Department of Geology records

Record Group

Identifier: UA-16.53

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The records consist of correspondence, field trip reports, inventories of the department, financial statements, experiment station notes, material relating to the Works Progress Administration, the military college program during World War II, science fraternities, annual report materials. There are also records relating to the Glacial Institute. Graduate Assistants’ files during World War II are marked with an asterisk (*).

Graduate Assistant files contain applications, program outlines, biographical material, and letters of recommendation. Files also contain restricted material concerning student grades.

The following files contain special information of note:

Ray L. Harrison, 1940- 1941. Letters written from Camp Livingston, Louisiana describe his army training while part of the 121st Field Artillery Regiment (part of the 32nd Division); return letters describe happenings at Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) during this time.

James E. Dymond, 1941-1942. Letters written from Dymond’s basic training at Corpus Christi, Texas and his pilot training at Lake City, Florida; return letters describe happenings at MSC during this time including the growth of photogrammetry (remote sensing).

Henry Faul, 1941-1942. Faul was from Prague and had escaped German occupation. He had also worked at several on academic projects throughout Europe. He was interested in economic geology and mine development. The head of the Geology Department helped him with his naturalization process.

William Davies 1941-1942. Davies was an instrumental figure with the U.S. Army Map Research Department. Significant biographical information is included.

Dates

Creation: 1920 - 2010

Creator

Michigan State University. Department of Geology and Geography (Organization)
Faul, Henry (Correspondent, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Collection contains some restricted information and personnel files (may be available after review by staff).

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material from this collection must be obtained from University Archives & Historical Collections, Michigan State University.

Historical Note

Geology courses have been offered since at least 1880 when seniors were able to take a course during the winter term. In 1907 the Zoology, Physiology and Geology Department was created. From 1922-1929 the department was organized as the Zoology and Geology Department. In 1929 Geology was combined with Geography into a new department which lasted until 1956 when the departments were split into separate units. In 1983 the name changed to the Department of Geological Sciences. In 2016 the department name changed to Earth and Environmental Sciences.