Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America,
October 27 - 30

Dennis Dean – History of Geology Award for 2002

Our congratulations to Dennis Dean on receiving the History of Geology Division Award for 2002. Dennis is well known to all of us for his many many contributions to the history of geology, not the least of which are his biographies of James Hutton and Gideon Mantell. Robert Dott, Jr. was the Citationist for the award which was presented at the annual Division luncheon held on Monday, October 28. Look for the citation and the acceptance remarks in a forthcoming issue of GSA Today.

HISTORY OF GEOLOGY SESSIONS

The first of two History of Geology sessions was held on Sunday and was very well attended. A. M. Celâl Sengör and Michele L. Aldrich convened "T46: Contributions of American Geologists to Theoretical Tectonics on the Basis of Research Done West of the 100th W. Meridian in the Latter Half of the 19th Century." The nine papers presented were on a wide range of topics from Humboldt as a pioneer of North American tectonics and Dutton’s ideas on western geology, to the influence that the geology of western North America had on Eduard Seuss; yet all were related to the central theme of the session.

Our second session, the History of Geology General Session, was held Monday morning with Robert N. Ginsburg and Roger D. K. Thomas presiding. Thirteen papers were presented on quite diverse topics from art in China and Europe and its influence on the development (or lack of) in geosciences, to Steno and the fossil debate, biographical work on Henry Darcy (of Darcy’s Law fame), geology and the writings of Mark Twain, and the history of the post-modern dinosaur, just to mention a few. As with the opening session on Sunday, our Monday papers were very well attended. Our thanks and congratulations to the conveners and organizers of our sessions. We look forward to more splendid sessions at Seattle next year.

RECEPTION FOR STUDENTS, MEMBERS, and FRIENDS

On Tuesday evening, the Division held the second annual reception for students, our members, and guests. The first reception held last year in Boston was quite successful, and this year’s proved to be successful as well, though not quite as many attended as last year. It was the evening before the last day of the meeting, and it was snowing in Denver that night, so walking was not easy. As GSA no longer provides shuttle buses at themeetings, walking was the only way to travel that night. But the bad weather notwithstanding, we had a good turnout and many door prizes. Those were very happy students who had their names drawn and left with one of the door prizes*. We gave away an early Dana Mineralogy, a book from one of the early western surveys, a beautiful geologic photograph, HESS journals and memberships, the Drake Well Foundation journal Oil-Industry History, a Gesner book reprint, and many other prizes. Our thanks to all the members who contributed items for the drawing, and our thanks to the Drake Well Foundation, History of Earth Sciences Society, and to GSA for donating items. We hope for a better attendance next year in Seattle where we assume it won’t be snowing, but you better bring your umbrella!!

Also, the Division is very grateful for the many contributions that our members made to help finance our reception. Such events within the GSA meeting are always expensive, but very important in letting people know that we exist and to share our enthusiasm for the history of geology with others. It is especially important that we reach and attract students to our Division and its work in the history of geology, for they will be the future of the Division. So thanks again to all who made the reception possible. If you were not able to make a contribution for 2002, we will certainly make it possible for you to do so for 2003!!!

ANNUAL LUNCHEON AND BUSINESS MEETING

The annual luncheon and business meeting was held at noon on Monday, October 28. The officers had met on Sunday afternoon to set the agenda. A. M. Celâl Sengör, Chair of the Division, called the meeting to order, and Bill Brice, Secretary-Treasurer-Editor, gave his report. He reported on two major items of business. First, the Division officers approved the co-sponsorship of two upcoming meetings, a) the Drake Well Foundation Symposium in Shreveport, LA, March 26-29, 2003, and b) the 25th anniversary celebration of the Northeastern Science Foundation, Troy, NY, August 10-12, 2003. Neither of these co-sponsorships requires any financial commitment from the Division. The History of Geology Division has co-sponsored meetings with both these organizations in the past. The second item concerned the Division Newsletter. For many years the Division has maintained a "Friends" list of people who are greatly interested in Division activities but who are not interested in, or cannot afford, joining GSA. For people on this list (and for our members) who cannot, or do not wish to, receive the newsletter via e-mail, GSA would prepare, print, and mail a paper copy (for which we were billed for postage). Just as the last newsletter was due to be sent out, Bill was informed that GSA could no longer provide that service. All such printing, etc. would be "out-sourced" to a commercial vendor and those costs billed to the Division. Obviously it was too late to do anything for the September issue, so GSA handled it for us. Bill said he did not have the cost figures for that issue, but he would be getting them (see the next article).

This leaves us with three alternatives: (1) stop sending paper copies to anyone, post the newsletter on the Division website, and have GSA send e-mail copies to "friends", which GSA can do for us at no charge [for the moment-Editor’s comment]; (2) pay the additional costs for GSA to send the paper copies to a non-GSA vendor and bill the Division; or (3) have the Editor do the paper copy work, including layout, printing, mailing, etc. and then be reimbursed by the Division for those costs. The third option means that GSA will then do very little for the Division, for sending out the copies via e-mail is not very difficult and the Editor could do that as well. Bill mentioned that GSA currently maintains the member and "Friends" lists, it collects our dues money, holds the Award Fund money (GSA Foundation), and assists with the newsletter. He indicated that if we have to do most of the newsletter mailing, etc. ourselves, then do we really need to be part of GSA? Any formally affiliated society can meet at the GSA annual meetings, e.g., the History of Earth Science Society. This is something we as a Division need to discuss further when Bill has the final cost figures. [Please see the following report.]

While the current operating fund is in good condition, $4000+, the costs for the Denver meeting have not been charged yet. The Award Fund has been hit rather hard by the fall in the economy. Those monies are held and invested by the GSA Foundation on our behalf, and what was a fund of over $25,000 last year, at the end of

October 2002 was down to just over $23,000, without any expenses for the 2002 award being deducted. Originally the Division was told that the fund must be at least $25,000 for the Foundation to hold and administer it. We reached that goal with some to spare, but now we are below that amount. Bill was told by a person in the GSA Foundation office that, for the moment, the Division is not expected to make up the loss that our Award Fund (via the GSA Foundation) has suffered. In other words, for the moment, the GSA Foundation will let us keep the Award Fund with them even though it is below the minimum amount they set several years ago. Bill promised to monitor the situation, but he has no control over how our Division money is invested by the GSA Foundation.

Bill then read the Necrology for the Division (elsewhere in the newsletter) and mentioned the contributions of S. Warren Carey of Tasmania, one of the early proponents of Continental Drift, and George Kiersch, who made many contributions to the history of engineering geology. Celâl spoke for a few minutes about Bill Sarjeant and his many contributions to the history of geology. A moment of silence followed.

Celâl then spoke for a few minutes concerning the expansion of our sphere to include the philosophy of geology, and about the need to expand the role of geology in the philosophy of science. He pointed out that most philosophy of science includes only physics and mathematics, with perhaps a little biology, but seldom the geosciences or any of the earth sciences. He suggested we could start by holding a special session devoted to the philosophy of geology at the Seattle meeting, and requested that if anyone is interested in organizing a session along these lines, to please contact Roger or any of the officers.

Bill presented greetings to the group from Silvia Figueirôa, President, HESS. She could not make the meeting this year. Greg Good, Editor of the HESS journal Earth Sciences History, gave a report, which is in the HESS portion of the newsletter. The History of Earth Science Society is now a formally recognized affiliated society with GSA and was a co-sponsor for our history sessions and the reception, and the HoG Division shared a booth with HESS in the exhibit area at the Denver meeting.

Robert Dott, Jr. was introduced to present the citation for Dennis Dean, who was to receive the History of Geology Division Award for 2002. Following Dennis’ acceptance talk, Celâl presented him with the award.* Both the Citation and acceptance remarks will be in a forthcoming edition of GSA Today, and they will be posted on the Division web site at http://gsahist.org after the GSA publication.

The report of the nominating committee was presented by Gary Rosenberg, Chair. Ed Rogers was nominated for Second Vice-Chair. There were no further nominations from the floor, and the slate of officers were elected by a voice vote. [The list of new officers is at the end of the newsletter.] Celâl, after thanking all who were of great assistance to him during his tenure as Chair of the Division and giving a special recognition to Michele Aldrich who worked as the liaison with GSA for this meeting, turned the meeting over to Roger Thomas, the new Division Chair. Roger gave a brief review of plans for the Seattle meeting (see a note in the Newsletter), as did Charles Byers for the 2004 meeting. Roger then adjourned the meeting.
        - Minutes submitted by William R. Brice, Secretary-Treasurer-Editor

        * For photographs of the event, visit: http://gsahist.org/Meetings/denver_pics/2002.htm

REPORT ON COST OF MAILING PAPER COPIES OF NEWSLETTERS

The following information was provided on 12 November by Barb Mieras, the GSA person who handles the newsletter distribution for us. Printing (200 copies of four pages, double sided) was $64.50. Barb did the folding and envelope "stuffing" for us and put on the mailing labels. 188 copies were mailed: 100 to HoG members without e-mail access; 2 to HoG members with e-mail who also requested a paper copy; 86 "Friends"

(non-GSA and/or non-HoG members). 153 went to US addresses and 35 foreign - approximately $75.00 postage; larger newsletters will cost more postage. (To get bulk rate you need a minimum of 200 U.S. items, and they have be sorted by zip code. This process will be complicated further because the "Friends" list and the HoG members are on different computer lists and would have to be merged by hand for the bulk rate method.) If the entire operation had been done "out of house", there would have been an additional cost for handling the envelopes, plus the "set-up" fee each time of approximately $55.00. Mailing labels for the "friends" list would have to be created by GSA and put on by hand by the mailing service, for another fee.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As can be seen from the above, our non-email newsletter costs will be rising, perhaps more than we can afford. Below are possible suggestions which the membership must consider and come to some decision in time for the 2003 newsletters: (1) Continue as we are for awhile and see how the costs go; (2) Drop the "friends" list and only send the newsletter electronically to HoG members with e-mail addresses. For the moment, this does not cost us anything extra; (3) Try to get people on the "friends" list to contribute $5.00/year to receive the newsletter, and no contribution, no newsletter. But this will be difficult for the non-US people to do. We can’t accept credit cards; (4) Try to coordinate the "friends" list with HESS and see if perhaps the newsletter could be sent to those who are HESS members via the HESS computer connections, and drop the rest. This way there would be no paper copies sent; (5) Only post the newsletter on the web site and make it available through GSA membership number and send nothing via e-mail; (6) Post it on the web site and make it available to anyone; (7) Have the Editor handle all the newsletter operations and skip any GSA involvement. This would require a new officer position to separate the editorship from the secretary-treasurer position.

As the Editor, I am open to suggestions, but the Division has to do something soon. Please keep in mind that we now post the newsletter on our web site after it has gone to the membership. This newsletter will go out as usual, but some decision must be made before the next one goes out after the first of the year. - Bill Brice

Additional Comments by Barb Mieras, GSA Divisions & Sections Communications Liaison: Handling small mailings was once something we could "fly under the radar" at GSA HQ because it involved less than half a dozen mailings spread out over the year for 2 or 3 of the smallest Divisions. Recently, however, nearly all of the Divisions have switched to mailing printed copy only to members without e-mail. As a consequence, rather than having a few small mailings for a couple of Divisions, there are now roughly 36 less-than-bulk-size mailings involving virtually all of the 14 Divisions; that is why it has grown beyond GSA’s ability to absorb the time and costs of printing, handling, and mailing them. HoG’s mailings, as Bill noted, are complicated by the fact that labels need to be made from multiple databases, meaning that we cannot efficiently transport and collate that information electronically for generating sorted mailing labels. Also, HoG sends more newsletters annually than other Divisions, but that’s important – HoG has a higher percentage of members without GSA e-mail access (nearly one-third of its members) than any other Division. We’re cooking up some additional options to add to Bill’s list for consideration while seeking a solution that works for both the Divisions and GSA’s HQ. The whole issue is a high-priority topic for the Division Chairs’ meeting coming up in Boulder in February. Please hang in there! GSA is very very glad that the HoG Division is part of GSA and wants very much to support the Division, its efforts, and its members. Please share your ideas with us < bmieras@geosociety.org >.

Drake Well Foundation
Practical Treatise on Coal, Petroleum & other Distilled Oil by Abraham Gesner, 1861.

The Drake Well Foundation has reprinted this historically significant book by one of the pioneers of the oil industry. Gesner’s book, long out of print, is more difficult to find in libraries than the 1865 Second Edition, but now it is available again, thanks to the Drake Well Foundation. The cost is $35.00 plus $5.00 (shipping and handling). To order, send check payable to The Drake Well Foundation, for $40.00 to: Mr. Samuel T. Pees, 628 Arch Street, Suite A-104, Meadville, PA .16335. (No credit card orders, please.)

Oil-Industry History (New Journal). Vol. 1 (2000) $35.00*; Vol. 2 (2001) $35.00*, Volume 3 (2002) $35.00* (*$5.00 postage for orders outside the US). All available from: Drake Well Foundation, PO Box 233, Titusville, PA 16354. Make check/money order (no credit cards please) in US $ payable to: Drake Well Foundation.

HISTORICAL REPRINT: The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed: by Hugh Miller; published by St. Matthew Publishing Ltd, 24 Geldart Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LX, UK. A reprint of the unabridged original edition of 1857, complete with its 152 engravings. A hardcover book for paper cover price. Available from: Kenneth J. Van Dellen, 1018 Nottingham Road, Grosse Pointe Park, MI 48230-1332. Kenvandellen@comcast.net

The cost is $15 U.S. (plus $5 S&H for U.S. addresses and $6 for Canadian addresses). Please note that the books are shipped in quantity from the UK at the lowest rate (which means the slowest method), so delivery may be on the slow side if it is out of stock, but they will be sent out as promptly as possible. There is a pretty good inventory on hand at present.

INTERESTING WEB SITE ON LAMARCK

Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829): www.lamarck.net . The site is in French, but you can navigate in English.

SOURCE FOR HISTORY OF GEOLOGY MATERIAL

The web page provides access to the entire listed inventory via a search page similar to those on ABE, AMAZON, etc. The advanced search page, http://www.paleopubs.com/advanceSearch.cfm , allows a person to produce a list of available items by author, title, keyword, etc. There are canned searches available at the top right of the page for new items and current features. Nathan E. Carpenter, PaleoPublications, 385 Pebble Beach Way, Eagle, ID 83616; nate@paleopubs.com or www.paleopubs.com

Journal Issues Available

The History of Earth Sciences Society has available for purchase a complete run of the journal Earth Sciences History, from Vol 1, 1982 - Vol 19, 2000 (two issues/volume*). All except v. 1-3 and v.8, no.1 are in original wraps as new. The price is $260 for individuals and $400 for institutions plus shipping**. Payment by credit card is now available. All proceeds will go to HESS (History of Earth Sciences Society). Contact Ed Rogers at: <www.geology-books.com>.

*Single Issue Prices: Vol. 1-20 ($15/25); Vol. 21-forward ($20/35).
**Surface Rates: