Department of Geosciences Records

American Institute of Geonomy and Natural Resources

Established in 1904 as the Department of Geology, and later known as the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, the Department of Geosciences has grown to become the center for the study of Earth, atmospheric, oceanographic, and environmental sciences at Princeton. Geoscientific studies at Princeton University date from 1854, when Arnold Guyot was appointed Professor of Geography and Physical Geology. Guyot was the sole instructor in geological sciences for 19 years and he was primarily responsible for the creation of the Geological Museum (located first in Nassau Hall and later in Guyot Hall), which grew from the fossils and geological specimens he collected for instructional purposes. Even in its early years, the department was a leader in geological and paleontological fieldwork. In 1877, three of Guyot's students - William Berryman Scott, Henry F. Osborn and Francis Speer - participated in Princeton's first field expedition to Colorado and Wyoming in order to collect vertebrate fossils. It was the first in a series of expeditions to the American west made by Princeton students and faculty, eight of which Scott himself led between 1882-1893. Scott was awarded the Blair Professorship of Geology and Paleontology in 1884 and was the department chair from 1904-1930. In 1909, five years after its founding, the Department of Geology moved into its home in Guyot Hall, a facility that also housed the department's growing Geological (or Natural History) Museum. Guyot Hall was designed by members of the department and funded by the mother of Cleveland H. Dodge (Class of 1879) who was a University trustee. In 1926, Richard M. Field initiated Princeton's Summer School of Geology and Natural Resources, a still-extant annual field course designed to teach students in techniques of geological and geophysical research. Under the tenure of chairman Harry H. Hess (1950-1966), the Department of Geology expanded its course offerings to touch on many subjects under the umbrella of geological science. In 1968, the name of the department was changed to the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences to reflect the new curriculum. The department became known as the Department of Geosciences in 1996.

Princeton University. Department of Geosciences

Established in 1904 as the Department of Geology, and later known as the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, the Department of Geosciences has grown to become the center for the study of Earth, atmospheric, oceanographic, and environmental sciences at Princeton. Geoscientific studies at Princeton University date from 1854, when Arnold Guyot was appointed Professor of Geography and Physical Geology. Guyot was the sole instructor in geological sciences for 19 years and he was primarily responsible for the creation of the Geological Museum (located first in Nassau Hall and later in Guyot Hall), which grew from the fossils and geological specimens he collected for instructional purposes. Even in its early years, the department was a leader in geological and paleontological fieldwork. In 1877, three of Guyot's students - William Berryman Scott, Henry F. Osborn and Francis Speer - participated in Princeton's first field expedition to Colorado and Wyoming in order to collect vertebrate fossils. It was the first in a series of expeditions to the American west made by Princeton students and faculty, eight of which Scott himself led between 1882-1893. Scott was awarded the Blair Professorship of Geology and Paleontology in 1884 and was the department chair from 1904-1930. In 1909, five years after its founding, the Department of Geology moved into its home in Guyot Hall, a facility that also housed the department's growing Geological (or Natural History) Museum. Guyot Hall was designed by members of the department and funded by the mother of Cleveland H. Dodge (Class of 1879) who was a University trustee. In 1926, Richard M. Field initiated Princeton's Summer School of Geology and Natural Resources, a still-extant annual field course designed to teach students in techniques of geological and geophysical research. Under the tenure of chairman Harry H. Hess (1950-1966), the Department of Geology expanded its course offerings to touch on many subjects under the umbrella of geological science. In 1968, the name of the department was changed to the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences to reflect the new curriculum. The department became known as the Department of Geosciences in 1996.

Guyot, A. (Arnold) (1807-1884)

Arnold Guyot was a Swiss-born American geologist, geographer, and educator. Born in Boudevilliers, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland, he obtained his doctoral degree at Berlin. Between 1839 and 1848 he taught physical geography and history at the Academy of Neuchâtel. In 1948 Guyot came to the United States, and in 1854 he was appointed Professor of Geology and Physical Geography at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). The following year he began what is now the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences and started the institution's first systematic instruction in geology. In 1856 he founded what is now the Princeton Museum of Natural History. Guyot's main activities focused on hypsometric measurements of the eastern mountains from New England to North Carolina, on meteorology, and on the reform of geographic teaching in colleges and secondary schools. Guyot was involved in the formative years of weather forecasting in the United States, and his extensive meteorological observations led to the founding of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Guyot also developed topographical maps of the Appalachian and Catskill mountains. His published works include The Earth and Man (English translation, 1849), Tables, Meteorological and Physical (1859), and Creation, or The Biblical Cosmogony in the Light of Modern Science (1884). Guyot's many texts, geographic atlases, and wall charts continued to be published long after his death. The guyot, a flat-topped volcanic peak rising from the ocean floor, is named after him.

Hess, Harry Hammond (1906-1969)

Harry Hammond Hess, the son of Julian S. and Elizabeth (Engel) Hess, was born in New York City on 24 May 1906. Hess received a B. S. degree from Yale in 1927 and then went to Princeton to pursue a Ph.D. in geology (1932).

Through the years, Hess held an assortment of positions, primarily academic, relating to geology. After completing his degree at Princeton, he taught at Rutgers University for one year (1932-1933), and assisted with research in the geophysical laboratory in the Carnegie Institute of Washington, D.C. (1933-1934). In 1934, Hess joined the Princeton teaching faculty-gaining full professorship in 1948-a post he would maintain until his death. At Princeton, Hess served as the chairman of the Geology Department (1950-1966), and was the sixth Blair Professor of Geology (1964). In addition to his teaching at Princeton, Hess spent two years abroad as a visiting professor at Capetown University, South Africa (1949-1950), and Cambridge University, England (1965).

While a graduate student, Hess began research in the fields of marine geological and geophysical studies by measuring the earth's gravity field aboard a U. S. Navy submarine in the Caribbean. Hess was given a commission as lieutenant in the U. S. Naval Reserve as a means to facilitate his work on Navy subs during subsequent trips. When called to active duty during World War II in 1941, Hess was initially assigned to enemy submarine detection in New York City. He created a successful system to predict German submarine location and kept the New York waterways safe. Hess then went on to other assignments in the Pacific, including landing at Iwo Jima. While traveling on the "Cape Johnson," Hess conducted echo-sounding surveys and discovered submerged, flat-topped seamounts between Hawaii and the Northern Mariana Islands. He named his seamounts discovery "guyots," in homage to the founder of the Princeton geology department and the first Blair Professor, Arnold Guyot. After being discharged in 1946, Hess remained active in the Naval Reserve, gaining the level of rear admiral in 1961.

With the assistance of Princeton, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, several oil companies, and the governments of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia, Hess established the Caribbean Research Project in 1947. As a result of this project, Caribbean geology was investigated extensively, particularly by graduate students, who used their data as the basis for their Ph.D. dissertations. Hess also proposed the Mohole Project (1958), which had the objective of drilling a hole through the ocean's "Moho," the Mohorovicic seismic discontinuity separating the mantle of the earth, to take core samples, and he originated a theory of ocean-floor spreading and continental drift (early 1960s).

Hess's interest in rocks was not confirmed to the earth: He was the chairman of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences (1962) and a collaborator with several committees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (1963), including being involved with the first moon landing, which occurred only one month before his death.

In keeping with his varied scientific interests, Hess was a member of innumerable committees, societies, and organizations relating to geology, oceanography, and space science. Furthermore, he authored many articles and book chapters on these subjects.

Hess died of a heart attack on 25 August 1969, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, while presiding at a Space Science Board conference. He was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. Hess was survived by his wife of 35 years, Annette (Burns), and their two sons, George Burns and Frank Deming Mather.

Scott, William Berryman (1858-1947)

A graduate of Princeton University (1877), William Berryman Scott received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1880. A specialist in vertebrate paleontology, Scott was an authority on mammals and the Oligocene geologic period. He was Blair Professor of Geology at Princeton from 1886 to 1930.

Smyth, Charles Henry (1866-1937)

Charles Henry Smyth was a professor of geology at Princeton University.

The records document the department from its 19th-century origins to the recent past with departmental files, faculty files, faculty meeting minutes and visual materials. In Series 4, a variety of materials document significant figures in the department such as Arnold Guyot, Richard Field, and William B. Scott. A consistent run of faculty meeting minutes in Series 4 provides a detailed picture of the department's development over the course of the 20th century.

The records are rich in photographs, slides and film that document many of the department's expeditions and excavations in North America—primarily in the American West. Photographs and negatives appear throughout the records, and not only in Series 7: Photographs. Both Series 5: Field Trips and Expeditions and Series 6: Natural History Museum contain a subseries of photographs.

The collection also includes the records of the defunct organization the American Institute of Geonomy and Natural Resources.

Histories of the department written by members of the department appear in Series 3: Department Administration under "Department Histories."

In the composition of this finding aid's organizational history, the history section of the Department of Geosciences' website (https://geosciences.princeton.edu/about/history) and Alexander Leitch's A Princeton Companion were consulted.

Transferred from the Department of Geosciences in 1985, 1995 [AR.1995.096], 1997 [AR.1997.007], 2004 [AR.2004.079], 2009 [AR.2009.026], 2016 [AR.2016.117], 2017 [AR.2017.001, AR.2017.015, AR.2017.067, and AR.2017.081], and 2018 [AR.2018.026].

Full text searching of this collection's archived website is available through the Archive-It interface.

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

This collection was processed by Lynn Durgin in October 2010. Finding aid written by Lynn Durgin in October 2010. After significant accessions, the finding aid was revised by Phoebe Nobles in 2018. Materials were added from Accession AR.2019.043 by Kimberly McCauley in July 2019. Lexy deGraffenreid updated the Conditions Governing Access note in January 2025.

Researchers interested in these materials may also wish to consult the Princeton Scientific Expeditions Collection (AC012), Series 2: Geological Expeditions. In addition, the Special Collections at Firestone Library holds the William Berryman Scott Papers (C0265); a collection of William Libbey Correspondence (C0872); the Charles Henry Smyth Journals (C0823); the Arnold Guyot Collection (C1095); and the Arthur Buddington Lantern Slides of Russia (C1448).

Duplicates and published volumes available elsewhere have been separated from the records. Grades from summer field courses during the years 1955-1990 have been separated from the records.

Use

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For instances beyond Fair Use where the copyright is not held by the University, while permission from the Library is not required, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Publisher

University Archives

Finding aids author

Lynn Durgin

Date

2007

Creator

American Institute of Geonomy and Natural Resources

Princeton University. Department of Geosciences

Subject

Geology -- Study and teaching -- New Jersey -- Princeton

Universities and colleges -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- Departments

People

Field, R. M. (Richard Montgomery) (1834-1902)

Guyot, A. (Arnold) (1807-1884)

Hess, Harry Hammond (1906-1969)

Jepsen, Glenn L. (Glenn Lowell) (1904-1974)

Scott, William Berryman (1858-1947)

Smyth, Charles Henry (1866-1937)

Thom, W. T. (William Taylor) (1891-1979)

Organization

Princeton University. Dept. of Geological and Geophysical Sciences.

Princeton University. Dept. of Geology

Princeton University. Dept. of Geology.

Princeton University. Faculty.

Princeton University. Natural History Museum

Language

English

Form

Correspondence

Minutes.

Photographs, Original

Slides (photographs)

Web sites