Charles Abiathar White

Charles Abiathar White (January 26, 1826 – June 29, 1910) was an American physician, geologist, paleontologist, professor of natural history at the Iowa State University State University of Iowa from 1867 to 1873, and employee of the United States Geological Survey from 1874 to 1892. He was elected in 1874 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1889 a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. According to the obituary written by Marcus Benjamin, White wrote articles on "geology, paleontology, zoology, botany, anthropology, local history, medicine and domestic science.". Quotes The Pipestone National Monument Great Red Pipestone Quarry, from whence the Native Americans of the United States Indians occupying a large portion of the North American continent have from time immemorial obtained the material for their Ceremonial pipe pipes, has become almost as famous among those who speak the English language as among the aborigines themselves, who, to some extent at least, regard it as a sacred place. This is largely due to the interest which has been excited by the observations of George Catlin Catlin and Henry Schoolcraft Schoolcraft upon the habits, customs and legends of the Indians, but more especially to the unique poetic form in which our much-loved Longfellow has rendered some of them in his "Song of Hiawatha." 1869 A trip to the Great Red Pipestone quarry The American Naturalist 2 12 644–653 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/270332 (quote from p. 644) Our knowledge of the various geological formations which are found within the limits of North America enables us to trace with a good degree of satisfaction the history of the evolution of the continent or the progressive steps by which it was elevated above the sea. ... it may be stated that the continent in its present shape has been produces by the coalescence of two or more principal portions which were elevated above the level of the sea in the earlier geographical ages in consequence of the Post-glacial rebound progressive elevation of the continental area. The two principal portions of the continent previous to the Cretaceous period were an eastern and a western one respectively, and before the close of that period they were separated by a broad stretch of open sea. By the continued slow rise of the whole continental area this broad stretch of open sea became land locked at the close of the Cretaceous period and beginning of the Laramide orogeny Laramie, changing the area thus enclosed to a brackish-water sea, in which the strata that we now call the Laramie Formation Laramie Group were deposited. By the continued elevation of the continental area that sea became much reduced in size and entirely fresh at the close of the Laramie period. (extract from) Annual Report of the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey—1881-82 1883 A review of the non-marine fossil Mollusca of North America https://books.google.com/books?id=_Qs5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA416 403–546 (quote from pp. 416–417; 144 pages; 32 pages of plates) During the years 1840-'42, Ilya Voznesensky Ilia Wosnessensky, while making zoological collections along the west coast of North America, obtained also a few fossils from Alaska. These were published by Constantine Grewingk, in Verhandlungen der Russisch-Kaiserlichen Mineralogischen Gesellschaft zu St. Petersburg, for the years 1848 and 1849, pp. 344-347. ...Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were visited during the years 1847-'52, by Peter Doroschin, a Russian mining engineer, who made some important collections of Mesozoic fossil mollusks from various localities in that region. Karl Eichwald Professor Eichwald, in 1872, published these fossils in St. Petersburg, together with other fossils which Doroschin had collected in the region of the Caspian Sea, the title of the work being, " Geognostisch-Palaeontologische Bemerkungen ueber die Halbinsel Mangischlak und die Aleutischen Insel." On a small collection of Mesozoic fossils collected in Alaska by Mr. W. H. Dall of the United States Coast Survey On Mesozoic Fossils 1884 Bulletin No. 4, United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior U.S. Government Printing Office https://books.google.com/books?id=7uFCP6IeKWYC&pg=PA98 10–15 (with cumulative Bulletin numbering 98–103) (36 pages; quote from p. 10; pdf at pubs.usgs.gov) External links Category:1826 births Category:1910 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Geologists from the United States Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Paleontologists from the United States Category:Physicians from Iowa Category:Science authors from the United States Category:Scientists from Massachusetts