Joseph Augustine Cushman

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Joseph Augustine Cushman
BornJanuary 31, 1881
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 16, 1949(1949-04-16) (aged 68)
Sharon, Massachusetts, U.S.
Burial placeBoston, Massachusetts
Occupation(s)Foraminiferologist and academic
Known forForaminifera, Their Classification and Economic Use and his system of discovering petroleum deposits
Academic background
Alma materBridgewater Normal School
Harvard University
ThesisThe Phylogeny of the Miliolidae (1909)
Academic work
DisciplineBiology
Sub-disciplineMicropaleontology
InstitutionsHarvard Museum of Natural History

Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research
Harvard University

United States Geological Survey
Diagram from one of Cushman's scientific articles, drawn by himself

Joseph Augustine Cushman (January 31, 1881 – April 16, 1949) was an American micropaleontologist and academic.[1][2][3][4] He specialized in the study of marine protozoans (foraminifera) and became the foremost foraminiferologist of the first half of the twentieth century, developing to a "world-famous system of discovering petroleum deposits".[2][5][4] He also was a founding father of Kappa Delta Phi fraternity.

Early life[edit]

Cushman was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.[6] His parents were Jane Frances (née Fuller and Pratt) and Darius Cushman; this was a second marriage for both.[1][7] His father had a store in Bridgewater where he sold and repaired shoes.[7] Cushman's ancestry went back to the Mayflower on both his maternal and paternal sides.[7]

Cushman attended public schools, starting at the age of four.[7] He went to Bridgewater High School when he was twelve and he graduated in 1897.[7] He planned on studying medicine but this changed due to financial circumstances when his father died shortly after his graduation.[7] He worked before and after school, while his mother took in borders from the local Bridgewater Normal School.[7]

He attended Bridgewater Normal School, graduating in 1901. There he discovered his interest in science and took his first geology class.[7] He was the captain and catcher for the baseball team and a fullback and the manager of the football team.[7] He helped establish the Kappa Delta Phi fraternity in 1900 and served as its first president.[7]

Later, he attended Harvard University, graduating in 1903 with a B.S. in Biology, magna cum laude.[1][8] He was awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1909.[3] His dissertation was "The Phylogeny of the Miliolidae".[9]

Career[edit]

Cushman was a curator at the Boston Natural History Museum (now the Harvard Museum of Natural History), working part-time while he attended graduate school.[5] He worked for the United States Geological Survey in 1912.[2][5] He became the director of the Boston Natural History Museum from 1913 until his resignation in 1923.[2][3][4]

Next to his home in Sharon, Massachusetts, he constructed a building that would become the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research in 1923.[2][4] In his laboratory, he conducted research, worked as a consultant for oil companies, and taught classes in micropaleontology to undergraduate and graduate students.[5] He developed one of the finest collections of foraminifera in the world, with 62,000 cataloged slides.[5][3]

He was a lecturer in micropaleontology and a research associate at Harvard University from 1926 to 1940.[2][3][4] Also in 1926, he became a consultant for the U.S. Geological Survey on foraminifera.[3][4] He was chairman of the National Research Council's Commission on Micropaleontology in 1930.[3]

Cushman was a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Science (Zoology and Physiology Division) a fellow in the American Geographical Society, and a fellow and vice president of the Geological Society of America.[3][10] He was president of the Paleontological Society, president of the Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.[3][4]

During his career, Cushman published 554 scholarly papers.[5] In 1925, he established the journal, Contributions from the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research, which published many of his papers.[5] He also edited the Journal of Paleontology from 1927 to 1930.[3] His Foraminifera, Their Classification and Economic Use became a classic and standard textbook with multiple editions.[3]

Legacy[edit]

Cushman bequeathed his collections and library to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.[5]

In 1950, a group of scientists formed the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, Inc."to promote research on foraminifera and allied organisms".[11] Following the tradition and continuing Contributions from the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research which was published by Cushman, the foundation of It publishes the Journal of Foraminiferal Research (previously called Contributions from the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research).[11][5]

Awards and honors[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Cushman married Alice Edna Wilson at her home Steep Brook in Fall River, Massachusetts on October 7, 1903.[6] She was the daughter of James H. Wilson, a coal dealer.[6] After their marriage, they lived in Boston but later moved to Sharon, Massachusetts.[6][2] They had three children, Robert born in 1905, Alice in 1907, and Ruth in 1910.[1] His wife died in January 1912.[1]

In January 1913, Cushman's engagement to Frieda Gerlach Billings of Sharon was announced. and they were married on September 3.[16][17] She was the daughter of physician Frank S. Billings, who was deceased.[17] They lived in a newly built house on Crest Road in Sharon.[17] He was a member of the Roxbury Unitarian Church.[4][17]

In 1949, Cushman died of bladder cancer at his home in Sharon, Massachusetts.[1] He was buried in Great Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.

Select publications[edit]

Books[edit]

  • Foraminifera, Their Classification and Economic Use. Sharon, Massachusetts: Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research, 1928.[18][3]

Monographs[edit]

  • A Monograph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin vol. 71, 1913[19]
  • Some Pliocene and Miocene Foraminifera of the Coastal Plain of the United States. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 646, 1918[20]
  • The Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean Part 1: Astrorhizidae. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin 104, 1918 [21]
  • Foraminifera of the Philippine and Adjacent Seas. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin 100, vol. 4, 1921. ISBN 978-0-598-36912-3[22]
  • The Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean. Part E Textularidae. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin vol. 104, 1922[23]
  • Shallow-water Foraminifera of the Tortugas Region. Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 311, 1922. ISBN 978-0-598-36053-3[24]
  • Samoan Foraminifera. Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication vol. 21, 1924. ISBN 978-0-598-34686-5 – via Google Books.[25]
  • Recent Foraminifera from Off the West Coast of America. Bulletin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Technical Series vol 1, no. 10, pp. 119–188, 1927[26]
  • A Monograph of the Foraminiferal Family Nonionidae. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 191, 1939[27]
  • Geology and Biology of North Atlantic Deep-Sea Cores Between Newfoundland and Ireland U.S, Part 2: Foraminifera. with Lloyd G. Henbest. Geological Survey Professional Paper 196-A, 1940[28]
  • The Foraminifera of the Tropical Pacific Collections of the "Albatross," 1899-1900. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin 161, 1942[29]
  • Upper Cretaceous Foraminifera of the Gulf Coastal Region of the United States and Adjacent Areas. U.S Geological Survey Professional Paper 206. Washington, D.C., 1946.[30]
  • Paleocene Foraminifera of the Gulf Coastal Region of the United States and Adjacent Areas: Descriptions and Illustrations of Smaller Foraminifera from the Gulf Coastal Region, Cuba, Central America, Haiti, and Trinidad. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 232, 1951[31]

Journal articles[edit]

  • "The Desmid Flora of Nantucket." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 32, no. 101 (1905): 549–53[32]
  • "Notes on the Zygospores of Certain New England Desmids with Descriptions of a Few New Forms." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 32, no. 4 (1905): 223–29[33]
  • "Some Desmids from Newfoundland." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 33, no. 12 (1906): 607–15[34]
  • "New England Desmids of the Sub-Family Saccodermae." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 33, no. 6 (1906): 343–51[35]
  • "A Synopsis of the New England Species of Tetmemorus." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 34, no. 12 (1907): 599–601[36]
  • "The New England Species of Closterium." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 35, no. 3 (1908): 109–134[37]
  • "Texas Jackson Foraminifera". with E. R. Applin. AAPG Bulletin 1926, 10, no. 2 (February 1, 1926): 154–189[38]
  • "Phylogenetic Studies of the Foraminifera, Part I", American Journal of Science April 1927, s5-13 (76) 315-326[39]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Henbest, Lloyd G. (July 1952). "Joseph Augustine Cushman and the Contemporary Epoch in Micropaleontology" (PDF). Proceedings Volume of the Geological Society of America (Annual Report for 1951): 95–102. Retrieved 3 February 2016. Open access icon
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Joseph Augustine Cushman | Marine Invertebrates, Mollusks & Fossils". Britannica. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ovey, C. D. (June 1949). "Dr. J. A. Cushman". Nature. 163 (4155): 944. Bibcode:1949Natur.163..944O. doi:10.1038/163944b0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 39386374.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Dr. J. A. Cushman Noted Geologist, Harvard Graduate, in Sharon at 68". The Boston Globe. 1949-04-18. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Joseph A. Cushman". Cushman Foundation. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  6. ^ a b c d "The residence at Steep Brook". Fall River Globe. Fall River, Massachusetts. 1903-10-08. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Joseph Cushman Early Years |". Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  8. ^ "Bachelor of Science". Boston Evening Transcript. June 24, 1903. p. 5. Retrieved July 28, 2023 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Doctorates Conferred by American Universities." Science 30, no. 764 (1909): 225–32. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023.
  10. ^ "List of the Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members (Corrected to October 20, 1922)." Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 57, no. 18 (1922): 534.
  11. ^ a b c d "About". Cushman Foundation. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  12. ^ "Havard Confers Doctor of Law Honor on Cardinal O'Connell". The Meriden Dailey Journal. June 24, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved July 28, 2023 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ "Honorary Fellows Past and Present". Royal Microscopical Society. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  14. ^ "Dorsum Cushman". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. United States Geological Survey. October 18, 2010. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  15. ^ "Excellence in Foraminiferal Research". Cushman Foundation. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  16. ^ "Mrs. Frank S. Billings of Sharon". Boston Evening Transcript. 1913-02-27. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  17. ^ a b c d "Bride of Physician. Miss Frieda G. Billings in Wedded to D.r Joseph A. Cushman at Sharon". The Boston Globe. 1913-09-04. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Cushman, Joseph A. (Joseph Augustine); Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research (1928). Foraminifera; their classification and economic use. MBLWHOI Library. Sharon, Mass. – via Internet Archive.
  19. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1913). A Monograph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean. U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
  20. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1918). Some Pliocene and Miocene Foraminifera of the Coastal Plain of the United States: Papers. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  21. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1918). The Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean ... Government print: Office. ISBN 978-0-598-37116-4.
  22. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1921). Foraminifera of the Philippine and Adjacent Seas. U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-598-36912-3 – via Google Books.
  23. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "The Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean. Part 3 Textularidae". Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin vol. 104, 1922. via Google Books, accessed July 28, 2023.
  24. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1922). Shallow-water Foraminifera of the Tortugas Region. Carnegie Institution. ISBN 978-0-598-36053-3.
  25. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1924). Samoan Foraminifera. Carnegie institution of Washington. ISBN 978-0-598-34686-5 – via Google Books.
  26. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1927). Recent Foraminifera from Off the West Coast of America. University of California Press.
  27. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1939). A Monograph of the Foraminiferal Family Nonionidae. U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
  28. ^ U.S. Geological Survey (1940). Geology and Biology of North Atlantic Deep-sea Cores Between Newfoundland and Ireland: Summary of the report. Foreword. U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
  29. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1942). The Foraminifera of the Tropical Pacific Collections of the "Albatross," 1899-1900. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  30. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1948 – via Google Books.
  31. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1951). Paleocene Foraminifera of the Gulf Coastal Region of the United States and Adjacent Areas: Descriptions and Illustrations of Smaller Foraminifera from the Gulf Coastal Region, Cuba, Central America, Haiti, and Trinidad. U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
  32. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "The Desmid Flora of Nantucket." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 32, no. 10 (1905): 549–53. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023
  33. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "Notes on the Zygospores of Certain New England Desmids with Descriptions of a Few New Forms." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 32, no. 4 (1905): 223–29. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023.
  34. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "Some Desmids from Newfoundland." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 33, no. 12 (1906): 607–15. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023
  35. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "New England Desmids of the Sub-Family Saccodermae." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 33, no. 6 (1906): 343–51. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023;
  36. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "A Synopsis of the New England Species of Tetmemorus." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 34, no. 12 (1907): 599–601. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023.
  37. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine. "The New England Species of Closterium." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 35, no. 3 (1908): 109–34. via JSTOR, accessed July 28, 2023
  38. ^ J. A. Cushman, E. R. Applin; "Texas Jackson Foraminifera". AAPG Bulletin 1926; 10 (2): 154–189. via GeoScienceWorld.
  39. ^ Cushman, Joseph Augustine (1927-04-01). "Phylogenetic studies of the Foraminifera, Part I". American Journal of Science. s5-13 (76): 315–326. Bibcode:1927AmJS...13..315C. doi:10.2475/ajs.s5-13.76.315. ISSN 0002-9599.

External links[edit]

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