Records, 1882-1912.

ArchivalResource

Geological Survey (U.S.). Lake Superior Division. Records, 1882-1912.

Records, 1882-1912.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/145780893

Correspondence of the three geologists, Roland D. Irving, Charles R. Van Hise, and Charles Kenneth Leith, who successively conducted the work of this survey from their offices at the University of Wisconsin. The principal object of the survey was to make detailed studies of the ore-bearing regions bordering on Lake Superior, but in 1890 the general direction of a study of the pre-Cambrian rocks of North America was given to Van Hise, and from time to time special investigations or scientific supervision of additional projects were required of the division. There is a voluminous correspondence with the director's office at Washington, discussing plans, appropriations, cooperation with other divisions, technical problems, personnel, printing, and countless other details; correspondence with other division heads, with scientists in allied fields, editors, mineral land agents, mining companies, ore-distributing concerns, manufacturers, and faculty members of other colleges, particularly the University of Chicago where Van Hise served as nonresident professor of geology. There was also much communication with field workers, mainly concerning routine details of surveys. Since the incoming correspondence of the survey and of the university department of geology was filed as one unit, much of it deals with university affairs, as well as with other professional and personal interests of Van Hise. 1898-1899 letters concern intercollegiate athletics. 1903-1904 letters document Van Hise's work as geophysics advisor to the Carnegie Institution. Monthly reports of U.W. Science Club meetings are present as are papers on Leith's work preparing an exhibit of ores for the St. Louis Exposition of 1903.

9.0 c.f. (5 record center cartons and 13 archives boxes)

Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project