The History of Geology Group

History of geology resources on the web – a selection by HOGG

Introduction

There is a growing number of websites and pages with information about the history of geology and the wider earth sciences, including those of kindred organisations, biographies of geologists, archive guides, geological maps and full text reproductions of geological classics.  The History of Geology Group (HOGG) is actively searching for and recording these, and offers the following list of examples and links.

The content of this page is under development: the listings below cover kindred organisations, on-line biographies, some thematic sites, online full texts of geological classics, online geological map collections and of on-line catalogues of archives.

We recognise that the list is not comprehensive and is inevitably a subjective selection of materials that are freely available; so the limitations that follow should be borne in mind.  

The majority of the sites selected here are written in the English language, which lends bias towards the history of Anglo-American geology. We also recognise that the current list is skewed towards ‘the golden age of geology’ i.e. the first half of the 19th century. This is, perhaps, not surprising given the significant developments of ideas about the Earth and deep time and the discovery and interpretation of geological evidence during this period. 

Similarly the list is dominated by biographies of male geologists, which is simply a reflection of geology largely being practised by men for its first 150 years as a science. However we will increasingly acknowledge and include women on the list subject to web-based articles and resource being freely available.

Our aim is to gradually add links that provide a wider international dimension and extend the history timescale to include more examples of individuals, women in geology and ideas, especially contributions to the history of geological development and thinking in the 20th century.

Geological Society of London

A Brief History

Index of obituaries of the Geological Society 1828-Date

Medallists since 1831

On-line catalogues of archives

The National Archives ‘Discovery’ is a fully searchable database of catalogues of The National Archive and over 2,500 publicly accessible collections. There are 2720 entries under the search term “geology”. These can be filtered by date range, holding collection(s) and other refinements..  The database can be searched for archive holdings of individual geologists.

Jisc Archives Hub is a searchable database of physical and digital archives held at over 350 institutions across the UK

Geological Society of London Archives

Wernerian Natural History Society (Edinburgh – founded by Robert Jameson): Minute Books 1808 – 1858. (Edinburgh University Library Special Collections)

The Darwin Correspondence Online Database (Cambridge University)

Archibald Geikie (1835 – 1924)  (Edinburgh University Library Special Collections)

Archibald Geikie (1835-1924) (Haslemere Educational Museum)

James Geikie (1839-1915) (Edinburgh University Library Special Collections)

Robert Jameson (1774 – 1854) (Edinburgh University Library Special Collections)

Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875) (Edinburgh University Library Special Collections)

Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871) (Edinburgh University Library Special Collections)

John Phillips (1800 – 1874) (National Archives Discovery index: 23 collections)

Friedrich August von Quenstedt (1809-1889) (Universitätsarchiv Tübingen)

William Smith (1769 – 1839) William Smith Collection (Oxford Museum of Natural History Archive of William Smith’s notebooks, plans, maps – with some material accessible online.

Themes and General Historical Reviews


British Geological Survey: "Our Past" brief introduction with a bibliography

The Development of Glacial Theory 1800-1870  by Keith Montgomery, University of Winsconsin – Marathon County. Comprehensive overview with detailed bibliography set up as an online course.

Edinburgh and the reception of early glacial theory by Diarmid Finnegan (Edinburgh Geologist no. 40, Spring 2003)

The history of the European oil and gas industry (1600s–2000s) by Jonathan Craig, Francesco Gerali, Fiona MacAulay and Rasoul Sorkhabi. (Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 465, 1-24, 2018)

History of the stratigraphical nomenclature of the glacial period by P.L. Gibbard, August 2005 (ICS Subcommision on Quaternary Stratigraphy)

Piltdown Man by Richard Harter (The author/compiler is neither a geologist or historian, but he has produced a wide-ranging and fair summary of the Piltdown hoax with many references and links.)

Plate Tectonics: The Rocky History of an Idea (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Slate Industry of North and Mid Wales by industrial history enthusiast Dave Sallery

Timeline (Strange Science by Michon Scott) Sequenced list chronicling some of the major events in the history of paleontology (and biology) with some other significant events.

Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism by Leonard G. Wilson. (Dictionary of the History of Ideas, University of Virginia Library)

United States Geological Survey (USGS) History of Unites States Geological Survey 1879 – 1989 (by Mary C. Rabbitt), (USGS Circular 1050)

Victorian Science: An Overview  (includes short articles on geology, and short biographies of around two dozen leading Victorian scientists, including Agassiz, Buckland, Cuvier, Darwin, Lyell and Owen) (The Victorian Web)

Wilson Cycle Fifty years of the Wilson Cycle concept in plate tectonics: an overview (by R. W. Wilson, G. A. Houseman, S. J. H. Buiter,  K. J. W. McCaffrey and A. G. Doré) (2019, Geological Society, London, Special Publications Volume 470.)

Voices of Science Geology (British Library) oral history clips of interviews with geologists Alan Smith (1937-2017), Janet Thompson (1942 - ), John Dewey (1937- ), Richard West (1936 - ), Stephen Moorbath (1929-2016)/

 

Online full texts of geological and related ‘classics’

Anonymous, 1813. Review of Essay on the Theory of the Earth (by Cuvier, translated by Robert Jameson) (The British Review and London Critical Journal, Volume V, pt. X, 1813) (Victorian Web full texts)

Anonymous, 1814. Review of Essay on the Theory of the Earth (by Cuvier, translated by Robert Jameson) (The Edinburgh Review, January 1814) (Victorian Web full texts)

Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871). Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on some of its Causes (1830) (Project Gutenberg)

Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832). Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe, et sur les changemens qu'elles ont produits dans le règne animal. (3rd French edition, 1825) (Biodiversity Library)

Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832). Discourse on the revolutionary upheavals on the surface of the globe. (English language edition, Paris 1825) (English language transcript. Translated by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC Canada, Revised 2009)

Georges Cuvier,(1769-1832). 'Elegy of Lamarck'. (Translation, probably by Jameson, of the "Élogue" written in 1831 by Cuvier for the French Académie des Sciences, though publication was delayed).  (This version published in Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal Vol. XX (January 1836). (Victorian Web full texts)

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882).  The writings of Charles Darwin on the web (edited by Dr John van Wyhe) (Darwin Online Project)

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882). Geological Observations on South America (edited by "G.T.B.", Introduction by J.W. Judd) (Project Gutenberg)

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882). Volcanic Islands (edited by "G.T.B.", Introduction by J.W. Judd) (Project Gutenberg)

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882). Voyage of the Beagle (1845) (Project Gutenberg)

James Hutton (1726 - 1797 )Theory of the Earth vol. 1. (1795) (Project Gutenberg)

James Hutton (1726 - 1797) Theory of the Earth vol. 2. (1795) (Project Gutenberg)

Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825 - 1895) The Rise and Progress of Palaeontology (Essay #2 from Science and the Hebrew Tradition, 1897(?)) (Project Gutenberg)

Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825 - 1895). Lectures on Evolution (Essay #3 from Science and the Hebrew Tradition, 1897(?) (Project Gutenberg)

Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825 - 1895) The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature (Essay #4 from Science and Hebrew Tradition) (Project Gutenberg)

Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825 - 1895). Geological Contemporaneity and Persistent Types of Life (Anniversary Address to the Geological Society for 1862) (Project Gutenberg)

Lyell, Charles (1797-1875). Principles of Geology (VOLUMES 1 – 3 , 1830-1833) (On-line Electronic Edition: prepared by Robert Robbins, Electronic Scholarly Publishing) 

Lyell, Charles (1797-1875). The Antiquity of Man (1863) (Project Gutenberg)

Lyell, Charles (1797-1875). Student's Elements of Geology (7th edition 1870) (Project Gutenberg)

Richard Owen, (1804 - 1892). Review of Darwin's Origin of Species (Edinburgh Review, vol. 3, 1860) (Victorian Web full texts)

Werner, Abraham Gottlob (1749 - 1817). Kurze Klassifikation und Beschreibung der verschiedenen Gebirgsarten (1787) (Scan of omanuscript text in German with typed text at side) (Deutches Text Archiv)

 

Online biographies of Geoscientists

 

Ebooks

Great Geologists  (by M.D. Simmons, published by Halliburton, 2019)  Lives and work of 35 geoscientists from the17th century to the present day. (Read online or offline as a downloadable pdf).

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz: Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence (1885, 2 vols.) (full text: Project Gutenberg)

Charles Darwin, (1809 - 1882) Autobiography of Charles Darwin  (edited by Nora Barlow. 1958. The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. With the original omissions restored. Edited and with appendix and notes by his grand-daughter Nora Barlow. London: Collins) (Darwin Online project)

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin by Francis Darwin, 1895 (full text:  Darwin, Francis ed. 1887. The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. London: John Murray. Volume 1.) (Darwin Online project)

 

Biographical web pages.

British Geoscientists   (British Geological Survey) The history of British geology, told through the lives and work of the scientists themselves, including the Pioneers of the British Geological Survey – see below.

Geologists: biographies and obituaries: a bibliography  A listing of obituaries and biographies of geologists. Date range is up to c. 1980.  First issued as: Listing of obituaries and biographies in United Kingdom earth science core journals. BGS Information Services, Internal Report IR/04/067 by R.P. McIntosh and G. Gray.

Edinburgh Geological Society  Geological Pioneers   (Edinburgh Geological Society). Brief biographies of important geologists who have drawn inspiration from the landscape and geology of the city and contributed to the development of geological knowledge).

Notable Geologists associated with South Yorkshire (by Sheffield Area Geology Trust) (Short biographies with sources)

Pioneers of the British Geological Survey  (British Geological Survey) Provides brief biographical information for the members of staff who served in the organisation during the first hundred years of its existence. Catalogued alphabetically, some with portrait or group images.

Rocks Stars  Profiles of significant North American Geoscientists from the Geological Society of America Magazine/Journal GSA Today. (Downloadable pdfs.)  

Strange Science Biographies (by Michon Scott) Biographical articles, on geologists who influenced palaeontology plus other early workers who interpreted the natural kingdom and scientists who worked to answer questions about how evolution works. Collated from a number of (popular) sources.

 Trowelblazers Profiles of women geologists and palaeontologists (and archaeologists), historical and present-day. Searchable and associate profiles are suggested.

 

Biographical entries and articles about individuals

Louis Agassiz (1807 - 1873) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Louis Agassiz The life and work of Louis Agassiz (a publish.illinois.edu site)

Georgius Agricola (1494 - 1555) (by Helmut F. Wilsdorf) (CompleteDictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Georgius Agricola (1494 - 1555) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Mary Anning (1799 - 1847) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme ; the greatest fossilist the world ever knew. (by Hugh Torrens) (British Journal for the History of Science)

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752 - 1840) (by Walter Baron) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

William Buckland (1784 - 1856) (by Walter F. Cannon) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

William Buckland (1784 - 1856) (Oxford University Museum of Natural History)

Thomas Burnet (1635 - 1715) (by  Suzanne Kelly) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Robert Chambers (1802 - 1871) (by Joel. S. Schwartz C. (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com) ( + other biographical entries.)

Robert Chambers (1802 - 1871) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

William Daniel Conybeare (1787 - 1857) (by M.J.S. Rudwick) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

William Daniel Conybeare (1787 - 1857)  (authoritative Wikipedia article)

Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832) (by Martin J. Rudwick) (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832) (Bibliothèque National Publique de France)

Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832) "Cuvier, Georges: Biographie" (Futura Sciences)

Raymond Dart (1893 - 1988) (Australian Dictionary of Biography)

John F. Dewey (1937- )  Profile by Regina Nuzzo (PNAS October 25, 2005 102 (43) 15283-15285)

Charles Darwin - Correspondence, (1809 - 1882) Correspondence of Darwin and much more (The Darwin Correspondence Project; Director: Professor. J.A. Secord)

Archibald Geike (1835-1924) (Haslemere Educational Museum, his life in six ‘chapters’)

George Bellas Greenough (1778 – 1855)  (authoritative and sourced Wikipedia article)

Richard Griffith (1784-1878) (by Joan Eyles) ) Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)x

Dorothy Hill (1907-1997) (by Sue Turner) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Arthur Holmes (1890 - 1965) "Arthur Holmes: An Ingenious Geoscientist" (GSA History of Geology Division, Rock Stars article by Cherry L. E. Lewis) (in PDF format)

Arthur Holmes (1890 - 1965) "D'Arthur Holmes à aujourd'hui." “From Arthur Holmes to today.” (Département de géologie et de génie géologique, Université Laval, Québec)

Arthur Holmes (1890 - 1965) "Arthur Holmes's Principles of Physical Geology" by J.B. Calvert, University of Denver

Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) (Historic Maps Collection, Princeton University Library).

James Hutton (1726 - 1797) (by V.A. Eyles) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

James Hutton (1726 - 1797) (Edinburgh Geological Society)

James Hutton (1726 - 1797) (by Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr. via Linda Hall Library)

Robert Jameson (1774 - 1854) (by Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr. via Linda Hall Library)

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Martin Lister (1639 - 1712) (by Peter Hogarth) (Martin Lister 1639-1712. The Spider Man) (Yorkshire Philosophical Society)

Edward Llwyd (1660-1709) (Oxford University Museum of Natural History) (in pdf format)

Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875) (by Leonard G. Wilson) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Charles Lyell  (1797-1875)  (by T.G. Bonney, 1895,) (Charles Lyell and Modern Geology) (project Gutenberg)

Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875) (by John van Weyhe) (Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Gentleman geologist) (The Victorian Web)

Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852) (by John Challinor) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852) (by A.D. Morris, PDF from the Royal Society of Medicine, History Section)

Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852) )The Unpublished Journal of Gideon Mantell 1819-1852) edited by John Cooper) (Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove)

Hugh Miller (1802 - 1856) (edited by Lester Borley) (Celebrating the life and times of Hugh Miller, Symposium)

Roderick Impey Murchison (1792 - 1871) (by M.J.S. Rudwick) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Richard Owen (1804 - 1892) (by Nicholaas A Rupke) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography vis encyclopedia.com)

Benjamin Neeve Peach (1842 - 1926) (by John Mendum and Anne Burgess, Edinburgh Geological Society)

John Phillips (1800-1874) (Yorkshire Philosophical Society)

John Playfair (1748 – 1819) (by J. J. O’Connor & E.F. Robertson), (MacTutor History of Mathematics

John Playfair (1748 - 1819) (by Jack Morrell) (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

Andrew Crombie Ramsay   (1814- 1891) (Wikipedia article)

Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1814-1891) (by Robert P. Beckinsale) (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1814 – 1891) (by Archibald Geikie)  Memoir of Ramsay, much of which is based on Ramsay’s diary entries and correspondence)

George Julius Poulett Scrope, (1797 - 1876) (by L.E. Page) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Adam Sedgwick (1785 - 1873) (by M.J.S. Rudwick), )Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Adam Sedgwick (1785 - 1873) FRS (by David Rowe)  (Yorkshire Philosophical Society)

Eduard Seuss (1831-1914) (by E Wegmann) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

George Gaylord Simpson (1902 - 1984) (University of California at Santa Clara)

William Smith (1769 - 1839) (Joan M. Eyles) (Dictionary of Scientific Biography via encyclopedia.com)

William Smith (1769-1839) (William Smith’s Maps Interactive)

William Smith (1769 - 1839) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Henry Clifton Sorby (1826 - 1908)  (Yorkshire Philosophical Society)

Henry Clifton Sorby (1826 – 1908)  (Sorby Natural History Society)

Nicholas Steno (1638 - 1686) (University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology)

Marie Stopes (1880-1958) (by Howard Falcon-Lang) (Marie Stopes - Palaeobotanist and Coal Geologist)  Downloadable pdf of a lecture given to the East Midlands Geological Society, 2008)

Lawrence Wager (1904-1965)  (Oxford University Museum of Natural History) (in pdf format)

Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749 – 1817) (Alexander Ospovat, Dictionary of Scientific Biography – plus four other biographies via encyclopedia.com)

Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749 - 1817) (Curtis Schu’s bibliography of mineralogy) (The Mineralogical Record)

Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749 - 1817) (Biographical introduction and bibliography, Library of the T.U. Bergakademie, Freiberg, Germany)

Geological Maps  

 

Online catalogue and viewer for maps of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland (up to 1905) including Old Series maps and variants. (British Geological Survey)

Irish historical geological maps  displays a range of historical geological maps, sections and memoirs of Ireland, mostly from the 19th century (Geological Survey Ireland,  Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, British Geological Survey)

David Rumsey Map Collection searchable database and viewer with 1,666 high resolution images (under the search term ‘geological map’).

Gallica Digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and its partners with searchable catalogue that lists 189 maps under the search term “geological map” and 453 items under “carte geologique”.

The emergence of French geological cartography in the 19th century The Société Géologique de France has produced a virtual exhibition of 30 early départemental geological maps.  The title is ‘Maps before the map, or the emergence of French geological cartography in the 19th century’. For each map archived there is an audio account and opportunity to purchase a digital print The text is in French.

William Smith’s Maps – interactive Digital images of several different copies of William Smith’s 1815 map and County maps that can be manipulated via simple online GIS, plus other information about these maps.

History of Geology Group,  November 2025