MEMORIAL FOR EBENEZER EMMONS (1799–1863), ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL FOUNDERS OF AMERICAN GEOLOGY, ON THE CAMPUS OF RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, TROY, NEW YORK ON APRIL 27, 2006

Ebenezer Emmons Sr. (1799–1863) one of the first graduates and later professor of geology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered (1861) that the deformed rocks in Washington County, New York were older than any fossiliferous rocks then known. He was the first to describe trilobites, now termed Lower Cambrian, as the oldest trilobites in the world. In fact Joachim Barrande (1799–1883), the principal investigator of early Paleozoic fauna, from what is now the Czech Republic in Europe, acknowledged Emmons. One of his trilobites credited both the city of Troy and Barrande (Fordilla Troyensis Barrande) (Ford 1884). Schneer (1969) notes that the single individual principally responsible for the transformation of American geology, and through him New York State became the model and standard for the stratigraphic surveys of much of the rest of the United States.

Emmons named the peaks of the Adirondack and Taconic mountains.

On April 27, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will place a memorial on its campus to commemmorate Ebenezer Emmons.

REFERENCES

FORD, S.W., 1884, On the age of the glazed and contorted slaty rocks in the vicinity of Schodack Landing, Rensselaer Co., NY: American Journal of Science, 3^rdseries, v. 28, p. 206–208.

SCHNEER, C.J., 1969, Ebenezer Emmons and the foundations of American geology: Isis, v. 60, p. 439–450.