HONORING THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. ISRAEL CHARLES WHITE: FOUNDING FATHER OF APPALACHIAN BASIN GEOLOGY AND THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Israel Charles White was “one of the intrepid band that launched the Geological Society of America caravel on uncharted seas”, writes Herman Fairchild in a 1927 memorial. Thus concluded a life of firsts for Doctor White, from watching his father designate the boundaries of the newly formed state of West Virginia after the Civil War, to attending the inaugural class of its new land-grant university, to early work with John J. Stephenson at the Second Pennsylvania Survey (Lesley Survey), to the development of the anticlinal theory of petroleum geology, which earned him significant fame and fortune in the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. He established the West Virginia Geological Survey in 1897, becoming its first state geologist, and joined his fellow intrepid colleagues in the formation, direction, and early administration of the Geological Society of America. Along the way, he documented his observations, travels and travails with both scientific precision and romantic prose, leaving behind a rich legacy of written history that is remarkable in its depth and prescience.

This geoheritage presentation will honor the life and work of Doctor White through his own writings. From recounting tales of early settlers risking life and limb to harvest thick seams of Pittsburgh coal by rolling the coal in buffalo-hide bundles down the steep river cliffs, to discovering the primitive natural gas piping used by the “Fire Eaters” in their religious ceremonies, his writings capture a remarkable life and career in rich and vivid detail and provide messages about use and conservation of our natural resources that still ring true today.