James Hall (paleontologist)

James Hall ( born September 12, 1811 in Hingham, Massachusetts; † August 7, 1898 in Bethlehem, New Hampshire) was an American paleontologist and geologist.

Hall studied under geology in Amos Eaton and Ebenezer Emmons at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Master 's degree in 1833 and then taught chemistry and geology at Rensselaer Polytec. In 1836 he was part of a multi-year project of the geological mapping of the State of New York, first as an assistant of Emmons. The stratigraphy of the geological layers was established and named. After completion of the work in 1841 he became the first State Paleontologist of New York. The final port of his district ( the land survey was divided into four districts ), the fourth in the western part of New York, appeared in 1843. Hall founded a laboratory in Albany, which as James Hall Office is now known and is a listed building. There are many well-known geologists and paleontologists were trained as Charles Walcott and Charles Emerson Beecher, who were his assistants. In 1866 he became director of the Museum of Natural History of New York at Albany. In 1893 he was state geologist of New York. He is buried in Albany.

Hall discovered, among other things, that the stromatolites are in the Petrified Sea Gardens in Saratoga Springs organic origin.

In addition to his work in New York, he also explored the rest of the United States. In 1850 he attended the geological survey of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, where he discovered the first fossil reefs in the United States. 1855 to 1858 he was state geologist of Iowa and Wisconsin from 1857 to 1860.

He was a founding member of the National Academy of Sciences and the first president of the Geological Society of America. He was one of the founders of the International Geological Congress and was at their meeting in Paris, Bologna and Berlin and took part in the meeting in 1896 in St. Petersburg ( and a field trip to the Urals ) part.

In 1848 he became a foreign member of the Geological Society of London, the Wollaston Medal he was awarded in 1858 and 1884 of the French Academie des Sciences.

Writings

Hall wrote more than 30 books and over 200 scientific papers. Among them:

  • Geology of New York IV, 1843
  • Paleontology of New York, 13 volumes, 1847-1894
  • Geology of Iowa, 2 volumes, 1858, 1859
  • United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, 1857
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