Earl Douglass photograph collection, 1897-1929

Earl Douglass was born in Medford, Minnesota on October 23, 1862. He received his early education in the Medford schools and the Pillsbury Academy in Owatonna, Minnesota. He then went to South Dakota, then Dakota, where he worked on a farm, taught school and studied at the University of Dakota and the state agricultural college until 1890. During this period he made his first plant collection for an herbarium at the South Dakota Agricultural College.

In 1890, Douglass went to Mexico on a botanical trip and after his return became assistant to Professor William Trelease at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in Saint Louis. There he studied systematic botany and plant histology at the Shaw School of Botany at Washington University. In 1892 he returned to the South Dakota Agricultural College. Suspended from the college in 1893 for publishing an article exposing corruption in the school, Douglass then went to Iowa State College where he received his B.S. the same year.

From 1894-1900, Douglass conducted geological explorations in western Montana and taught school to pay expenses. There he gathered extensive collections of fossils. Of particular importance was his discovery of various tertiary beds containing extinct mammals and other vertebrates unknown to science. Douglass received his Master of Science degree at the University of Montana in 1899 and taught geology and physical geography there from 1899-1900.

From 1900-1902, Douglass held a fellowship in biology at Princeton University and studied geology, paleontology, osteology, and mammalian anatomy. In 1901 he accompanied a Princeton scientific expedition to the region of the Muscleshell River in Montana. During this expedition, he discovered lower "Eocene mammals in Ft. Union formations, thus settling a long continued dispute as to the age of these beds."

In 1902, Douglass became associated with the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and the museum purchased the extensive collection of fossil remains he had collected in Montana and South Dakota. He continued his work in Montana for the museum during part of 1902, and then returned to Pittsburgh. His studies of his collection of fossil remains from Montana appeared in the Annals and Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum between 1903 and 1910.

In 1905, Douglass was sent to collect vertebrate and invertebrate fossils in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho and to obtain, if possible, data to solve certain geological problems in that region. On October 29 of that same year Douglass married Pearl Charlotte Goetschius in Sheridan, Montana.

From 1907-1924, Douglass devoted himself to the exploration of the fossiliferous strata of the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah. In 1909 he discovered the famous dinosaur quarry near Jensen, Utah. The quarry now forms the nucleus for the present Dinosaur National Monument. Out of this quarry, Douglass collected a large number of fossils, mostly vertebrates, some which were new to science. The fossils included dinosaurs of many families, genera, and species.

Douglass resigned his position with Carnegie Museum in 1924 and was employed by the University of Utah to excavate dinosaur bones for their museum. After the bones were transferred to Salt Lake City, Douglass spent two years completing the difficult preliminary work to prepare the bones for mounting after which his employment ended. From this time until his death in 1931, Douglass was a consulting geologist for companies engaged in developing oil fields in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Texas. During this period, he did notable research on oil, oil shale asphalts, and other mineral deposits and left much unpublished material on these subjects.

EARL DOUGLASS CHRONOLOGY

1862: Born October 28, Medford, Minnesota

1868-1879: Attended school near Medford, Minnesota

1882-1886: Taught school in Minnesota

1887-1890: Attended South Dakota Agricultural College at Brookings

1890: Botanical expedition to Mexico

1890-1892: Worked for Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis Studied botany at Washington University in St. Louis

1892-1893: Returned and was later suspended from South Dakota Agricultural College

1893: Received B.S. from Iowa State College at Ames

1894-1899: Conducted geological and paleontological expeditions in Montana

1899: Received M.S. in geology from the University of Montana

1899-1900: Taught geology at the University of Montana

1900-1902: Held fellowship in biology at Princeton University

1902-1924: Employed by the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1905: Married Pearl Charlotte Goetschius, October 29

1909: Discovered dinosaur quarry near Jensen, Utah, August 17

1909-1924: Worked continuously at dinosaur quarry

1915: Dinosaur quarry became Dinosaur National Monument

1924: Resigned from Carnegie Museum

1924-1926: Excavated and mounted dinosaur bones for the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah

1926-1931: Employed as consulting geologist for oil companies

1931: Died in Salt Lake City, Utah, January 1931