Katherine V. W. Palmer was "one of the leading women of American science" in the twentieth century, observed Warren D. Allmon, Director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), in contemplating a history of women in paleontology. Charter member and second director of PRI, a renowned and accomplished paleontologist herself, Palmer was also an advocate of science education and a supporter of women in science. Although she never held a full-time paid position in paleontology other than the Director of the Paleontological Research Institution, she went on to become one of the most accomplished female invertebrate paleontologists in history, publishing widely in the paleontology and taxonomy of Cenozoic mollusks. She was the first woman to receive American paleontology's highest honor, the Paleontological Society Medal, in 1972.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~Katherine Evangeline Hinton Van Winkle was the only child of a Canadian-born nurse, Mary Edith McKinney (1873–1946), and Dr. Jacob Outwater Van Winkle (1864–1934), a physician born in Patterson, New Jersey. The family settled in Oakville, Washington, where Katherine was born on February 4, 1895. Nicknamed "Punkie" as a child, she would also be known familiarly to many as "Rip." She was close to her father and often travelled the region with him and took part in her family's multifaceted involvement with the local communities, both native and pioneer. She also absorbed her father's interest in natural history and decided at a very young age that she wanted to be a geologist. She was the only member of her high school class to go to college.
After an interview with the Dean of the College of Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, regarding a woman's career options in geology, Palmer was placed with well-known paleontologist Charles E. Weaver (1880–1958). She served as Weaver's research assistant, investigating the then largely unexplored paleontology of the state of Washington. While at the University of Washington, Palmer belonged to the undergraduate sorority Alpha Delta Pi (acting as president of the Alpha Theta chapter in 1917) and the science fraternity Sigma Xi. In 1918, she earned her BS in paleontology and also became a member of the California Academy of Science.
Weaver wanted Palmer to get her PhD at the best school possible and return to replace him at the University of Washington. So he encouraged her to go to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to study under Gilbert Dennison Harris (1864–1952), a recognized expert in the field of paleontology. A Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology, she received her PhD in paleontology from Cornell in 1925 and did postgraduate studies there supported by a Hecksher Research Grant in Paleontology. Although she returned to UW in 1922 (before PhD) for a short stint as a "visiting assistant professor," she never returned to Washington full time.
At Cornell, Palmer continued her association with Sigma Xi and belonged to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, but she was more active in academic women's organizations. She was a charter member of Chi Upsilon, acting as president of the Cornell chapter and as a national councilor of this women's geological fraternity. She also became a charter member of the women's graduate scientific fraternity Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE), founded at Cornell in 1921. SDE quickly grew to a national society with the original Cornell group forming the Alpha Chapter, and it is still active today as Sigma Delta Epsilon/Graduate Women in Science (SDE/GWIS). Palmer would continue her involvement with SDE/GWIS both locally and nationally throughout her life, most notably serving as National Second Vice-President (1928), National First Vice-President (1937), and National President (1938).
In 1921, she married Cornell professor, naturalist, and educator E. Laurence Palmer and settled permanently in the Ithaca area. The couple had two sons, Laurence Van Winkle (b. 1922) and Richard Robin (b. 1930). As in her childhood, Palmer was active locally, speaking at Ithaca's Rotary Club in 1948, for example, and participating in local dog training events. The Palmers also participated in each other's travels and studies until his death in 1970. Some trips were made on the family boats, "Ecphora," "Rip I," "Rip II," and "Rip III." Katherine Palmer taught Nature Study alongside her husband for three summers at Utah Agricultural College and another two at Cornell. She attended the sixth General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1958 and the seventh General Assembly in 1960.
Palmer held many short-term paid positions during and after college, including assistantships at the University of Oregon, Cornell University, and the University of Washington, Seattle. She was also a special lecturer at Cornell between 1942 and 1945. She served as a technical assistant for specific projects at the New York State Museum, the Redpath Museum at McGill University, and the Provincial Museum of Quebec, and as curator of paleontology at Oberlin College.
She was very involved with the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, serving as Secretary-Treasurer (1954–1961), Vice-President (1958), and President (1960). She also served as President of the American Malacological Union (now Society) in 1960, and, locally, of the Tompkins County Gem and Mineral Club in 1971–1972.
Palmer is best known, however, in relationship to the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca. She was a founding member and life trustee, became president of the Board of Trustees (1936–1937), and acted as Assistant Treasurer (1976–1980). Most significantly, Palmer served as PRI's second director, following her mentor and PRI's founder Harris, from 1952 to 1978. Under her directorship, PRI gained an international reputation among researchers, expanding and documenting its collections and adding stand-alone book publications to its long-standing academic serials Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Between 1965 and 1969, PRI moved from its original site near the Cornell campus to its current location across Cayuga Lake on Trumansburg Road, where it hosted public tours and opened a "mini-museum" that would gradually evolve into the Museum of the Earth in 2003. "Most importantly for PRI," notes current Director Warren D. Allmon, "she aggressively recruited local women to volunteer here and do much of the curatorial work." Palmer retained the title of Director Emerita of PRI for the rest of her life.
Palmer did extensive paleontological field work throughout her career, traveling to Florida, Mississippi, Mexico, and Panama. She was especially well known as a careful systematist. She identified and described more than 80 new taxonomic species and refined the descriptions of countless others. Most of these were mollusks (snails and clams) from sediments of Paleocene-Eocene age (ca. 65–35 million years ago) exposed along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. The fossil mollusks preserved in that region are among the most diverse and abundant in the world. Palmer's careful descriptive works on these fossils is in many ways still the "gold standard" for this kind of paleontology. She also synthesized her works with that of others and in 1965-1966 published a 1,058-page catalog on the more than 2,500 species of fossil mollusks from these deposits. This compendium is to this day unique in the field of paleontology for its breadth and depth. Furthermore, because it was done by a single scientist, it is widely regarded to be a uniquely consistent data set, and for that reason is still widely used by paleontologists today and included in modern computerized databases.
Palmer was one of the most accomplished and respected female paleontologists of the twentieth century. Between 1918 and her death in 1982, she personally wrote more than 20 single-authored research articles and monographs, totaling over 3,000 published pages. She coauthored another 800 pages and contributed to, edited, and helped publicize the work of many others through the journals published by PRI. She produced five catalogs of type specimens considered to be seminal reference works in the field of paleontology. She also wrote other works, including a volume of myths associated with the Chehalis nation, histories about organizations with which she was associated, paleontological pieces intended for the general public, and a guide to the Ithaca area for amateur fossil-hunters. She wrote biographies and memorials for many renowned scientists including Timothy A. Conrad (1803–1877), Dorothy K. Palmer (1897–1947; no relation), Gilbert D. Harris, Charles E. Weaver, Burnett Smith (1877–1958), Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1819–1877), and the Sowerby family.
Based on letters received on her retirement, Palmer also had a strong personal influence on many students, college professors, professional geologists, journal editors, and museum staff both nationally and internationally. She attended scientific conferences in the US and abroad and participated in a good-will scientific and educational excursion to Japan in 1974.
During her career, Palmer received grants from the Geological Society of America, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Science Foundation. She was made a National Honorary Member of SDE/GWIS in 1971. Other honors include being named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1935, an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Society in 1961, and an Honorary Member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (now SEPM/Society for Sedimentary Geology) in 1966. Palmer was also a fellow of The Paleontological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She became a life member of the Geological Society of France and the Société Linnéenne de Lyon.
Palmer was the first female recipient of the Paleontological Society Medal, widely regarded as paleontology's highest professional honor in the United States, in 1972, and she received the Western Society of Malacologists award in 1974. "Paleontology is Alive and Well: A Symposium in Honor of Dr. Katherine Van Winkle Palmer" was held at Tulane University in 1978 and included the presentation of an honorary doctorate. That same year, the Alpha Chapter of SDE-GWIS named their first Award for Excellence after Palmer. The Katherine Palmer Award for amateur contributions to paleontology has been presented each year by PRI since 1993 in recognition of her support of science at all educational levels.
Information from the Gertrud Wolfner PRI Archives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Katherine (Evangeline Hilton) Van Winkle Palmer,illustrious Tertiary paleontologist and long-time (1952—1978) director and Life Trustee of the Paleontological Research Institution, died on September 12, 1982.
In November a memorial service was held at the Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York. At that time her notable career in scientific,academic, and civic affairs was celebrated. She was the widow of Ephraim Laurence Palmer, famous professor of nature study at Cornell University. Their son Robin survives her.
Katherine was the lineal descendant of Jacob Walingen Van Winkle who came to New Amsterdam in 1634. He was one of the "First Twelve Men" who helped form the first official representative body of New York and New Jersey in 1641. Eph's earliest American ancestor was a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.
I first knew Katherine as a paleontologist 300 years after Ephraim's ancestor landed, but I had known Eph as my scout master for about ten years by then. Katherine was the senior paleontologist in the well-known paleontological laboratory of G. D. Harris at Cornell University when I first made her acquaintance as a scientist; her widely known doctoral study on veneracean lamellibranchs (1927, 1929) was an example to emulate for all of us aspiring students of paleontology. As Harris often remarked. "After God made Katherine. He broke the mold."
Katherine Palmer's paleontological career began at the University of Washington (B.S., 1918) under the inspiring teaching of Charles E. Weaver, renowned student of the Tertiary. She served him as a laboratory assistant (1918) before transferring to Cornell for graduate study. At Cornell she was an assistant in paleontology and historical geology (1921-1925), a Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology (1918-1920), and held a Hecksher Fellowship (1925-1927). At various times, she served as a special lecturer in paleontology at Cornell (1942-1945), and was a visiting assistant professor of paleontology and historical geology at the University of Washington (1922). She served as curator of the paleontologic collections of Oberlin College (1928), as technical expert in zoology at the New York State Museum (1945), as a special technical assistant at McGill University (1950). and the same at the Provincial Museum of Quebec (1951). She served as director
and emeritus director of the Paleontological Research Institution. Ithaca, New York, from 1952 until her death, having retired from active direction in 1978.
Among her many honors, Katherine received the Paleontological Society Medal in 1972 (see Journal of Paleontology, v. 47) for her distinguished work on Tertiary Mollusca: the Western Society of Malacologists Award (1974); and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Tulane University (1978). She was president of Sigma Delta Epsilon,women's graduate scientific fraternity (1938) and was designated a National Honorary Member in 1971; she was a charter member and president of Chi Upsilon, women's geological sorority. She served as secretary-treasurer of the Cushman Foundation (1954-1961), vice president (1958), and president (I960): and was made an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Union. In 1935 she was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and GSA Special Paper 184 was dedicated to her in 1976.She was an honorary member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and a member or fellow of most prominent geological and paleontological societies of the world.
Over the years Katherine received many grants in support of her paleontological research: Geological Society of America (1938): American Philosophical Society (1945—1969); National Science Foundation (1954). But, supported or not, her research on Tertiary paleontology continued, even while she fulfilled her domestic reponsibilities as wife and mother of two sons, the eldest of whom was an invalid for many years. Onseveral occasions she received appointments for special work in nature study at Cornell University and the Utah Agricultural College in connection with the primary interests of her husband.
Upon his retirement from Cornell University (1932), G. D. Harris and his family,together with a group of his former paleontology students, founded the Paleontological Research Institution at Ithaca to house Harris's large collections and library, and tocontinue his life work of publishing the Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Katherine was a founding member and Life Trustee; she succeeded Harris as director in 1952. Under her leadership, the Institution acquired splendid new headquarters across Cayuga Lake from Cornell University, as well as substantial endowments. The collections grew immensely, and adequate funds for curatorial work were found. Under her director-editorship, some 150 Bulletins of American Paleontology and 20 monographs of Palaeontographica Americana were issued. However, Katherine drew the line at personally doing the actual printing as Harris had done for many years! She had, however, studied typesetting at his insistence when a graduate student.
During her long life, Katherine had opportunity for field study and collecting of Recent fossil Mollusca in many parts of the world, most notably in the Gulf of Mexico, West Indies, and New Zealand. On the Ithaca scene, she entered fully into campus and community activities. To the end, she was actively engaged in research on Cenozoic paleontology and left uncompleted studies on Florida and Alabama Eocene molluscs.
Her lasting memorial lies in her more than sixty publications over 64 years. Many of these were monographic studies of Tertiary and Recent Mollusca.
In closing this tribute, a quotation from the citation for Doctor of Science at Tulane University (1978) is most appropriate: All the praise and recognition she has received could not be enough to match the extent of her contribution to Tertiary paleontology. The brilliance of her work, the precision of her method, the wisdom of her leadership of the Paleontological Research Institution, will stand as the greatest monument to Dr. Palmer and as the highest example for future generations of what it means to be a scientist.
Those of us who knew her as an ever-helpful friend and gracious hostess will carry alifelong gratefulness for having known her.
Reprinted with permission from Journal of Paleontology, v. 57, no. 5 (1983) p.1141-1144.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~Katherine Evangeline Hinton Van Winkle was the only child of a Canadian-born nurse, Mary Edith McKinney (1873–1946), and Dr. Jacob Outwater Van Winkle (1864–1934), a physician born in Patterson, New Jersey. The family settled in Oakville, Washington, where Katherine was born on February 4, 1895. Nicknamed "Punkie" as a child, she would also be known familiarly to many as "Rip." She was close to her father and often travelled the region with him and took part in her family's multifaceted involvement with the local communities, both native and pioneer. She also absorbed her father's interest in natural history and decided at a very young age that she wanted to be a geologist. She was the only member of her high school class to go to college.
After an interview with the Dean of the College of Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, regarding a woman's career options in geology, Palmer was placed with well-known paleontologist Charles E. Weaver (1880–1958). She served as Weaver's research assistant, investigating the then largely unexplored paleontology of the state of Washington. While at the University of Washington, Palmer belonged to the undergraduate sorority Alpha Delta Pi (acting as president of the Alpha Theta chapter in 1917) and the science fraternity Sigma Xi. In 1918, she earned her BS in paleontology and also became a member of the California Academy of Science.
Weaver wanted Palmer to get her PhD at the best school possible and return to replace him at the University of Washington. So he encouraged her to go to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to study under Gilbert Dennison Harris (1864–1952), a recognized expert in the field of paleontology. A Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology, she received her PhD in paleontology from Cornell in 1925 and did postgraduate studies there supported by a Hecksher Research Grant in Paleontology. Although she returned to UW in 1922 (before PhD) for a short stint as a "visiting assistant professor," she never returned to Washington full time.
At Cornell, Palmer continued her association with Sigma Xi and belonged to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, but she was more active in academic women's organizations. She was a charter member of Chi Upsilon, acting as president of the Cornell chapter and as a national councilor of this women's geological fraternity. She also became a charter member of the women's graduate scientific fraternity Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE), founded at Cornell in 1921. SDE quickly grew to a national society with the original Cornell group forming the Alpha Chapter, and it is still active today as Sigma Delta Epsilon/Graduate Women in Science (SDE/GWIS). Palmer would continue her involvement with SDE/GWIS both locally and nationally throughout her life, most notably serving as National Second Vice-President (1928), National First Vice-President (1937), and National President (1938).
In 1921, she married Cornell professor, naturalist, and educator E. Laurence Palmer and settled permanently in the Ithaca area. The couple had two sons, Laurence Van Winkle (b. 1922) and Richard Robin (b. 1930). As in her childhood, Palmer was active locally, speaking at Ithaca's Rotary Club in 1948, for example, and participating in local dog training events. The Palmers also participated in each other's travels and studies until his death in 1970. Some trips were made on the family boats, "Ecphora," "Rip I," "Rip II," and "Rip III." Katherine Palmer taught Nature Study alongside her husband for three summers at Utah Agricultural College and another two at Cornell. She attended the sixth General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1958 and the seventh General Assembly in 1960.
Palmer held many short-term paid positions during and after college, including assistantships at the University of Oregon, Cornell University, and the University of Washington, Seattle. She was also a special lecturer at Cornell between 1942 and 1945. She served as a technical assistant for specific projects at the New York State Museum, the Redpath Museum at McGill University, and the Provincial Museum of Quebec, and as curator of paleontology at Oberlin College.
She was very involved with the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, serving as Secretary-Treasurer (1954–1961), Vice-President (1958), and President (1960). She also served as President of the American Malacological Union (now Society) in 1960, and, locally, of the Tompkins County Gem and Mineral Club in 1971–1972.
Palmer is best known, however, in relationship to the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca. She was a founding member and life trustee, became president of the Board of Trustees (1936–1937), and acted as Assistant Treasurer (1976–1980). Most significantly, Palmer served as PRI's second director, following her mentor and PRI's founder Harris, from 1952 to 1978. Under her directorship, PRI gained an international reputation among researchers, expanding and documenting its collections and adding stand-alone book publications to its long-standing academic serials Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Between 1965 and 1969, PRI moved from its original site near the Cornell campus to its current location across Cayuga Lake on Trumansburg Road, where it hosted public tours and opened a "mini-museum" that would gradually evolve into the Museum of the Earth in 2003. "Most importantly for PRI," notes current Director Warren D. Allmon, "she aggressively recruited local women to volunteer here and do much of the curatorial work." Palmer retained the title of Director Emerita of PRI for the rest of her life.
Palmer did extensive paleontological field work throughout her career, traveling to Florida, Mississippi, Mexico, and Panama. She was especially well known as a careful systematist. She identified and described more than 80 new taxonomic species and refined the descriptions of countless others. Most of these were mollusks (snails and clams) from sediments of Paleocene-Eocene age (ca. 65–35 million years ago) exposed along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. The fossil mollusks preserved in that region are among the most diverse and abundant in the world. Palmer's careful descriptive works on these fossils is in many ways still the "gold standard" for this kind of paleontology. She also synthesized her works with that of others and in 1965-1966 published a 1,058-page catalog on the more than 2,500 species of fossil mollusks from these deposits. This compendium is to this day unique in the field of paleontology for its breadth and depth. Furthermore, because it was done by a single scientist, it is widely regarded to be a uniquely consistent data set, and for that reason is still widely used by paleontologists today and included in modern computerized databases.
Palmer was one of the most accomplished and respected female paleontologists of the twentieth century. Between 1918 and her death in 1982, she personally wrote more than 20 single-authored research articles and monographs, totaling over 3,000 published pages. She coauthored another 800 pages and contributed to, edited, and helped publicize the work of many others through the journals published by PRI. She produced five catalogs of type specimens considered to be seminal reference works in the field of paleontology. She also wrote other works, including a volume of myths associated with the Chehalis nation, histories about organizations with which she was associated, paleontological pieces intended for the general public, and a guide to the Ithaca area for amateur fossil-hunters. She wrote biographies and memorials for many renowned scientists including Timothy A. Conrad (1803–1877), Dorothy K. Palmer (1897–1947; no relation), Gilbert D. Harris, Charles E. Weaver, Burnett Smith (1877–1958), Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1819–1877), and the Sowerby family.
Based on letters received on her retirement, Palmer also had a strong personal influence on many students, college professors, professional geologists, journal editors, and museum staff both nationally and internationally. She attended scientific conferences in the US and abroad and participated in a good-will scientific and educational excursion to Japan in 1974.
During her career, Palmer received grants from the Geological Society of America, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Science Foundation. She was made a National Honorary Member of SDE/GWIS in 1971. Other honors include being named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1935, an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Society in 1961, and an Honorary Member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (now SEPM/Society for Sedimentary Geology) in 1966. Palmer was also a fellow of The Paleontological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She became a life member of the Geological Society of France and the Société Linnéenne de Lyon.
Palmer was the first female recipient of the Paleontological Society Medal, widely regarded as paleontology's highest professional honor in the United States, in 1972, and she received the Western Society of Malacologists award in 1974. "Paleontology is Alive and Well: A Symposium in Honor of Dr. Katherine Van Winkle Palmer" was held at Tulane University in 1978 and included the presentation of an honorary doctorate. That same year, the Alpha Chapter of SDE-GWIS named their first Award for Excellence after Palmer. The Katherine Palmer Award for amateur contributions to paleontology has been presented each year by PRI since 1993 in recognition of her support of science at all educational levels.
Information from the Gertrud Wolfner PRI Archives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Katherine (Evangeline Hilton) Van Winkle Palmer,illustrious Tertiary paleontologist and long-time (1952—1978) director and Life Trustee of the Paleontological Research Institution, died on September 12, 1982.
In November a memorial service was held at the Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York. At that time her notable career in scientific,academic, and civic affairs was celebrated. She was the widow of Ephraim Laurence Palmer, famous professor of nature study at Cornell University. Their son Robin survives her.
Katherine was the lineal descendant of Jacob Walingen Van Winkle who came to New Amsterdam in 1634. He was one of the "First Twelve Men" who helped form the first official representative body of New York and New Jersey in 1641. Eph's earliest American ancestor was a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.
I first knew Katherine as a paleontologist 300 years after Ephraim's ancestor landed, but I had known Eph as my scout master for about ten years by then. Katherine was the senior paleontologist in the well-known paleontological laboratory of G. D. Harris at Cornell University when I first made her acquaintance as a scientist; her widely known doctoral study on veneracean lamellibranchs (1927, 1929) was an example to emulate for all of us aspiring students of paleontology. As Harris often remarked. "After God made Katherine. He broke the mold."
Katherine Palmer's paleontological career began at the University of Washington (B.S., 1918) under the inspiring teaching of Charles E. Weaver, renowned student of the Tertiary. She served him as a laboratory assistant (1918) before transferring to Cornell for graduate study. At Cornell she was an assistant in paleontology and historical geology (1921-1925), a Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology (1918-1920), and held a Hecksher Fellowship (1925-1927). At various times, she served as a special lecturer in paleontology at Cornell (1942-1945), and was a visiting assistant professor of paleontology and historical geology at the University of Washington (1922). She served as curator of the paleontologic collections of Oberlin College (1928), as technical expert in zoology at the New York State Museum (1945), as a special technical assistant at McGill University (1950). and the same at the Provincial Museum of Quebec (1951). She served as director
and emeritus director of the Paleontological Research Institution. Ithaca, New York, from 1952 until her death, having retired from active direction in 1978.
Among her many honors, Katherine received the Paleontological Society Medal in 1972 (see Journal of Paleontology, v. 47) for her distinguished work on Tertiary Mollusca: the Western Society of Malacologists Award (1974); and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Tulane University (1978). She was president of Sigma Delta Epsilon,women's graduate scientific fraternity (1938) and was designated a National Honorary Member in 1971; she was a charter member and president of Chi Upsilon, women's geological sorority. She served as secretary-treasurer of the Cushman Foundation (1954-1961), vice president (1958), and president (I960): and was made an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Union. In 1935 she was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and GSA Special Paper 184 was dedicated to her in 1976.She was an honorary member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and a member or fellow of most prominent geological and paleontological societies of the world.
Over the years Katherine received many grants in support of her paleontological research: Geological Society of America (1938): American Philosophical Society (1945—1969); National Science Foundation (1954). But, supported or not, her research on Tertiary paleontology continued, even while she fulfilled her domestic reponsibilities as wife and mother of two sons, the eldest of whom was an invalid for many years. Onseveral occasions she received appointments for special work in nature study at Cornell University and the Utah Agricultural College in connection with the primary interests of her husband.
Upon his retirement from Cornell University (1932), G. D. Harris and his family,together with a group of his former paleontology students, founded the Paleontological Research Institution at Ithaca to house Harris's large collections and library, and tocontinue his life work of publishing the Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Katherine was a founding member and Life Trustee; she succeeded Harris as director in 1952. Under her leadership, the Institution acquired splendid new headquarters across Cayuga Lake from Cornell University, as well as substantial endowments. The collections grew immensely, and adequate funds for curatorial work were found. Under her director-editorship, some 150 Bulletins of American Paleontology and 20 monographs of Palaeontographica Americana were issued. However, Katherine drew the line at personally doing the actual printing as Harris had done for many years! She had, however, studied typesetting at his insistence when a graduate student.
During her long life, Katherine had opportunity for field study and collecting of Recent fossil Mollusca in many parts of the world, most notably in the Gulf of Mexico, West Indies, and New Zealand. On the Ithaca scene, she entered fully into campus and community activities. To the end, she was actively engaged in research on Cenozoic paleontology and left uncompleted studies on Florida and Alabama Eocene molluscs.
Her lasting memorial lies in her more than sixty publications over 64 years. Many of these were monographic studies of Tertiary and Recent Mollusca.
In closing this tribute, a quotation from the citation for Doctor of Science at Tulane University (1978) is most appropriate: All the praise and recognition she has received could not be enough to match the extent of her contribution to Tertiary paleontology. The brilliance of her work, the precision of her method, the wisdom of her leadership of the Paleontological Research Institution, will stand as the greatest monument to Dr. Palmer and as the highest example for future generations of what it means to be a scientist.
Those of us who knew her as an ever-helpful friend and gracious hostess will carry alifelong gratefulness for having known her.
Reprinted with permission from Journal of Paleontology, v. 57, no. 5 (1983) p.1141-1144.
Katherine V. W. Palmer was "one of the leading women of American science" in the twentieth century, observed Warren D. Allmon, Director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), in contemplating a history of women in paleontology. Charter member and second director of PRI, a renowned and accomplished paleontologist herself, Palmer was also an advocate of science education and a supporter of women in science. Although she never held a full-time paid position in paleontology other than the Director of the Paleontological Research Institution, she went on to become one of the most accomplished female invertebrate paleontologists in history, publishing widely in the paleontology and taxonomy of Cenozoic mollusks. She was the first woman to receive American paleontology's highest honor, the Paleontological Society Medal, in 1972.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~Katherine Evangeline Hinton Van Winkle was the only child of a Canadian-born nurse, Mary Edith McKinney (1873–1946), and Dr. Jacob Outwater Van Winkle (1864–1934), a physician born in Patterson, New Jersey. The family settled in Oakville, Washington, where Katherine was born on February 4, 1895. Nicknamed "Punkie" as a child, she would also be known familiarly to many as "Rip." She was close to her father and often travelled the region with him and took part in her family's multifaceted involvement with the local communities, both native and pioneer. She also absorbed her father's interest in natural history and decided at a very young age that she wanted to be a geologist. She was the only member of her high school class to go to college.
After an interview with the Dean of the College of Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, regarding a woman's career options in geology, Palmer was placed with well-known paleontologist Charles E. Weaver (1880–1958). She served as Weaver's research assistant, investigating the then largely unexplored paleontology of the state of Washington. While at the University of Washington, Palmer belonged to the undergraduate sorority Alpha Delta Pi (acting as president of the Alpha Theta chapter in 1917) and the science fraternity Sigma Xi. In 1918, she earned her BS in paleontology and also became a member of the California Academy of Science.
Weaver wanted Palmer to get her PhD at the best school possible and return to replace him at the University of Washington. So he encouraged her to go to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to study under Gilbert Dennison Harris (1864–1952), a recognized expert in the field of paleontology. A Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology, she received her PhD in paleontology from Cornell in 1925 and did postgraduate studies there supported by a Hecksher Research Grant in Paleontology. Although she returned to UW in 1922 (before PhD) for a short stint as a "visiting assistant professor," she never returned to Washington full time.
At Cornell, Palmer continued her association with Sigma Xi and belonged to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, but she was more active in academic women's organizations. She was a charter member of Chi Upsilon, acting as president of the Cornell chapter and as a national councilor of this women's geological fraternity. She also became a charter member of the women's graduate scientific fraternity Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE), founded at Cornell in 1921. SDE quickly grew to a national society with the original Cornell group forming the Alpha Chapter, and it is still active today as Sigma Delta Epsilon/Graduate Women in Science (SDE/GWIS). Palmer would continue her involvement with SDE/GWIS both locally and nationally throughout her life, most notably serving as National Second Vice-President (1928), National First Vice-President (1937), and National President (1938).
In 1921, she married Cornell professor, naturalist, and educator E. Laurence Palmer and settled permanently in the Ithaca area. The couple had two sons, Laurence Van Winkle (b. 1922) and Richard Robin (b. 1930). As in her childhood, Palmer was active locally, speaking at Ithaca's Rotary Club in 1948, for example, and participating in local dog training events. The Palmers also participated in each other's travels and studies until his death in 1970. Some trips were made on the family boats, "Ecphora," "Rip I," "Rip II," and "Rip III." Katherine Palmer taught Nature Study alongside her husband for three summers at Utah Agricultural College and another two at Cornell. She attended the sixth General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1958 and the seventh General Assembly in 1960.
Palmer held many short-term paid positions during and after college, including assistantships at the University of Oregon, Cornell University, and the University of Washington, Seattle. She was also a special lecturer at Cornell between 1942 and 1945. She served as a technical assistant for specific projects at the New York State Museum, the Redpath Museum at McGill University, and the Provincial Museum of Quebec, and as curator of paleontology at Oberlin College.
She was very involved with the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, serving as Secretary-Treasurer (1954–1961), Vice-President (1958), and President (1960). She also served as President of the American Malacological Union (now Society) in 1960, and, locally, of the Tompkins County Gem and Mineral Club in 1971–1972.
Palmer is best known, however, in relationship to the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca. She was a founding member and life trustee, became president of the Board of Trustees (1936–1937), and acted as Assistant Treasurer (1976–1980). Most significantly, Palmer served as PRI's second director, following her mentor and PRI's founder Harris, from 1952 to 1978. Under her directorship, PRI gained an international reputation among researchers, expanding and documenting its collections and adding stand-alone book publications to its long-standing academic serials Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Between 1965 and 1969, PRI moved from its original site near the Cornell campus to its current location across Cayuga Lake on Trumansburg Road, where it hosted public tours and opened a "mini-museum" that would gradually evolve into the Museum of the Earth in 2003. "Most importantly for PRI," notes current Director Warren D. Allmon, "she aggressively recruited local women to volunteer here and do much of the curatorial work." Palmer retained the title of Director Emerita of PRI for the rest of her life.
Palmer did extensive paleontological field work throughout her career, traveling to Florida, Mississippi, Mexico, and Panama. She was especially well known as a careful systematist. She identified and described more than 80 new taxonomic species and refined the descriptions of countless others. Most of these were mollusks (snails and clams) from sediments of Paleocene-Eocene age (ca. 65–35 million years ago) exposed along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. The fossil mollusks preserved in that region are among the most diverse and abundant in the world. Palmer's careful descriptive works on these fossils is in many ways still the "gold standard" for this kind of paleontology. She also synthesized her works with that of others and in 1965-1966 published a 1,058-page catalog on the more than 2,500 species of fossil mollusks from these deposits. This compendium is to this day unique in the field of paleontology for its breadth and depth. Furthermore, because it was done by a single scientist, it is widely regarded to be a uniquely consistent data set, and for that reason is still widely used by paleontologists today and included in modern computerized databases.
Palmer was one of the most accomplished and respected female paleontologists of the twentieth century. Between 1918 and her death in 1982, she personally wrote more than 20 single-authored research articles and monographs, totaling over 3,000 published pages. She coauthored another 800 pages and contributed to, edited, and helped publicize the work of many others through the journals published by PRI. She produced five catalogs of type specimens considered to be seminal reference works in the field of paleontology. She also wrote other works, including a volume of myths associated with the Chehalis nation, histories about organizations with which she was associated, paleontological pieces intended for the general public, and a guide to the Ithaca area for amateur fossil-hunters. She wrote biographies and memorials for many renowned scientists including Timothy A. Conrad (1803–1877), Dorothy K. Palmer (1897–1947; no relation), Gilbert D. Harris, Charles E. Weaver, Burnett Smith (1877–1958), Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1819–1877), and the Sowerby family.
Based on letters received on her retirement, Palmer also had a strong personal influence on many students, college professors, professional geologists, journal editors, and museum staff both nationally and internationally. She attended scientific conferences in the US and abroad and participated in a good-will scientific and educational excursion to Japan in 1974.
During her career, Palmer received grants from the Geological Society of America, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Science Foundation. She was made a National Honorary Member of SDE/GWIS in 1971. Other honors include being named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1935, an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Society in 1961, and an Honorary Member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (now SEPM/Society for Sedimentary Geology) in 1966. Palmer was also a fellow of The Paleontological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She became a life member of the Geological Society of France and the Société Linnéenne de Lyon.
Palmer was the first female recipient of the Paleontological Society Medal, widely regarded as paleontology's highest professional honor in the United States, in 1972, and she received the Western Society of Malacologists award in 1974. "Paleontology is Alive and Well: A Symposium in Honor of Dr. Katherine Van Winkle Palmer" was held at Tulane University in 1978 and included the presentation of an honorary doctorate. That same year, the Alpha Chapter of SDE-GWIS named their first Award for Excellence after Palmer. The Katherine Palmer Award for amateur contributions to paleontology has been presented each year by PRI since 1993 in recognition of her support of science at all educational levels.
Information from the Gertrud Wolfner PRI Archives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Katherine (Evangeline Hilton) Van Winkle Palmer,illustrious Tertiary paleontologist and long-time (1952—1978) director and Life Trustee of the Paleontological Research Institution, died on September 12, 1982.
In November a memorial service was held at the Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York. At that time her notable career in scientific,academic, and civic affairs was celebrated. She was the widow of Ephraim Laurence Palmer, famous professor of nature study at Cornell University. Their son Robin survives her.
Katherine was the lineal descendant of Jacob Walingen Van Winkle who came to New Amsterdam in 1634. He was one of the "First Twelve Men" who helped form the first official representative body of New York and New Jersey in 1641. Eph's earliest American ancestor was a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.
I first knew Katherine as a paleontologist 300 years after Ephraim's ancestor landed, but I had known Eph as my scout master for about ten years by then. Katherine was the senior paleontologist in the well-known paleontological laboratory of G. D. Harris at Cornell University when I first made her acquaintance as a scientist; her widely known doctoral study on veneracean lamellibranchs (1927, 1929) was an example to emulate for all of us aspiring students of paleontology. As Harris often remarked. "After God made Katherine. He broke the mold."
Katherine Palmer's paleontological career began at the University of Washington (B.S., 1918) under the inspiring teaching of Charles E. Weaver, renowned student of the Tertiary. She served him as a laboratory assistant (1918) before transferring to Cornell for graduate study. At Cornell she was an assistant in paleontology and historical geology (1921-1925), a Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology (1918-1920), and held a Hecksher Fellowship (1925-1927). At various times, she served as a special lecturer in paleontology at Cornell (1942-1945), and was a visiting assistant professor of paleontology and historical geology at the University of Washington (1922). She served as curator of the paleontologic collections of Oberlin College (1928), as technical expert in zoology at the New York State Museum (1945), as a special technical assistant at McGill University (1950). and the same at the Provincial Museum of Quebec (1951). She served as director
and emeritus director of the Paleontological Research Institution. Ithaca, New York, from 1952 until her death, having retired from active direction in 1978.
Among her many honors, Katherine received the Paleontological Society Medal in 1972 (see Journal of Paleontology, v. 47) for her distinguished work on Tertiary Mollusca: the Western Society of Malacologists Award (1974); and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Tulane University (1978). She was president of Sigma Delta Epsilon,women's graduate scientific fraternity (1938) and was designated a National Honorary Member in 1971; she was a charter member and president of Chi Upsilon, women's geological sorority. She served as secretary-treasurer of the Cushman Foundation (1954-1961), vice president (1958), and president (I960): and was made an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Union. In 1935 she was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and GSA Special Paper 184 was dedicated to her in 1976.She was an honorary member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and a member or fellow of most prominent geological and paleontological societies of the world.
Over the years Katherine received many grants in support of her paleontological research: Geological Society of America (1938): American Philosophical Society (1945—1969); National Science Foundation (1954). But, supported or not, her research on Tertiary paleontology continued, even while she fulfilled her domestic reponsibilities as wife and mother of two sons, the eldest of whom was an invalid for many years. Onseveral occasions she received appointments for special work in nature study at Cornell University and the Utah Agricultural College in connection with the primary interests of her husband.
Upon his retirement from Cornell University (1932), G. D. Harris and his family,together with a group of his former paleontology students, founded the Paleontological Research Institution at Ithaca to house Harris's large collections and library, and tocontinue his life work of publishing the Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Katherine was a founding member and Life Trustee; she succeeded Harris as director in 1952. Under her leadership, the Institution acquired splendid new headquarters across Cayuga Lake from Cornell University, as well as substantial endowments. The collections grew immensely, and adequate funds for curatorial work were found. Under her director-editorship, some 150 Bulletins of American Paleontology and 20 monographs of Palaeontographica Americana were issued. However, Katherine drew the line at personally doing the actual printing as Harris had done for many years! She had, however, studied typesetting at his insistence when a graduate student.
During her long life, Katherine had opportunity for field study and collecting of Recent fossil Mollusca in many parts of the world, most notably in the Gulf of Mexico, West Indies, and New Zealand. On the Ithaca scene, she entered fully into campus and community activities. To the end, she was actively engaged in research on Cenozoic paleontology and left uncompleted studies on Florida and Alabama Eocene molluscs.
Her lasting memorial lies in her more than sixty publications over 64 years. Many of these were monographic studies of Tertiary and Recent Mollusca.
In closing this tribute, a quotation from the citation for Doctor of Science at Tulane University (1978) is most appropriate: All the praise and recognition she has received could not be enough to match the extent of her contribution to Tertiary paleontology. The brilliance of her work, the precision of her method, the wisdom of her leadership of the Paleontological Research Institution, will stand as the greatest monument to Dr. Palmer and as the highest example for future generations of what it means to be a scientist.
Those of us who knew her as an ever-helpful friend and gracious hostess will carry alifelong gratefulness for having known her.
Reprinted with permission from Journal of Paleontology, v. 57, no. 5 (1983) p.1141-1144.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~Katherine Evangeline Hinton Van Winkle was the only child of a Canadian-born nurse, Mary Edith McKinney (1873–1946), and Dr. Jacob Outwater Van Winkle (1864–1934), a physician born in Patterson, New Jersey. The family settled in Oakville, Washington, where Katherine was born on February 4, 1895. Nicknamed "Punkie" as a child, she would also be known familiarly to many as "Rip." She was close to her father and often travelled the region with him and took part in her family's multifaceted involvement with the local communities, both native and pioneer. She also absorbed her father's interest in natural history and decided at a very young age that she wanted to be a geologist. She was the only member of her high school class to go to college.
After an interview with the Dean of the College of Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, regarding a woman's career options in geology, Palmer was placed with well-known paleontologist Charles E. Weaver (1880–1958). She served as Weaver's research assistant, investigating the then largely unexplored paleontology of the state of Washington. While at the University of Washington, Palmer belonged to the undergraduate sorority Alpha Delta Pi (acting as president of the Alpha Theta chapter in 1917) and the science fraternity Sigma Xi. In 1918, she earned her BS in paleontology and also became a member of the California Academy of Science.
Weaver wanted Palmer to get her PhD at the best school possible and return to replace him at the University of Washington. So he encouraged her to go to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to study under Gilbert Dennison Harris (1864–1952), a recognized expert in the field of paleontology. A Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology, she received her PhD in paleontology from Cornell in 1925 and did postgraduate studies there supported by a Hecksher Research Grant in Paleontology. Although she returned to UW in 1922 (before PhD) for a short stint as a "visiting assistant professor," she never returned to Washington full time.
At Cornell, Palmer continued her association with Sigma Xi and belonged to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, but she was more active in academic women's organizations. She was a charter member of Chi Upsilon, acting as president of the Cornell chapter and as a national councilor of this women's geological fraternity. She also became a charter member of the women's graduate scientific fraternity Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE), founded at Cornell in 1921. SDE quickly grew to a national society with the original Cornell group forming the Alpha Chapter, and it is still active today as Sigma Delta Epsilon/Graduate Women in Science (SDE/GWIS). Palmer would continue her involvement with SDE/GWIS both locally and nationally throughout her life, most notably serving as National Second Vice-President (1928), National First Vice-President (1937), and National President (1938).
In 1921, she married Cornell professor, naturalist, and educator E. Laurence Palmer and settled permanently in the Ithaca area. The couple had two sons, Laurence Van Winkle (b. 1922) and Richard Robin (b. 1930). As in her childhood, Palmer was active locally, speaking at Ithaca's Rotary Club in 1948, for example, and participating in local dog training events. The Palmers also participated in each other's travels and studies until his death in 1970. Some trips were made on the family boats, "Ecphora," "Rip I," "Rip II," and "Rip III." Katherine Palmer taught Nature Study alongside her husband for three summers at Utah Agricultural College and another two at Cornell. She attended the sixth General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1958 and the seventh General Assembly in 1960.
Palmer held many short-term paid positions during and after college, including assistantships at the University of Oregon, Cornell University, and the University of Washington, Seattle. She was also a special lecturer at Cornell between 1942 and 1945. She served as a technical assistant for specific projects at the New York State Museum, the Redpath Museum at McGill University, and the Provincial Museum of Quebec, and as curator of paleontology at Oberlin College.
She was very involved with the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, serving as Secretary-Treasurer (1954–1961), Vice-President (1958), and President (1960). She also served as President of the American Malacological Union (now Society) in 1960, and, locally, of the Tompkins County Gem and Mineral Club in 1971–1972.
Palmer is best known, however, in relationship to the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca. She was a founding member and life trustee, became president of the Board of Trustees (1936–1937), and acted as Assistant Treasurer (1976–1980). Most significantly, Palmer served as PRI's second director, following her mentor and PRI's founder Harris, from 1952 to 1978. Under her directorship, PRI gained an international reputation among researchers, expanding and documenting its collections and adding stand-alone book publications to its long-standing academic serials Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Between 1965 and 1969, PRI moved from its original site near the Cornell campus to its current location across Cayuga Lake on Trumansburg Road, where it hosted public tours and opened a "mini-museum" that would gradually evolve into the Museum of the Earth in 2003. "Most importantly for PRI," notes current Director Warren D. Allmon, "she aggressively recruited local women to volunteer here and do much of the curatorial work." Palmer retained the title of Director Emerita of PRI for the rest of her life.
Palmer did extensive paleontological field work throughout her career, traveling to Florida, Mississippi, Mexico, and Panama. She was especially well known as a careful systematist. She identified and described more than 80 new taxonomic species and refined the descriptions of countless others. Most of these were mollusks (snails and clams) from sediments of Paleocene-Eocene age (ca. 65–35 million years ago) exposed along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. The fossil mollusks preserved in that region are among the most diverse and abundant in the world. Palmer's careful descriptive works on these fossils is in many ways still the "gold standard" for this kind of paleontology. She also synthesized her works with that of others and in 1965-1966 published a 1,058-page catalog on the more than 2,500 species of fossil mollusks from these deposits. This compendium is to this day unique in the field of paleontology for its breadth and depth. Furthermore, because it was done by a single scientist, it is widely regarded to be a uniquely consistent data set, and for that reason is still widely used by paleontologists today and included in modern computerized databases.
Palmer was one of the most accomplished and respected female paleontologists of the twentieth century. Between 1918 and her death in 1982, she personally wrote more than 20 single-authored research articles and monographs, totaling over 3,000 published pages. She coauthored another 800 pages and contributed to, edited, and helped publicize the work of many others through the journals published by PRI. She produced five catalogs of type specimens considered to be seminal reference works in the field of paleontology. She also wrote other works, including a volume of myths associated with the Chehalis nation, histories about organizations with which she was associated, paleontological pieces intended for the general public, and a guide to the Ithaca area for amateur fossil-hunters. She wrote biographies and memorials for many renowned scientists including Timothy A. Conrad (1803–1877), Dorothy K. Palmer (1897–1947; no relation), Gilbert D. Harris, Charles E. Weaver, Burnett Smith (1877–1958), Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1819–1877), and the Sowerby family.
Based on letters received on her retirement, Palmer also had a strong personal influence on many students, college professors, professional geologists, journal editors, and museum staff both nationally and internationally. She attended scientific conferences in the US and abroad and participated in a good-will scientific and educational excursion to Japan in 1974.
During her career, Palmer received grants from the Geological Society of America, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Science Foundation. She was made a National Honorary Member of SDE/GWIS in 1971. Other honors include being named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1935, an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Society in 1961, and an Honorary Member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (now SEPM/Society for Sedimentary Geology) in 1966. Palmer was also a fellow of The Paleontological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She became a life member of the Geological Society of France and the Société Linnéenne de Lyon.
Palmer was the first female recipient of the Paleontological Society Medal, widely regarded as paleontology's highest professional honor in the United States, in 1972, and she received the Western Society of Malacologists award in 1974. "Paleontology is Alive and Well: A Symposium in Honor of Dr. Katherine Van Winkle Palmer" was held at Tulane University in 1978 and included the presentation of an honorary doctorate. That same year, the Alpha Chapter of SDE-GWIS named their first Award for Excellence after Palmer. The Katherine Palmer Award for amateur contributions to paleontology has been presented each year by PRI since 1993 in recognition of her support of science at all educational levels.
Information from the Gertrud Wolfner PRI Archives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Katherine (Evangeline Hilton) Van Winkle Palmer,illustrious Tertiary paleontologist and long-time (1952—1978) director and Life Trustee of the Paleontological Research Institution, died on September 12, 1982.
In November a memorial service was held at the Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York. At that time her notable career in scientific,academic, and civic affairs was celebrated. She was the widow of Ephraim Laurence Palmer, famous professor of nature study at Cornell University. Their son Robin survives her.
Katherine was the lineal descendant of Jacob Walingen Van Winkle who came to New Amsterdam in 1634. He was one of the "First Twelve Men" who helped form the first official representative body of New York and New Jersey in 1641. Eph's earliest American ancestor was a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.
I first knew Katherine as a paleontologist 300 years after Ephraim's ancestor landed, but I had known Eph as my scout master for about ten years by then. Katherine was the senior paleontologist in the well-known paleontological laboratory of G. D. Harris at Cornell University when I first made her acquaintance as a scientist; her widely known doctoral study on veneracean lamellibranchs (1927, 1929) was an example to emulate for all of us aspiring students of paleontology. As Harris often remarked. "After God made Katherine. He broke the mold."
Katherine Palmer's paleontological career began at the University of Washington (B.S., 1918) under the inspiring teaching of Charles E. Weaver, renowned student of the Tertiary. She served him as a laboratory assistant (1918) before transferring to Cornell for graduate study. At Cornell she was an assistant in paleontology and historical geology (1921-1925), a Goldwyn Smith Fellow in Geology (1918-1920), and held a Hecksher Fellowship (1925-1927). At various times, she served as a special lecturer in paleontology at Cornell (1942-1945), and was a visiting assistant professor of paleontology and historical geology at the University of Washington (1922). She served as curator of the paleontologic collections of Oberlin College (1928), as technical expert in zoology at the New York State Museum (1945), as a special technical assistant at McGill University (1950). and the same at the Provincial Museum of Quebec (1951). She served as director
and emeritus director of the Paleontological Research Institution. Ithaca, New York, from 1952 until her death, having retired from active direction in 1978.
Among her many honors, Katherine received the Paleontological Society Medal in 1972 (see Journal of Paleontology, v. 47) for her distinguished work on Tertiary Mollusca: the Western Society of Malacologists Award (1974); and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Tulane University (1978). She was president of Sigma Delta Epsilon,women's graduate scientific fraternity (1938) and was designated a National Honorary Member in 1971; she was a charter member and president of Chi Upsilon, women's geological sorority. She served as secretary-treasurer of the Cushman Foundation (1954-1961), vice president (1958), and president (I960): and was made an Honorary Life Member of the American Malacological Union. In 1935 she was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and GSA Special Paper 184 was dedicated to her in 1976.She was an honorary member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and a member or fellow of most prominent geological and paleontological societies of the world.
Over the years Katherine received many grants in support of her paleontological research: Geological Society of America (1938): American Philosophical Society (1945—1969); National Science Foundation (1954). But, supported or not, her research on Tertiary paleontology continued, even while she fulfilled her domestic reponsibilities as wife and mother of two sons, the eldest of whom was an invalid for many years. Onseveral occasions she received appointments for special work in nature study at Cornell University and the Utah Agricultural College in connection with the primary interests of her husband.
Upon his retirement from Cornell University (1932), G. D. Harris and his family,together with a group of his former paleontology students, founded the Paleontological Research Institution at Ithaca to house Harris's large collections and library, and tocontinue his life work of publishing the Bulletins of American Paleontology and Palaeontographica Americana. Katherine was a founding member and Life Trustee; she succeeded Harris as director in 1952. Under her leadership, the Institution acquired splendid new headquarters across Cayuga Lake from Cornell University, as well as substantial endowments. The collections grew immensely, and adequate funds for curatorial work were found. Under her director-editorship, some 150 Bulletins of American Paleontology and 20 monographs of Palaeontographica Americana were issued. However, Katherine drew the line at personally doing the actual printing as Harris had done for many years! She had, however, studied typesetting at his insistence when a graduate student.
During her long life, Katherine had opportunity for field study and collecting of Recent fossil Mollusca in many parts of the world, most notably in the Gulf of Mexico, West Indies, and New Zealand. On the Ithaca scene, she entered fully into campus and community activities. To the end, she was actively engaged in research on Cenozoic paleontology and left uncompleted studies on Florida and Alabama Eocene molluscs.
Her lasting memorial lies in her more than sixty publications over 64 years. Many of these were monographic studies of Tertiary and Recent Mollusca.
In closing this tribute, a quotation from the citation for Doctor of Science at Tulane University (1978) is most appropriate: All the praise and recognition she has received could not be enough to match the extent of her contribution to Tertiary paleontology. The brilliance of her work, the precision of her method, the wisdom of her leadership of the Paleontological Research Institution, will stand as the greatest monument to Dr. Palmer and as the highest example for future generations of what it means to be a scientist.
Those of us who knew her as an ever-helpful friend and gracious hostess will carry alifelong gratefulness for having known her.
Reprinted with permission from Journal of Paleontology, v. 57, no. 5 (1983) p.1141-1144.
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