THE T. C. CHAMBERLIN FOSSIL COLLECTION FROM THE WHITEWATER NORNAL SCHOOL

The Whitewater Normal School (WNS, founded 1868, today the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater), was the first higher education workplace of T. C. Chamberlin (TCC) for a 4-year period from 1869 to 1873. Of course, TCC later cast a giant shadow in geology at the University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States Geological Survey and more, but it was his early reputation at WNS that earned him his appointment to the Wisconsin Geological Survey to launch this career arc. A collection of 132 labeled fossils (plus 3 orphaned labels with no coincident fossil) recovered during a building renovation are all that survive from this transitional phase as TCC left WNS shortly after beginning work on the Survey. The handwritten labels are co-branded with both WNS and Wisconsin Geological Survey designation, many of which (45.2%) are marked with signatures as T. C. Chamberlin or TCC. All but 2 specimens come from eastern Wisconsin, the purview of his initial work for the Survey. Silurian specimens are predominant, with 51.2% labeled Niagara, and only 11.1% labeled as Ordovician Trenton or Galena, and the remainder with a variety of ages or no stratigraphic designation. For the Niagara fossils, about half have more precise designation according to the stratigraphy of the time (e.g. Upper/Lower Corals Beds, Byron Beds, etc.). Taxonomically, Brachiopods (27.1%) and Corals (24.1%) form the bulk of the collection that also includes nautiloids, bivalves, gastropods, crinoids, trilobites, ostracods and more. 69 specimens are identified to the species level, 35 of which are either the brachiopod Pentamerus (oblongus + 5 other species) or the coral Favosites (niagarensis + 2 other species). While undoubtedly used at WNS primarily for teaching purposes, the collection still represents a fragmentary portrayal of the Lower Paleozoic biostratigraphy of the region plus the paleoecology of the Silurian reef and reef-adjacent faunas.