Florence Bascom

American educator and scientist

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Florence Bascom (born July 14, 1862, Williamstown, Mass., U.S.—died June 18, 1945, Northhampton, Mass.) was an educator and geological survey scientist who is considered to be the first American woman geologist.

Bascom earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Wisconsin, and she later received the first Ph.D. awarded to a woman at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1893). Bascom then taught at Ohio State University (1893–95) before going to Bryn Mawr College, where she founded the department of geology; under her direction, it gained a national reputation. From 1896 to 1908, she was also associate editor of the American Geologist.

In 1896 Bascom was named assistant geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey—the first woman ever to receive that appointment. Her work on the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont region led to the contributions for which she is best known—U.S. Geological Survey Folios on Philadelphia (1909), Trenton (1909), Elkton-Wilmington (1920), Quakertown-Doylestown (1931), and Honeybrook-Phoenixville (1938). Bascom also wrote some 40 scientific articles on genetic petrography, geomorphology, and gravels.