Samuel Calvin

February 2, 1840 – April 17, 1911
Location: Wigton Bay, Scotland, Immigrated to the United States 1851, Settled in Buchanan County, Iowa
Occupation: Teacher, professor at University of Iowa 1873-1911
State Geologist and Director of the State Geological Survey of Iowa, 1892-1904

Geologist

Samuel Calvin was the Director of the State Geological Survey of Iowa, 1892-1904
Growing up near Quasqueton, Calvin became interested in the landscape around him. Despite his education being disrupted by the Civil War, he graduated from Lenox College after studying the natural sciences. Calvin served both as acting president of Lenox College and superintendent for the schools of Delaware County. Calvin, along with Thomas Macbride, who later became his teaching assistant at the State University in Iowa City, set out collecting geological specimens from all over (some as far away as Canada). These specimens later became part of the Paleontology Repository in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Iowa.

Further Information

University of Iowa History
Geological and Water Survey History