Professional Paper No. 40, The Triassic Cephalopod Genera of America TOGETHER WITH Professional Paper No. 41, Geology of the Central Copper River Region, Alaska

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1905. First edition.

1905 TWO GEOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATED WITH FINE LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES OF FOSSILS AND MAPS OF ALASKA REFLECT THE US GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT TO SCIENCE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY.

Two monographs of the United States Geological Survey: Professional Papers 40 and 41, bound together. 11 1/2 inches tall hardcover, black buckram binding, paper labels to spine, bookplate of Library of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences to front paste-down, 214 pp text, 85 lithographic plates with facing descriptive text; 133 pp, publications of the USGS, 3 pp, 20 photographic plates and maps (some folding).

ALPHEUS HYATT (1839-1902) became a professor of paleontology and zoology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1870, where he taught for eighteen years, and was professor of biology and zoology at Boston University from 1877 until his death in 1902. He also served as curator of the Boston Society of Natural History. Hyatt studied under Louis Agassiz and was a proponent of Neo-Lamarckism with Edward Drinker Cope. In 1869, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him a fellow and in 1875, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

JAMES PERRIN SMITH (1864-1931) was an American geologist and paleontologist. Between 1890 and 1892, Smith studied at the University of Göttingen. His doctoral work was supervised by Adolf von Koenen. Smith joined the Stanford University faculty at Branner's invitation upon completing his Ph.D, and retired in June 1930. He died of pneumonia on January 1, 1931 in Palo Alto, California. Smith Creek on northern Ellesmere Island is named after him, and indirectly the Smithian sub-stage of Early Triassic time.

WALTER CURRAN MENDENHALL (1871-1957) was the fifth director of the US Geological Survey. Mendenhall had joined the Survey in 1894, fresh from Ohio Normal University, and had mapped in the Appalachian coal fields. In 1898, he had been one of the pioneer geologists in Alaska, and in 1903 he had become one of the first ground-water specialists in the Water Resources Branch. Although more than half his surveying career had been in administrative work, he had made notable contributions to the geology of Alaska, and his study of the principles in ground-water hydrology had helped to establish it as a field of scientific endeavor. King, Powell, Walcott and Mendenhall all were members of the National Academy of Sciences. Mendenhall's directorate was pivotal in the history of the Geological Survey. In spite of the difficult times, the depression years, and the beginning of World War II, he encouraged the Survey, as he had the Geologic Branch, to emphasize the necessity of basic research and created an environment in which, in the words of the Engineering and Mining Journal, "scientific research, technical integrity, and practical skill could flourish.