Eleanora Knopf

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Eleanora Frances Bliss Knopf
1928 US Geological Survey ID Portrait
Born
Eleanora Frances Bliss

(1883-07-15)July 15, 1883
Rosemont, Pennsylvania
DiedJanuary 21, 1974(1974-01-21) (aged 90)
Menlo Park, California
OccupationGeologist

Eleanora Frances Knopf (

Appalachians during the first two decades of the twentieth century. She studied at Bryn Mawr College, and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry, a master's degree in geology, and a Ph.D. in geology in 1912. She was the first American geologist to use the new technique of petrography which she pioneered in her life's work - the study of Stissing Mountain.[1]

Early life

Eleanora Frances Bliss was born in Rosemont, Pennsylvania on July 15, 1883. Her father was General Tasker Howard Bliss — a career soldier who became Chief of Staff of the US Army during the First World War as well as a principal representative of the United States in the Allied Councils. Her mother was Eleanora Emma (Anderson) Bliss. Both sides of the family could trace their ancestry to settlers from England.[2] The Bliss family home was located near crystalline rocks which she later studied.[3] She married geologist Adolph Knopf, in 1920. They did not have children of their own, but she became a stepmother to his three children, who were already of school age at the time.[4][3]

Education

She received her early education from Florence Baldwin School.

Yale University for her accomplishments, she still extended her knowledge to others who specialized in Geology, especially the study of metamorphic rocks, and had started the Geology department at Florence Baldwin School.[6] Knopf completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies under Bascom. Eleanora worked as a demonstrator in the geology lab at Bryn Mawr as well as an assistant curator in the Geological Museum at the college (1904 -1909). After two years at Berkeley (1910-1911), she returned to Bryn Mawr to work with Anna Jonas Stose (another one of Bascom's students), on the study of the metamorphic rocks near the college. Stose and Bliss had followed Bascom into the study of petrology.[3] They presented their dissertation together and received doctorates in 1912.[4] They collaborated on multiple papers, and went on to publish the most notable ones, such as one relating to the structure of metamorphic rocks called Schists, and another regarding the geology of McCalls Ferry. She later went on to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in geology at Johns Hopkins University (1917-1918).[7] Eleanora was among 28 women who were elected for a fellowship, she was elected in 1919.[8]

Career

Her father, General Tasker Bliss, about 1918.

Shortly after receiving a Ph.D. in geology from Bryn Mawr and passing the

Appalachians during the twentieth century. Though she was primarily a petrologist, she made astute observations concerning inequalities in erosion in catchments and hence the survival of palaeoforms in the landscape. [12] Although these observations were opposed to one of primary principles of geomorphology at the time, Knopf implied that remnant landforms should still survive for an extended period due to unequal erosion. As a result of her research, her findings in elation to deformation and the visual effects of the rock formations lead to the creation a new division of Geological study.[13] In 1951, she joined Stanford University in geology department as a research associate.[14]

She continued to study the Stissing Mountain rocks until her retirement in 1955 but also made some expeditions to the Rocky Mountains.

Later years

After retiring Eleanora Knopf moved out to the Rocky Mountains with her husband (Adolph Knopf) to aid him with his studies, after his death in 1966 she devoted herself to completing his research regarding the Boulder Batholith but health complications arose for her.[3] She died in 1974 from arteriosclerosis in Menlo Park, California, at the age of 90.[15]

References

  1. ^ Oakes 2007, p. 408.
  2. ^ Aldrich 1980, p. 401.
  3. ^ a b c d e Rodgers, John (February 1977). "Memorial to Eleanora Bliss Knopf" (PDF).
  4. ^ a b c Aldrich 1980, p. 402.
  5. ^ a b Pennsylvania Conservation Heritage Project (2018). "Eleanora Frances Bliss Knopf".
  6. ^ Rodgers, John (1977). "Memorial to Eleanora Bliss Knopf" (PDF).
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-674-62733-8
    .
  8. ^ Eckel, Edwin (1982). The Geological Society of America: Life History of a Learned Society, Issue 155. Boulder, Colorado: The Geological Society of America. pp. 37–38.
  9. ^ Commire 2007, p. 1044.
  10. ^ Helcon (2018). "Knopf, Eleanora Frances".
  11. ^ Helicon (2018). "Knopf, Eleanora Frances".
  12. ^ Bourne 2008, p. 131.
  13. ^ Rodgers, John (1977). "Memorial to Eleanora Bliss Knopf" (PDF).
  14. ^ Bourne, Jennifer A. (2008). "Eleanora Bliss Knopf and unequal erosion".
  15. ^ Aldrich 1980, p. 403.

Bibliography

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