Luminaries of the Albany Era: Beecher, Schuchert, and Hall

James Hall of Albany, Director of the New York State Museum from 1866 until his death at 86 in 1897 was the most noted American geologist and paleontologist of his time. He originated the geosynclinal concept of mountain-building and ideas of gravity-mass-movement. He became the 19th century's most productive paleontologist by dint of unsparing drive, coupled with high ability and the talent and labors of six unusual "personal assistants".

Among the latter were two gifted and dedicated Charleses, Beecher and Schuchert, who later established invertebrate paleontology at Yale and made it the North American mecca of the field for many years. Beecher, comfortably raised, well educated, biologically focussed, tragically short-lived, preceded his close friend and successor in Hall's employ, Schuchert, son of an impoverished immigrant cabinet maker, with only a primary school education, was geologically inclined, and long-lived. Coming to New Haven as he did, after 10 years of experience with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, as well as his time in Albany, Schuchert provided the ideal complement to Beecher. Both were fine collectors, preparators, and illustrators as well as first rate scientists. Both became renowned scientists in their time. And both enriched the global scientific heritage with their publications.

The Albany School was clearly the place to launch a career in paleontology during the last half of the 19th century. The subsequent lives of Beecher and Schuchert testify to that.