Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
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Physics and Chemistry of the Earth
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pce
Collier Cobb and Allen D. Hole: Geologic mentors to early soil scientists
Eric C. Brevik *
Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND 58601, USA
Department of Agriculture and Technical Studies, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND 58601, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 1 January 2010
Received in revised form 23 April 2010
Accepted 31 May 2010
Available online 8 June 2010
Keywords:
Collier Cobb
Allen Hole
George Coffey
Hugh Bennett
Mark Baldwin
Soil survey history
a b s t r a c t
Many influential individuals involved in the early US soil survey program were trained as geologists
rather than as agronomists or soil scientists. Several geology departments served as pipelines for students
interested in a career in soil survey. This paper looks at the professional history of two early mentors of
these geologists turned soil surveyors and some of the students they sent on to the US soil survey and
other soil science careers. Collier Cobb sent over 10 students to the soil survey starting in 1900 when
US soil survey was in its infancy, including individuals of note such as Hugh H. Bennett, George N. Coffey,
Williamson E. Hearn, and Thomas D. Rice. Allen D. Hole worked on soil surveys for the state of Indiana
and sent over a dozen students on to US soil survey careers between 1911 and 1937, including Mark Baldwin and James Thorp. Francis Hole and Ralph McCracken, other students of Allen Hole, also went on to
have distinguished soil science careers. These mentors and students clearly show the close ties that
existed between soil science and geology in the United States during the early 1900s.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Organized soil survey efforts in the United States were just getting underway at the beginning of the 1900s and academic programs that trained students to map soils had not yet been
established (Lapham, 1949; Helms, 2002). Geologists had the field
training to create the needed maps, and were often hired to do so
(Coffey, 1911; Helms, 2002). Collier Cobb and Allen D. Hole were
geology professors at the University of North Carolina and Earlham
College, respectively, who both noticed and took advantage of this
new job market for their students. Both men sent several students
to the US soil survey program, some of whom went on to become
well-known in the field of soil science. Both also sent students on
to soil science positions in academia and/or government agencies
outside of soil survey where they became well-known and respected within their field.
2. Collier Cobb
2.1. Basic background
Collier Cobb was born at Mount Auburn Plantation, North Carolina on March 21, 1862 to Needham and Martha Cobb (Prouty,
1936). When he was only 17 years old, Cobb prepared a map of
the geology and geography of North Carolina that was adopted
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1474-7065/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pce.2010.05.006
by the State Board of Higher Education and was used, in various
updated forms, in North Carolina schools for 25 years (Lance,
1937). From 1878 to 1880 Cobb attended Wake Forest University,
financing his education with the sale of his North Carolina map
(Lance, 1937). Following a semester at the University of North Carolina in 1881, Cobb started a 5-year career as a secondary education teacher in the North Carolina public schools (Prouty, 1936)
(Fig. 1). In 1886 Cobb resigned from his position as superintendent
of the Wilson, NC public schools to enroll in the Geology program
at Harvard, paying his college expenses as a free-lance writer for a
number of papers, a tutor, and by doing geological work (Prouty,
1936; Lance, 1937).
Cobb was an assistant to the renowned geologist Nathaniel Shaler while at Harvard. Among other accomplishments, Shaler is
well-known for his work on soils, including his classical 1891 work
‘‘The Origin and Nature of Soils” (Tandarich, 1998). In 1888 Cobb
was appointed as a teaching assistant at Harvard and in 1889 he
received his M.A. degree in Geology. Following graduation, Cobb
took an appointment as an instructor of Geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1890 (Lance, 1937).
Cobb returned to the University of North Carolina (UNC) in
1892, and in 1893 was made the first head of the Geology Department, a position he held for nearly 40 years before retiring in 1932
(Prouty, 1936) (Fig. 2). According to contemporaries who wrote
professional obituaries, Cobb was most noted for his work in human geography and coastal processes (Prouty, 1936; Lance,
1937). Cobb was also reputed to be a great world traveler, visiting
and being highly respected in many foreign countries. He died
November 28th, 1934 in Chapel Hill, NC at the age of 72 years.
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E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
Fig. 1. Collier Cobb as a young man, date unknown. Photo courtesy of the North
Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.
2.2. Professional life
Cobb published at least 66 items, including journal articles, abstracts, aids for high school teachers, and newspaper articles related to his professional interests (Prouty, 1936; Lance, 1937).
His first professional publication was the geology and geography
map of North Carolina made at age 17. Although Cobb was hired
as a geologist at the University of North Carolina, evaluation of
his publication record seems to indicate that he was more interested in human geography than in geology. He also had an intense
interest in the geology and geography of his home state of North
Carolina. Cobb’s most frequent topics for publication were North
Carolina geology/geography (11 publications), human geography
(11 publications), coastal processes (nine publications), and aeo-
Fig. 2. Collier Cobb in 1921 as a senior faculty member at the University of North
Carolina. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, University of North
Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.
lian processes (six publications). Other topics Cobb covered in his
professional writings included paleontology, biogeography, soils,
economic geology, science history, the teaching of geography,
and animal behavior. Some examples of Cobb’s publications are given in Table 1; more complete lists of Cobb’s scientific publications
are given by Prouty (1936) and Lance (1937). Thirty-five of the 66
(53%) professional publications Cobb wrote were published in the
Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society Journal, a periodical published
by the North Carolina Academy of Science.
Cobb seems to have mastered a skill commonly practiced in
modern science, that being the art of writing an abstract that says
very little. This observation is not meant to be a criticism of Cobb;
it is made to illustrate one of the ways that science has probably
not changed over the years. The art of the say-little abstract was
probably practiced for the same reason in Cobb’s day as it is today,
namely, a researcher has a project they want to present at an
upcoming meeting but the project has not produced results by
the abstract deadline. Therefore, the researcher writes a very generic abstract with plans to obtain results prior to the meeting and
to present them at the meeting. This is a well-known practice in
science today, and a review of Cobb’s abstracts seems to indicate
it is not a new practice.
Cobb did not publish his first soils item until 1925, despite identifying soils as a career route for his students as early as about 1900
and offering soils courses at UNC by 1905 (Helms, 2002). All of
Cobb’s soils publications were in the form of abstracts, and concentrated on soils formed in aeolian environments. Cobb published a
total of five soils-related abstracts representing about 7.5% of his
professional publications by title, although Cobb’s soils publications only represent about 1.5% of his professional publication effort in terms of total page count. His final two publications were
abstracts on soils in dune sands, both published in 1932.
In 1928 Cobb published an abstract titled ‘‘Some American Pioneers in Soil Science” (Cobb, 1928). This abstract provides an interesting look at Cobb’s perspective on who had contributed to soil
science in the early part of the 1900s. Cobb’s selected pioneers
were Gerard Troost, Eugene Hilgard, Joseph Killibrew, Milton Whitney, Collier Cobb, and Frank Cameron. Looking at this list from the
perspective of some 80 years later, Hilgard, Whitney, and Cameron
all remain solid, understandable choices. The contributions of Hilgard and Whitney have been reasonably well documented (see for
example Jenny (1961), Amundson and Yaalon (1995), Marbut
(1928), Fanning and Fanning (2001), and Helms (2002)), and Cameron was the head of the soil chemistry laboratory during the early
US soil survey efforts (Lapham, 1949; Flach and Holzhey, 2002) and
published extensively (Holman et al., 1939). Troost and Killibrew
are not well-known figures today, but Cobb’s abstract indicates
that Troost was a geologist and Killibrew a plant breeder. Cobb
placing himself on this list is, however, the most interesting entry.
To be certain, Cobb had provided a major beneficial service to the
soil science community through the training program he had
established at UNC and the students he had sent on to soils careers
through that program. However, in 1928 the sum total of Cobb’s
contribution to the soil science literature was two abstracts (three
if you count Cobb, 1928) published in the Journal of the Elisha
Mitchell Scientific Society, one in 1925 and one in 1927. Cobb
had never, to the best of the author’s ability to determine, led a soil
survey team, published in a soils journal, or published a full length
soil article. Students of Cobb such as Hugh Hammond Bennett or
George Nelson Coffey would have been better choices than Cobb
himself. Granted, 1928 was prior to Bennett becoming the first
head of the US Soil Erosion Service, and perhaps he was not ready
to be on such a list yet. However, Coffey had published at least 26
soil surveys plus other professional articles totaling approximately
873 pages, served as a Field Assistant, Head of Soil Classification
and Correlation, and Chief of Soils Great Plains Division for the
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E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
Table 1
Selected publications of Collier Cobb.
Author(s)
Date
Title
Publication
Type
Subject
C. Cobb
1896
Some beginnings in science
C. Cobb
1897
North Carolina
1910
Physical geography
C. Cobb
1919
The teaching of geography in the high school
C. Cobb
1924
C. Cobb
1925
The loess deposits of China, with special reference to the Hwang
Ho Valley
Loessal soil and the world’s food supply
Journal
article
Journal
article
Teaching
aid
Journal
article
Journal
article
Abstract
History of science at the
University of North Carolina
North Carolina geography
C. Cobb
Appletons’ popular science
monthly
The journal of school
geography
North Carolina Educational
Bulletin
The high school journal
C. Cobb
1926
North Carolina’s mineral resources
C. Cobb
1927
Soils and civilization
C. Cobb
1928
Some American pioneers in soil investigation
C. Cobb
1932
Dune sands and wind-blown soils of the Mississippi basin
C. Cobb
1932
Dune sands and aeolian soils in relation to present and past
climatic conditions of the continent of North America
US soil survey, completed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees focused on soils,
served as the president of the American Society of Agronomy, and
proposed a completely new soil classification system in a major
publication, among other soils-related achievements, by 1928
(Brevik, 1999). Other individuals in 1928 who would have been
more well-known than Cobb for their work with soil included Thomas Chamberlain, George Merrill, William J. McGee, Franklin H.
King, C.C. Hopkins, Curtis Marbut, and Cobb’s own mentor from
Harvard, Nathaniel Shaler.
Cobb’s 1928 abstract does not, however, distract from a major
contribution he did make to the American soil science community.
Cobb started teaching a class titled ‘‘Special Course in Soil Investigation” in 1905, followed by other soil courses such as ‘‘Origin and
Nature of Soils” and establishment of a Bachelor of Science in Soil
Investigation degree program at UNC (Helms, 2002). Cobb was also
successful in persuading the US soil survey director, Milton Whitney, to allow UNC graduates who were experienced in soil survey,
such as George Coffey and Williamson Hearn, to spend time at UNC
training UNC students in soil survey techniques (Helms, 2002). In
his 1928 abstract Cobb claimed soil pioneer status for himself because he was ‘‘. . .the first to point out the value of the mineral analysis of soils and to make such analyses of dune sands and soils by
the means of the microscope and the Harada tube.” Cobb’s publication record, consisting at that time of two abstracts, does not support his claim. However, had Cobb claimed to be an American soils
pioneer because of his work to establish one of the first academic
training programs expressly in soil survey, that claim would have
been well-supported. For his establishment of one of the first academic programs of study preparing students for careers in soil survey, alongside the program implemented by Dr. J.A. Bonsteel at
Cornell University in 1903 (Lapham, 1949), the American soils
community owes a deep debt of gratitude to Collier Cobb.
Cobb was also probably involved in a major advance in the
mapping of soils, that advance being the use of aerial photography
in soil survey. In a 1983 interview James Thorp recalled that Mark
Baldwin did the first experimental work with aerial photographs in
soil survey around 1920 in collaboration with another individual
(Tandarich et al., 1985). Thorp thought that other individual was
‘‘Professor Cobb in North Carolina”. Thorp goes on to state that Professor Cobb was a geology professor who trained a number of soils
people, including Bennett and Tom Rice. The identification of ‘‘Pro-
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
Scientific Society
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
Scientific Society
Greensboro Daily News
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
Scientific Society
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
Scientific Society
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
Scientific Society
Proceedings of the
International Geographical
Congress
Physical geography
Geography education
Cultural geography
Soil science
Newspaper
article
Abstract
Economic geology
Abstract
Soil history
Abstract
Soil science
Abstract
Aeolian geomorphology
Soil science
fessor Cobb” as a geology professor who trained Bennett and Rice
would indicate it was Collier Cobb who Baldwin worked with as
opposed to William Cobb, Collier Cobb’s son who was a soils professor at North Carolina State University in the 1920s. Lapham
(1949) supports Thorp’s contention that Baldwin was involved
with T.W. Bushnell in bringing aerial photographs into the US soil
survey as base maps.
2.3. Soil science students
As noted above, Cobb’s greatest contribution to American soil
science was through the training of and accomplishments achieved
by his students. Shortly after the US soil survey was created, Cobb
established a Bachelor of Science in Soil Investigation at UNC to
train students in the field mapping of soils. Cobb sent at least seven
students to the US soil survey by 1902, and sent a minimum of 11
Fig. 3. George Nelson Coffey, April 1900. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina
Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.
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E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
Fig. 4. Left: Hugh Hammond Bennett, ca. 1903. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill. Right: H.H. Bennett
standing beside a tree stump with roots exposed by erosion, ca. 1935. Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS.
total documented students to the US soil survey program over his
career (Helms, 2002).
The two most accomplished of Cobb’s students, from a soil survey perspective, were probably G.N. Coffey and H.H. Bennett. Coffey was the first of Cobb’s students to be hired by the soil survey
(Helms, 2002) (Fig. 3). While Coffey only worked in soil science
for about 20 years before moving on to other pursuits (Brevik,
1999), he is widely recognized as being ahead of his time in soil
classification (Cline, 1977; Simonson, 1989; Buol et al., 1997; Brevik, 1999; Helms, 2002). Coffey coauthored at least 18 soil surveys
in 10 states and held a number of positions in the US soil survey
program, rising as high as being in charge of the soil survey from
1903 to 1905 while Dr. J.A. Bonsteel was on leave from the position
to start a soil survey training program at Cornell (Lapham, 1949).
Coffey also served as the second President of the American Society
of Agronomy and was an early pioneer in soil erosion by water
studies (Coffey, 1913a) and worked on early fertilizer trials (Coffey,
1913b).
Bennett enjoyed a long career in soil science with the US Federal
Government. He was a prolific writer, publishing at least 84 items
for the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils by 1937 (Holman et al.,
1939). Bennett began with the US soil survey in 1903 and rose to
a position as Inspector of Surveys for Southern States (Helms,
2002). Bennett is best known for his work to control soil erosion,
and tended to include information on soil erosion in the soil surveys he worked on. Bennett also published a book in 1921 that discussed conservation measures that should be taken for the various
soils found in the southern United States (Bennett, 1921). He was
the first chief of the US Soil Conservation Service when it was
established in 1935 and became known as the ‘‘Father of Soil Conservation” (Fig. 4). Interestingly, Bennett credited a 1908 presentation on soil wastage by Thomas Chamberlain, Allen Hole’s mentor
Fig. 5. Williamson E. Hearn, May 1900 (left) and Thomas D. Rice, ca. 1900 (right). Photos courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at
Chapel Hill.
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E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
classification in the southern states and Great Plains regions,
respectively.
In addition to the students he sent on to soil survey careers,
Cobb trained several students who went on to careers in soil chemistry and agronomy (Helms, 2002). Cobb’s own son, William Battle
Cobb, also had a career in soil science. W.B. Cobb started with the
soil survey, where he produced 17 Bureau of Chemistry and Soils
publications (Holman et al., 1939). However, like his father, W.B.
Cobb continued his schooling and the majority of his career was
in the academic world, starting at Louisiana State University and
then moving to North Carolina State University as a soil scientist
in 1924 (Helms, 2002).
3. Allen Hole
3.1. Basic background
Fig. 6. Earlham faculty photograph of Allen D. Hole. Photo courtesy of the Faculty
Photograph Collection, Earlham College Archives, Richmond Indiana.
at the University of Chicago, as the seminal moment in his own
determination to address the problem of soil erosion (Helms,
2008). Coffey and Bennett met during Coffey’s senior year at the
University of North Carolina and the two began a life-long friendship (Bureau, 1961).
Williamson E. Hearn and Thomas D. Rice were two other Cobb
students who enjoyed long soil survey careers and whose names
appear on numerous soil survey reports from the early 1900s (Holman et al., 1939) (Fig. 5). Both men were hired by the US soil survey program in 1901 (Lapham, 1949). Hearn spent time at UNC on
loan from the US soil survey program to help Cobb train students in
soil survey techniques and both Hearn and Rice worked with Coffey on field soil survey parties (Coffey and Hearn, 1902a, 1902b;
Coffey et al., 1912, 1915). In all, Hearn was credited as an author
or coauthor on 34 and Rice on 36 Bureau of Chemistry and Soils
publications by 1937 (Holman et al., 1939). Lapham (1949) credited Hearn and Rice with helping to modernize soil science and soil
Allen David Hole was born in Bridgeport, Indiana on August 6,
1866 to Benjamin and Isabel Hole. Hole began his career as an educator in 1885 teaching in rural school houses where he had students from several different grade levels in a single classroom.
All told, Hole spent eight years between 1885 and 1900 teaching
at schools in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. In-between his
teaching jobs, Hole attended Earlham College and worked a variety
of jobs including work at a horticultural nursery, as a draftsman at
an iron works, and as the interim manager of a creamery. Hole began attending Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in 1889–1890
and returned to finish his schooling from 1895 to 1897, working
his various jobs before and in-between his college studies to save
enough money to complete his schooling. He received his B.S.
and M.A. degrees in natural sciences from Earlham in 1897 and
1901 (Hole, 1991).
Hole began teaching as an instructor at Earlham College in the
Fall of 1900 (Fig. 6). Topics he was responsible for in his first year
at Earlham included Latin, German, mathematics, astronomy, and
geology (Hole, 1991). Within the geology program at Earlham, Hole
was mentored by Joseph Moore, who had studied at Harvard University under Louis Agassiz. By 1902, a separate Geology Department had been established at Earlham and Hole’s responsibilities
were completely with the teaching of geology. When Moore died
in 1905, Hole became the Curator of the Earlham Museum in addition to his teaching duties (Hole, 1991).
Hole also continued his education while teaching at Earlham.
He enrolled in the Geology graduate program at the University of
Chicago in 1901, where he worked under Thomas Chamberlain in
Table 2
Selected publications of Allen D. Hole.
Author(s)
Date
Title
Publication
Type
Subject
J. Moore and
A.D. Hole
A.D. Hole
1901
Fluvial geology
Dissertation
Glacial geology
1910
Proceedings of the Indiana
Academy of Science
University of Chicago Doctoral
Dissertation
Geological Atlas Folio
Journal article
C.W. Cross and
A.D. Hole
A.D. Hole
US Geological Survey
publication
Journal article
Glacial geology
1911
Concerning well-defined ripple marks in Hudson River
limestone, Richmond, Indiana
The Pleistocene geology of the Telluride (Colorado)
Quadrangle
Engineer Mountain folio: description of the Engineer
Mountain Quadrangle
Terraces of the Whitewater River near Richmond, Indiana
A.D. Hole
A.D. Hole
1912
1912
Glaciation in the Telluride Quadrangle, Colorado
Soil survey of Hancock, Johnson, and Shelby counties
Glacial geology
Soil science
A.D. Hole
1915
Soil survey of Jay County, Indiana
A.D. Hole
1918
A.D. Hole
1929
Notes on the paleontology of certain Chester Formations
in Southern Indiana
The history of the ‘‘hoodoos” near Mammoth Hot Springs,
Wyoming
Journal article
Indiana Geological
Survey publication
Indiana Geological
Survey publication
Journal article
1910
Proceedings of the Indiana
Academy of Science
The Journal of Geology
Annual Report of the State
Geologist of Indiana
Annual Report of the State
Geologist of Indiana
Proceedings of the Indiana
Academy of Science
Proceedings of the Indiana
Academy of Science
Journal article
Fluvial geology
Soil science
Paleontology
Geomorphology
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E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
Hole also directed soil surveys for the Indiana Geological Survey
during the summers of 1914 and 1938. Hole died on August 23,
1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 74 years (Hole,
1991).
3.2. Professional life
Fig. 7. Earlham faculty photograph of Mark Baldwin. Photo courtesy of the Faculty
Photograph Collection, Earlham College Archives, Richmond Indiana.
Fig. 8. Earlham faculty photograph of James Thorp. Photo courtesy of the Faculty
Photograph Collection, Earlham College Archives, Richmond Indiana.
the area of glacial geology. During his time at the University of Chicago he spent his summers mapping alpine glacial deposits for the
US Geological Survey (USGS) in the Rocky Mountains, receiving his
Ph.D in 1910 with a dissertation titled ‘‘The Pleistocene Geology of
the Telluride (Colorado) Quadrangle.” Unlike Cobb, Hole began
working with soils relatively early in his career. During the summer of 1911, Hole was placed in charge of a soil survey covering
three Indiana counties on behalf of the Indiana Geological Survey.
Hole’s earliest publications were in fluvial and glacial geology,
while his most frequent topics of publication throughout his career
were glacial geology and soil survey. Hole’s publications included
soil surveys for at least five Indiana counties published by the Indiana Geological Survey. Other topics of published research by Hole
included paleontology, mass wasting, and economic geology. The
most frequent outlets for publication of Hole’s work included the
Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science and the Annual Report of the Indiana Geological Survey. Examples of Hole’s publications are given in Table 2.
Hole’s primary job at Earlham College was teaching, and it is a
charge that he seemed to take very seriously. Hole’s approach to
teaching was to engage his students in a recitation process where
the student was confronted with a question that required the student to apply geological principles to situations posed to the class.
The ultimate goal of this technique was to push the students to
think as opposed to simply have them memorize facts, and Hole
was presented with several awards for his teaching (Hole, 1991).
Hole also appears to have been a very field-oriented teacher, with
field experiences making up an important part of his students’ educations. Between 1905 and 1937 Hole ran 18 field trips to the western United States that exposed students to the geology of the
Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon. These trips started by
going to the San Juan Mountains, and afterwards cycled between
Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks. Hole also
ran short summer sessions on the Earlham campus from 1934 to
1940 to teach the practical aspects of surveying and topographic
mapping (Hole, 1991).
Through his years at Earlham, Hole conducted significant summer field work for the USGS, Indiana Geological Survey, and private
industry. Hole conducted field work for the USGS in Colorado in
1904, 1905, 1907, and 1908. During the summers of 1911, 1914,
and 1938 Hole was in charge of soil survey parties for the Indiana
Geological Survey. And in the summer of 1918 Hole conducted
field work in Indiana and Illinois for the Empire Oil Company (Hole,
1991). Experiences such as these in diverse areas of the geosciences would have broadened Hole’s personal background and exposed him to a variety of career possibilities for his students.
Undergraduate research was obviously important to Hole, and
students were often included in his field work. In his earliest field
research experience for students, Hole took two Earlham students
to Colorado as field assistants during the summers of 1907 and
1908 to map glacial deposits in the Silverton Quadrangle for the
USGS. Between 1909 and 1911 Hole directed two advanced students in a study that mapped the stream terraces along the Whitewater River Valley through Richmond, a stretch that included the
Earlham campus. And from 1923 to 1928 Hole took students to
Yellowstone National Park to investigate the origin of the hoodoos
near Mammoth Hot Springs (Hole, 1991). All three of these projects
resulted in publications (Cross and Hole, 1910; Hole, 1911, 1929).
Hole utilized student assistants in his soil survey activities, giving them practical experience that had the potential to lead to soil
survey careers, with seven students gaining experience during the
summers of 1911 and 1914 (Hole, 1991). Hole also taught a class in
soil survey during five summer sessions, with 20 total students
gaining training through that opportunity, and 16 Earlham students did summer internships with the US soil survey including Allen Hole’s son, Francis Hole (Hole, 1991; Helms, 2002). More than
12 students trained at Earlham went on to become soil scientists in
E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
893
Fig. 9. Francis Hole (left foreground in hat) leading a soils tour in Wisconsin, July 1975. Photo courtesy of Milo Harpstead.
Fig. 10. Ralph McCracken (bending over) sampling in the Blue Ridge Mountains of
North Carolina, 1960s. Photo courtesy of Stan Buol.
the US soil survey or to pursue other soil careers, including wellknown and respected individuals such as Mark Baldwin, James
Thorp, Francis Hole, and Ralph McCracken (Hole, 1991).
3.3. Soil science students
While Hole did conduct work in soil survey, as with Cobb his
greatest contribution to soil science came through the students
he trained and sent on to soil science careers. Mark Baldwin
(Fig. 7) had a long soil career that saw him rise to major supervisory responsibility (Helms, 2002) and was first author of the
1938 soil classification system adopted by the US soil survey (Baldwin et al., 1938). The 1938 system was used by the USDA until
introduction of the current US soil taxonomic system in 1965
(Simonson, 1989). The 1938 system is also the source of many of
the soil classification terms that were incorrectly presented in several introduction to physical geology textbooks as recently as the
early 2000s (Brevik, 2002). While Tom Bushnell is often credited
with being the first to use aerial photography in soil survey, it
was the opinion of James Thorp that Baldwin should be given equal
credit for that accomplishment (Tandarich et al., 1985) and Lapham (1949) supports Thorp’s contention that Baldwin was involved. Thorp recalled that Baldwin did the first experimental
work in soil survey with aerial photographs around 1920, probably
in collaboration with Collier Cobb. Baldwin then worked with
Bushnell in Indiana on the first soil survey that utilized aerial photography (Tandarich et al., 1985). Lapham (1949) also credited
Baldwin with helping to modernize soil science and soil classification in the United States.
James Thorp (Fig. 8) served as the USDA liaison to China in the
1930s, which led to publication of the book ‘‘Geography of the Soils
of China” (Thorp, 1936). During his time in China, Thorp was
responsible for training Chinese soil scientists in the techniques
of soil survey (Hole, 1991). Thorp was also a coauthor of the
1938 soil classification system (Baldwin et al., 1938). Lapham
(1949) credited Thorp with helping to modernize soil science and
soil classification in the Great Plains states. Upon retiring from
the US soil survey, Thorp returned to Richmond and served on
the Earlham faculty from 1952 to 1961 (Hole, 1991; Helms, 2002).
Francis Hole (Fig. 9) was Allen Hole’s son and became a respected researcher and teacher at the University of Wisconsin from
1946 until 1983, attaining the rank of Professor of Soil Science and
Geography. Francis Hole published at least 97 peer-reviewed articles and other professional publications, not including abstracts
(Barak, 2005). He was well-known for his use of novel teaching
techniques, including songs, poems, and plays about soil carried
out to the accompaniment of his violin or puppets (Barak, 2005).
Francis Hole also founded the field-based soil journal ‘‘Soil Survey
Horizons” in 1960 (Helms, 2002) and was a coauthor of ‘‘Soil Genesis and Classification” (Buol et al., 1997), probably the most popular book of its day on its subject. Stan Buol, the lead author of Buol
et al. (1997), was a graduate student of Francis Hole (Helms, 2002).
Ralph McCracken (Fig. 10) had a long and distinguished career
in soil science with the US federal government and academia. McCracken’s career began at Louisiana State University before he
moved to North Carolina State University (NCSU). From NCSU,
McCracken moved to the USDA where he served as the associate
director of the Agricultural Research Service before finishing his career as a deputy chief of the Soil Conservation Service (Stan Buol,
written communication, 7/15/2004). McCracken was also a coau-
894
E.C. Brevik / Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 35 (2010) 887–894
thor of ‘‘Soil Genesis and Classification” (Buol et al., 1997) and
served as the President of the Soil Science Society of America in
1970–1971 (SSSA, 2009). McCracken overlapped with Allen Hole
at Earlham, arriving before Allen Hole retired but graduating after.
According to Helms (2002), Francis Hole was the person who inspired McCracken to pursue soil science as a career when Francis
covered classes at Earlham for Allen during a period when Allen
was ill. McCracken completed his Ph.D at Iowa State College
(now Iowa State University) in 1956, writing a dissertation titled
‘‘Soil Classification in Polk County, Iowa.” (Thomas Fenton, written
communication, 2/19/2010).
4. Conclusions
One of the most interesting aspects of the careers of both Cobb
and Hole was their vast and varied interests within the geosciences. Both men published in wide-ranging subfields of their disciplines as opposed to focusing on narrow areas. It is likely that this
interest in and ability to function across broad swaths of their chosen field also assisted these professors in taking a broader view of
the potential career paths their students might follow, including
careers in the new and rapidly-growing area of soil survey. It is
interesting that neither Cobb nor Hole worked at a land grant institution, given that land grant schools eventually became the ‘‘traditional” route to a soil science career in the United States.
Cobb and Hole were both trained as geologists but were influenced by renowned soil-geologists (N. Shaler and T. Chamberlain,
respectively) during their graduate studies. Both Cobb and Hole
conducted some level of soil research, although Hole was more
deeply involved in soil research than Cobb. Both recognized the
new US soil survey as an opportunity for their students, established
active programs that taught soils at their respective institutions,
and sought soil survey employment for their graduates. The greatest soils legacy of each is in the students they sent on to soil careers
and their establishment of academic programs designed to train
students for careers in soil science work. Collier Cobb and Allen
Hole serve as examples of the deep historical ties between geology
and soil science.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Anne Thomason (Earlham College Archives),
Keith Longiotti (University of North Carolina Wilson Library), Stan
Buol (Professor Emeritus, North Carolina State University), Milo
Harpstead (Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin Whitewater), and Thomas Fenton (Professor Emeritus, Iowa State University) for their assistance in obtaining photographs and information
used in this paper. He also thanks Dick Arnold and an anonymous
reviewer for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier
draft of the paper.
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