IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
27 
CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE. 
BY L. H. PARINIMEL. 
SAMUEL CALVIN AND J. E. TODD. 
Two charter members of the Academy, Dr. Samuel Calvin and Professor J. E. 
Todd, were primarily geologists, both, however, had such good training in the 
old natural history courses given in our colleges forty and fifty years ago, that 
they became all-round naturalists. In the early days of teaching science in 
Iowa, when they did their pioneer worK, they had the whole range of scientific 
instruction along the ' lines of natural history and natural science. In late 
years Dr. Calvin was primarily a geologist, never, however, losing interest in 
natural history. Several biographical sketches of the late Dr. Calvin have 
been published, as that by Dr. G. P. Kay.* 
Of all the complimentary notices I have seen of Dr. Calvin, the tribute paid 
to him by Dr. Jordan in his retiring address as president of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Minneapolis meeting, when 
he placed him in such company as Drs. Gray, Cope, and others who at the 
Dubuque meeting of this Association were live wires in that meeting, was 
perhaps the highest praise. 
Samuel Calvin was born in Wigontshire, Scotland, Feb. 2, 1840; emigrated 
to America in an early day and settled in Iowa at the age of 14; received his 
college education in Lenox College; enlisted in the army where he saw service 
for a few months; became science teacher in Lenox College, later principal of 
a ward school in Dubuque, serving for seven years. He was elected professor 
of Natural Science in the University of Iowa in 1874 and continued to serve 
the University as an inspiring teacher and investigator until the close of his 
career. In the early days of his university work he was not only geologist, 
but botanist, zoologist and physiologist. This, no doubt, helped to give him 
that broad training so essential in his paleontological work. His contributions 
to geology have been numerous as the many splendid volumes of the Iowa 
Geological Survey show. His knowledge of Pleistocene Geology was perhaps 
unequalled by any of his contemporaries in the United States. Up until the 
very last he was an interested student in these problems, his last great con- 
tribution being on the Aftonian Mammalian Fauna and was characteristically 
thorough and painstaking. He was always concise and able to express himself 
in good English. 
In glancing through the volumes of the Iowa Academy of Science I find 
that Dr. Calvin did not contribute many papers to the Academy reports. Of 
those contributed I may mention the following: A Notable Ride (7:72); The 
State Quarry Limestone (4:160); The LeClair Limestone (3:52); the Buchanan 
Gravels, an Interglacial Deposit in Buchanan County, Iowa, (3:58); Maquoketa 
*G. F. Kay, Science. N. S. ■S// :106. 
