Henry Shaler Williams

Henry Shaler Williams
Born	March 6, 1847 Ithaca, New York, US
Died	July 31, 1918(1918-07-31) (aged 71) Havana, Cuba
Known for	naming the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sub-periods
Parent	Josiah B. Williams (father)
Academic background
Education	Sheffield Scientific School, 1868 Yale University, Ph.B. 1871
Thesis	Muscular System of Turtles
Academic work
Discipline	Zoology
Sub-discipline	Paleontology
Institutions	Yale University Cornell University

Henry Shaler Williams (March 6, 1847 – July 31, 1918) was an American academic and paleontologist. He was a professor at Cornell University and Yale University. Williams is credited with naming the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sub-periods. He was a founder the Geological Society of America and Sigma Xi honor society.

Williams was born in Ithaca, New York on March 6, 1847.^[1] He was the son of Mary Huggeford Hardy and Josiah B. Williams, a member of the New York State Senate who had numerous businesses in Ithaca, including a bank, cotton mills, iron fabrication, lumber, machinery, and a mercantile.^[2][3] His uncle, Timothy S. Williams, was also a member of the New York State Senate; lumber magnate Henry W. Sage was his first cousin. His mother was a member of the Shaler family who arrived to America on the Mayflower.^[3]

Williams attended the Ithaca Academy.^[4] He graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1868.^[1][2][5] He then received a Ph.B. from Yale University in 1871, specializing in zoology.^[2][6] His thesis was on the muscular system of turtles.^[6] He worked as an assistant at Yale for two years.^[1]

From 1871 to 1872, Williams was a professor of natural science at the University of Kentucky University (now Transylvania University).^[1][2] He worked with his brothers in his father's banking and mercantile businesses in Ithaca from 1872 to 1880.^[2][4][5] He published his first book, Anatomy of the Domestic Cat, in 1875.^[3][7]

He became an assistant professor of geology at Cornell University in 1879.^[2][4] He was promoted to professor paleontology in 1884 and professor of paleontology and geology in 1886.^[2] One of his graduate students at Cornell was Gilbert Dennison Harris.^[3]

In 1892, James Dwight Dana selected Williams to be his successor as the Silliman Professor of Geology at Yale University.^[2][3][5] Williams taught at Yale until 1904,^[5] when moved to Cornell University to become a professor of geology and director of the Geological Museum.^[2][1] He retired from Cornell as an emeritus professor in 1912.^[8] After retiring from academia, Williams worked on establishing oilfields on his son's property in Cuba from 1916 until he died in 1918.^[1][4]

Williams also conducted research and field work for the United States Geological Survey (USGS).^[2] He was the director of the USGS Devonian Laboratory.^[1][5] He was the United States' representative to the International Congress of Geology.^[1] He was also the associate editor The Journal of Geology and American Journal of Science.^[8]

Williams' research focused on the paleontology of Devonian fossils in southern New York, Maine, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.^[2][5] He was able to connect the Devonian rocks in New York with those in Europe.^[4] Along the way, he developed a new biofacies methodology that is used for paleontological stratigraphy.^[4][3] He is credited with naming the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sub-periods, the last periods named on the geologic time scale.^[9][10][11]

Williams was a founder and leader of Sigma Xi honor society for science and engineering in 1886.^[2] He was also a founder of the Geological Society of America on December 27, 1888.^[2][4] He wrote the Sigma Xi constitution, was its first treasurer, its second vice president in 1903, and its first vice president in 1904.^[4]

Williams was married to Harriet Hart Wilcox on October 17, 1871. Their children were Arthur Shalor Williams, Charlotte Wilcox Williams, Edith Clifford Williams, and Roger Henry Williams.^[12]

Williams died in Havana, Cuba of pleurisy on July 31, 1918, at the age of 71 years.^[1] He was buried in the Ithaca City Cemetery.

• Anatomy of the Domestic Cat. New York: G. P. Putnam's Son,1875.^[7]
• "The Cuboides Zone and Its Fauna; a Discussion of the Methods of Correlation". Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 1 (May 7, 1890), 481–500.
• "Correlation Papers – Devonian and Carboniferous" Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey, no. 80 (1891).
• "Dual Nomenclature in Geological Classification". The Journal of Geology, vol. 2, no. 2 (1894), 145–160.
• A Geological Biology: An Introduction to the Geological History of Organisms. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1895.^[1][3]
• "One the Theory of Organic Variation". Science New Series, vol. 6, no. 133 (July 16, 1897), pp. 73–85
• "On the genetic energy of organisms. A paper read before the American Society of Naturalists, December 24, 1897." Science New Series, vol. 7, no. 178 (May 27, 1898), pp. 721–730.
• "Fossil Faunas and Their Use in Correlating Geological Formations". American Journal of Science, vol. 163 (June 1, 1902), pp. 417–432.
• "Shifting of Faunas as a Problem of Stratigraphic Geology". Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, no. 14 (January 1, 1903), pp. 177–190.
• "Contributions to Devonian paleontology, 1903". with Edward M. Kindle. United States Geological Survey Bulletin, no. 244, series C (1903).
• "A new brachiopod, Rensselaeria mainensis, from the Devonian of Maine". Proceedings of the United States National Museum, vol. 32, no. 1527 (April 18, 1907), pp. 267–269.
• "Recurrent Tropidoleptus Zones of the Upper Devonian in New York". United States Geological Survey Professional Papers, vol. 79 and 80 (1913).
• "New brachiopods of the genus Spirifer from the Silurian of Maine". Proceedings of the United States National Museum, vol. 51, no. 2144 (December 16, 1916), pp. 73–80.

• Henry Shaler Williams at Find a Grave