She conducted field work in the summer, while returning to Bryn Mawr the rest of the year for teaching, writing reports, and analyzing samples. In 1894, she became the second woman elected to the Geological Society of America, and in 1896 was the first woman to work for the U.S.
In order to be successful as a geologist, Bascom had to participate in the professional organizations and conduct mapping and survey work like a ‘regular fellow.’ “We have talked over the possibility of asking the Self Government to alter the rule about not wearing atheletic skirts off the campus and we do not think this would be wise but every student ought to have a walking skirt and as soon as the members of your class are willing to provide themselves with such skirts the Health Committee will be willing to count the geological excursions of two hours as a substitute for the third hour of fixed exercise. In a letter to Bascom, who wanted her students to get physical education credit for geology field work, Thomas demands that the women wear appropriate apparel for the outdoors. Bascom emphasized field work for her students, a practice which often brought her into conflict with Bryn Mawr president M. President Gilman sent her a letter from Mount Desert, “You have won your honors, as you must have wished to win them, without any favoritism, - just as all other candidates among us have won their diplomas, by talents, patience, and exertion.”Īfter briefly working at Ohio State, she took a position at Bryn Mawr College, then a women’s college, and began building a program in geology. Newspapers around the region and nation carried word of Bascom’s graduation as the first woman to receive a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1893. But she also finally had the chance to get outside and conduct fieldwork, studying the rocks of the Piedmont region of Maryland and Pennsylvania, work for which she became best known.
But Bascom persisted, successfully petitioning for admission with support from her Wisconsin professors.Īs was customary at the time, she was required to sit behind a screen in the corner of the classroom so as to not distract the male students. Gilman, who was also a Northeast Harbor summer resident, opposed the co-education of women. The president of Johns Hopkins, Daniel C. After earning several degrees at the University of Wisconsin and selecting geology as her preferred course of study, Bascom applied to Johns Hopkins University. She was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Wisconsin. The youngest of five children, Bascom was encouraged by her father (a philosphy professor) and her mother (an activist in the suffrage movement) to pursue science. Acadia had long been a destination for geologists, but Florence Bascom was the first professional female geologist to survey Mount Desert Island, publishing “The Geology of Mount Desert Island” in 1919.
0 kommentar(er)
