Rudolf Ruedemann: Inheritor of James Hall's Graptolite Legacy

James Hall's (1865) Graptolites of the Quebec Group was cited by O. M. B. Bulman as "the first work of real insight" in the study of graptolites. In that work. Hall established standards of excellence in graptolite descriptions and illustrations that future students of graptolites had to match or surpass. Hall also suggested possible phyletic relationships among graptolites and a potential mode of life for them. As well, he reviewed their stratigraphic and geographic distributions. During his career, Hall amassed a large collection of New York graptolites. Only near the end of his career did a person emerge with the seeming skills and insights who could carry out a study of Hall's New York graptolite collection in a style that could match Hall's work with the Quebec Group graptolites. That person was Rudolf Ruedemann. Ruedemann, though he had little contact with Hall, inherited Hall's legacy. That legacy was detailed, precise illustrations and descriptions of graptolites as well as analyses of their relationships, modes of life, and distributions in space and time. Ruedemann carried out that task inherited from Hall, publishing two monographs on New York graptolites. Ruedemann went on in his own career to demonstrate the usefulness of graptolites in solving geologic problems and to document the usefulness of geologic mapping in establishing stratigraphic and geographic distribution patterns among fossils.