Profile of Charles Walcott on Famous Like Me

Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850 - February 9, 1927) was an eminent American invertebrate paleontologist. He has become well-known for his discovery in 1909 of well-preserved fossils in the Burgess shale formation of British Columbia, Canada.

Early Life

Walcott was born in New York Mills, New York. He was interested in nature from an early age, collecting minerals and bird eggs and, eventually fossils. He did not finish high school, but his interest in fossils led to his acquaintance with Louis Agassiz of Harvard, who encouraged him to work in the field of paleontology. On January 9, 1972 he married Lura Ann Rust. She died on January 23, 1876.

Beiginning of Scientific Career

In 1876 he became the assistant to James Hall the state geologist of New York. He became a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Walcott joined US Geological Survey in 1879 and rose to become its director in 1894. He worked especially on the Cambrian layer in locations throughout the United States, making numerous field trips and linking the fossils he collected to the sequence of rocks in a way that made important contributions to stratigraphy.

He married Helena Breese Stevens in 1888. They had four children between 1889 and 1896: Charles Doolittle Walcott, Sydney Stevens Walcott, Helena Breese Walcott and Benjamin Stuart Walcott.

Walcott was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1896. In 1902 he met with Andrew Carnegie and became one of the founders and incorporators of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He served in various administrative and research positions in that organization.

Leadership of the Smithsonian Institution

Walcott became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1907 after the death of Samuel Pierpont Langley, holding the latter post until his own death. He was suceeded by Charles Greeley Abbot. Because of his responsibilities at the Smithsonian, he resigned as director of the United States Geological Survey.

In 1910, the year after his discovery of Cambrian fossils in the Burgess shale, Walcott returned to the area accompanied by his sons Stuart and Sidney. Together they examined all the layers on the ridge above the point where the fossil laden rock had been found, eventually finding the fossiliferous band. Between 1910 and 1924, Walcott returned repeatedly to collect more than 65,000 specimens from what is now known as the Walcott quarry, named after him.

Walcott's wife Helena died in a train crash in Connecticut in 1911. In 1914 Walcott married his third wife, Mary Morris Vaux, an amateur artist and avid naturalist. She was happy to accompany him on his expeditions, as she loved studying nature. She made beautiful watercolor illustrations of wildflowers as she traveled with him in Canada.

Although Walcott spent a considerable amount of time at the Burgess Shale quarry on what became known as Fossil Ridge, he also travelled widely in other areas of the Canadian Rockies. Some of his numerous scientific publications feature spectacular panoramic photographs of the mountains taken from high passes or high on mountain slopes.

Death and Legacy

Walcott died in Washington, D. C. After his death in 1927, Walcott’s samples, photographs, and notes remained in storage until a new generation of paleontologists became interested in them in the late 1960’s. Many of his interpretations have been subsequently revised.

Walcott would be little known today if he had not been brought to attention by Stephen Jay Gould's book Wonderful Life (1989). In this book, Gould put forth his opinion that Walcott failed to see the differences among the Burgess Shale species and "shoehorned" most of these fossils into existing phyla. Many paleontologists would now take a much less negative view of Walcott's descriptions and of the theoretical perspective that shaped them.

A peak on Mount Burgess in Canada was named after him. The Charles Doolittle Walcot Medal is awarded for outstanding work in the field of pre-Cambrian and Cambrian life and history.

Works by Walcott

• The Paleontology of the Eureka District, monograph pub. by the USGS
• The Fauna of the Olenellus Zone
• Correlation Papers on the Cambrian
• Fossil Medusae, monograph pub. by the USGS
• Cambrian Brachiopoda, monograph pub. by the USGS

Sources

• Yochelson, Ellis L. Charles Doolittle Walcott, Paleontologist 1998 ISBN 0-87338-599-3

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