MEMORIAL OF O. K. GILBERT 27 



Gilbert's bibliography contains about 400 titles, many of them, of 

 course, abstracts, reviews, administrative reports, and other brief miscel- 

 laneous papers, over 100 being contributions to popular encyclopedias; 

 but there are a dozen or more master papers which represent distinct 

 advances in tlie principles or the philosophy of our science. AVe get 

 some conception of the range of Gilbert's mind by a mere random recital 

 of a few of the topics upon which he has written : 



Archeology Glaciation Paleontology 



Bibliography Graphics IMctographs 



Biography Ground w^aters Physiography 



Chess Hypsometry The soaring of birds 



Correlation problems Intrusion Simplified spelling 



Earth origin Isostasy Surveying 



Erosion Meteorology Topography, 



Exploration Nomenclature both lunar and terrestrial 

 Geologic time 



John Gilbert, Jr., accompanied by his wife and his sons Thomas, 

 John, and Giles settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630. He was 

 followed later by an older son, Jonathan B. Gilbert, from whom Grove 

 Karl Gilbert is descended. 



G. K. Gilbert's great-grandfather served through the Revolutionary 

 War as quartermaster and as captain of a troop of light horse. His 

 grandfather, John Gilbert, was born in Xew Hartford, Connecticut, but 

 moved to Xew York and became a tool-maker in Clinton and Le Roy. 

 In Clinton, Grove Sheldon Gilbert, father of G. K., was born on 

 August 5, 1805. He married Eliza Stanley on November 30, 1826. 

 Of him his daughter, Emma Gilbert Loomis, writes: 



"He was a portrait painter and painted in Rochester for over 50 years. 

 Charles Elliott once said of him that he painted the best head in America. 

 He was a man of remnrkable character and varied attainments. In his work 

 he strove earnestly and always to attain an ideal — that of a fine picture — but 

 was never satisfied. Fame and success appeared to be within reach, but were 

 never reached, for 'the picture was the goal.' " 



Here, at Rochester, Grove Karl, the youngest of three children, was 

 born, on ^lay 6, 1843. The family had little means and lived in a 

 small house called the "XutshelF' — a name under which it is frequently 

 referred to in the Gilbert journals. 



Karl, as the lad was called in the family and among his playmates, 

 appears to have passed a normal, busy, and studious boyhood. Many 

 years later, when asked by his own son as to what he did when a boy, 



