wonderful learning and executive ability, a natural leader of men, had been chosen President, and he in turn had established different departments, had thought out the splendid grouping of University buildings, and had started a center of high learning, which arose as if by magic from former prairie land west of Lake Michigan. One of the first full programs of courses at the new University was that of the Department of Geology announced in October, 1892, and the first faculty consisted of: T. C. Chamberlin, Professor of Geology and Head of the Department; R. D. Salisbury, Professor of Geographic Geology; J. P. Iddings, Associate Professor of Pe-