392 Bibliography of James Hall (1811-1898)

James Hall (1811–1898) is commonly credited as being the Father of North American Geology and Paleontology. Hall was hired by the state of New York in 1836 to assist in the geological survey of western New York, and he remained employed with the state of New York throughout his entire life. His initial responsibilities included mapping the richly fossiliferous Silurian and Devonian strata of western New York, but his work extended throughout North America. Hall helped to take North American geology from its infancy to a discipline comparable to contemporary geology in Western Europe. Today, he is best known as one of the earliest paleontologists to work in eastern North America. He was, however, also a pioneer in establishing stratigraphic nomenclature usage for North America, developing principles of deformation and isostasy, publishing on geosynclinal models, as well as initiating scientific inquiry on many other geologic topics. In addition, he trained many of the next generation of North American geologists and paleontologists.

 

Hall was a founding member and first president of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, which later became the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which Hall was the first president. He was also the first president of the Geological Society of America and a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences. Hall was one of the most prolific paleontologists ever. This bibliography, with notes, lists the various editions of Hall’s publications with their dates of issue, which include 1,062 publications, comprising 31,117 pages, 3,374 lithographic plates, 4,390 text figures, and 40 maps. This is the most comprehensive list of Hall publications amassed and includes monographs, journal articles, maps, abstracts, discussions of papers, records of comments at meetings, popular articles, and newspaper items. This bibliography will be of considerable use both to paleontologists needing to establish the date of publication of names of taxa described by Hall and to historians who want to reconstruct the early development of North American geology and paleontology.