Dates

• Existence: 1811-1898
• Existence: 1811 - 1898

Biographical Note

James Hall was born in Hingham Massachusetts in 1811. He graduated from Rensselaer in 1832 and earned a masters degree in 1833. He was a student of both Amos Eaton and Ebenezer Emmons and after graduating remained at Rensselaer as an instructor of chemistry and geology. In 1836 a multi-year survey was established to collect information on the geology and natural history of New York. Hall was eventually given responsibility for the Fourth District in Western New York. At the end of the survey in 1841 Hall was named the first state paleontologist. In 1843 he made his final report on the survey of the fourth geological district, published as Geology of New York, Part IV (1843) which became a classic in the field. Hall built a laboratory in Albany, New York to continue his research in stratigraphic geology and invertebrate paleontology. His laboratory became an important center of training for geologists and paleontologists. In 1850 Hall participated in a geological survey of northern Michigan and Wisconsin. He was appointed state geologist for Iowa (1855-1858) and Wisconsin (1857-1860). In 1866 he was made director of New York’s Museum of Natural History in Albany. In 1893 he was appointed the State Geologist of New York. Between 1847 and 1894 Hall published the 13 volume Paleontology of New York, his principal contribution in the field. Hall authored more than 30 other books and over 200 research papers. He was a founder of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1856), a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences (1863) and the first president of the Geological Society of America (1889). He served as the first president of the Rensselaer Association of Graduates, the forerunner of the Rensselaer Alumni Association. Hall died in Bethlehem, New Hampshire in 1898.

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