Letter to Taylor from Leverett, April 15, 1927

Item — Box: 2, Folder: 20

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

The correspondence series includes approximately 1100 letters written between 1892-1939. The majority of the collection are letters between Frank Leverett and Frank Bursley Taylor; they discuss their field work, Monograph 53, other publications and various related problems. There is also other correspondence with other geologists, including T.C. Chamberlin, Grove K. Gilbert, J.W. Goldthwait, H.L. Fairchild, et alia. There is extensive correspondence with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geological Survey of Canada, and the Michigan Geological Survey. The primary subject of this series is the surficial glacial geology of the midwestern U.S. and Canada. Leverett & Taylor's work was essential for understanding how the Great Lakes were formed as the Pleistocene glaciers advanced and retreated from the midwestern states. The letters describe the 30 year process of gathering data, mapping the data and constructing the picture of glacial processes during the last Ice Age.

Dates

Creation: April 15, 1927

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

The material is stored offsite in Remote Storage. Please contact Special Collections 3 working days in advance if you wish to use it.

Extent

From the Collection: 1 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

General

Rec'd your letter about Dr. Dryer's death and that of Mrs T; it must have been a relief for Dr. Dryer to be through with his sufferings. I hope the publications he had in preparation will be brought out. We are about ready to go back to MI. We leave from El Paso on Wednesday noon for Kansas City and then to Ann Arbor on Saturday April 23. I think I will go to Philadelphia for the 200th Anniversary of the American Philosophical Society on April 28-30. I will then go to Washington to check on my report and illustrations on MN. My health is about as good as before I had the pneumonia, although I am slow to regain the weight. I weighed 145 before I was taken ill, 130 lbs just after being sick, and I am now at 138. I am lighter than I need to be, but seem to have plenty of strength and endurance. I presume you have rec'd Sardeson's paper, "Oldest Pleistocene Till" in April issue of Pan American Geologist> The paper disregards wwork that has been done previously and makes ice sheets develop in regions he is familiar with. His map B is the worst; it leaves out the old glaciation in NJ. I wonder how he would feel if some Princeton NJ geologist made such a map and left out all the drift W of the Mississippi because it was outside the district he was familiar with. I think Wegener may use these maps to show the continents have drifted toward Greenland during the Ice Age so that the present ice in Greenland would be in the same latitudes that Sardeson put the ice accumulation in his Map A. It seems a pity that Sardeson published such a map set that is so discordant with present knowledge of glacial dispersion centers. Field workers will think he must be crazy and perhaps he is.