For the #printerSolstice2425 prompt silicon my #linocut of brilliant trailblazing US #geologist & prof Florence Bascom (1862-1945) who championed women’s education, & used polarizing microscopes for detailed petrographic analysis to show that rocks previously identified as sedimentary were in fact metamorphosed volcanic rocks she called aporhyolite (implying a change in rhyolite, a silica rich igneous rock, as in her 
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thin sections like the ones in my print). Unusually for the time, she was encouraged to pursue university education by her father John, the U Wisconsin president who opened the school to women, & mother, suffragette & women’s rights activist Emma Curtiss Bascom.The 2nd US woman to get a #geology PhD, she had a BA, Bsc & MSc from Wisconsin & glowing letters of recommendation but still had to fight John Hopkins & its founder Gilman who opposed coeducation to admit her, their 1st woman, 2/n
to the doctoral program. She was unhelpfully limited in her library & classroom access to shield her from the “rougher influences” of the young men; in her isolation she decided to focus on #petrology. Her thesis “A Contribution to the Geology of South Mountain, Pennsylvania” is regarded as a major contribution to Appalachian geology & she published it in the 1st volume of the Journal of Geology in 1893. She furthered understanding of the east coast of the US & redefined the recognized 3/n
cycles of erosion in Pennsylvania. She founded the Geology Department at Bryn Mawr in 1895, establishing their mineral collection & becoming a full prof in 1906. A tough but innovative & devoted mentor she trained the next generation of women in geology. She was the 1st woman: hired by the USGS in 1896; elected to the Geological Society of America in 1924; & elected VP of the GSA in 1930. 4/5
She was associate editor of the American Geologist, 1896-1905. In 1906 she was added to the list of 100 most influential geologists by Men in Science, selected by her peers.
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