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Charles Doolittle Walcott

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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CHARLES DOOLITTLE WALCOTT (1850-), American geologist, was born at the village of New York Mills, New York, on the 31st of March 1850. He received a school education at Utica. In 1876 he was appointed assistant on the New York State Survey, and in 1879 assistant geologist on the United States Geological Survey; in 1888 he became one of the palaeontologists in charge of the invertebrata, in 1893 chief palaeontologist, and in 1894 director of the Geological Survey. In 1907 he was appointed Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. As president of the Geological Society of Washington he delivered in 1894 an important address on The United States Geological Survey. He added largely to contemporary knowledge of the fauna of the Older Palaeozoic rocks of North America, especially with reference to the crustacea and brachiopoda; he dealt also with questions of ancient physical geography and with mountain structure.

His more important works include "Palaeontology of the Eureka district" (Mon. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1884); "Cambrian faunas of North America" ( Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1884); Fauna of the Lower Cambrian or Olenellus Zone (1890, issued 1891), and Fossil Medusae (Mon. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1898).