Gilbert Harris papers

Collection

Identifier: 14-5-4663

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Content Description

Files related to the career of geologist Gilbert Harris. Includes fieldwork from his childhood, his work on the faculty at Cornell, and his time as the founder of the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca New York. Includes research notes, particularly related to Cenozoic mollusks and Louisiana. Correspondence with scientists work related to his time with the United States Geologic Survey. Also files relating to his consulting work in Trinidad and elsewhere with petroleum and oil companies.

Dates

1865 - 1996
Majority of material found within 1865 - 1952

Creator

Harris, Gilbert D. (Gilbert Dennison), 1864-1952. (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Gilbert Dennison Harris (October 2, 1864 - December 4, 1952) was an American geologist and paleontologist. He entered Cornell University in 1883, graduating with a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1886. Post-graduation, he worked for state geological surveys in Texas and Arkansas and the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, D.C. and Louisiana.

In 1894, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Paleontology and Stratigraphy at Cornell, receiving full professorship in 1909. He established himself as a premier invertebrate paleontologist, specializing in Cenozoic mollusks of the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains. Through his research along the coastal plains, Caribbean, and Latin America, Harris made extensive contributions to Cornell's fossil collections. After leaving Cornell, Harris founded the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in 1932, an independent organization dedicated to research and education in the field of paleontology.

Harris was also the proprietor and editor of two scientific journals, Bulletins of American Paleontology (founded in 1895 while at Cornell) and Palaeontographica Americana.