Carrie Adeline Barbour (October 1, 1861 – June 9, 1942) was an American paleontologist and educator. As an assistant curator of paleontology at the

University of Nebraska State Museum The University of Nebraska State Museum, also known as Morrill Hall, founded in 1871, is a natural history museum featuring Nebraska biodiversity, paleontology, and cultural diversity, located on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln City Campus n ...

and an Assistant Professor of Paleontology, Barbour was among the earliest women paleontologists in the United States.

Early life

One of Adeline (Hinkley) and Samuel Williamson Barbour's five children, Carrie Adeline Barbour was born in Springfield, Posey County, Indiana, on October 1, 1861, five years after her brother, Erwin H. Barbour. She grew up near

Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion ...

, and, as a child, became interested in art and science while sketching and collecting items for her mother's herbarium. Carrie Barbour studied at Oxford Female College from 1886 to 1887, but the ''Oxford Female College Bulletin'' does not indicate she attended or graduated as a college-level student.

Career

After college, Barbour taught wood carving and china painting at Iowa College in

Grinnell, Iowa Grinnell ( ) is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,564 at the time of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. It is best known for being the home of Grinnell College, as well as being the location of the ...

. In 1891, her brother

Erwin Hinckley Barbour Erwin Hinckley Barbour (April 5, 1856 – May 10, 1947) was an American geologist and paleontologist. He was born near Oxford, Ohio, and was educated at Miami University and at Yale, where he graduated in 1882. He was assistant paleontologist to ...

became a

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

professor at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

; he was also appointed the

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the

. Edwin asked his sister to help with fieldwork to collect specimens for the museum. In 1892, she moved to the Department of Art at the University of Nebraska. Although

wood carving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculpture, ...

and art remained an interest throughout her life, Barbour's career shifted to focus on

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

under her brother's guidance. In 1893, she continued to teach china painting for the art department and became assistant curator of paleontology at the University of Nebraska State Museum, a position she held for 48 years. She may have been the first woman employed and paid as a paleontologist in the United States Barbour participated in the fieldwork. However, she excelled at preparing both vertebrate and invertebrate fossils back at the museum. At the seventh annual meeting of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences in December 1896, she presented the paper, "Some Methods of Collecting, Preserving, and Studying Fossils," which offered approaches for handling disintegrated specimens Barbour was among the six members of the sixth annual Morrill Geological Expedition in 1897, coordinated by the University of Nebraska and the Nebraska Geological Survey. That year, the expedition focused on sites in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

, western Nebraska, and Wyoming and included work in Nebraska's Daemonelix beds, the Bad Lands, and the

Black Hills The Black Hills is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to , is the range's highest summit. The name of the range ...

regions. During the 1899 Morrill expedition, she led assistants collecting invertebrate fossils in

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

exposures. Barbour and an assistant collected over 20,000 specimens that summer. Following the expedition, some of the duplicate specimens collected were donated to 40 institutions across the country. In 1912, she was appointed as assistant professor of paleontology at the University of Nebraska, working in this position for 25 years. She was a member of the

Nebraska Academy of Sciences Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sou ...

Personal life

Barbour died on June 9, 1942, at her brother Edwin's home in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is buried in

Wyuka Cemetery Wyuka Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1890, Lincoln's Bnai Jeshurun Congregation, a Reform congregation, began using a section of Wyuka. History Wyuka Cemetery was established in Lincoln, Nebraska, by an act of the ...

in Lincoln.

Published works

* Barbour, Carrie Adeline. “Some Methods of Collecting, Preserving, and Studying Fossils,” ''Nebraska Academy of Sciences'', December 30, 1896. * —“Observations on the Concretions of the Pierre Shale,” ''Proceedings, 1897-1900.'' * —
Report on the Work of the Morrill Geological Expeditions of the University of Nebraska
(June 1900). ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'', New Series, vol. 11, no. 283. (June 1900): 856-858.

References

External links

Erwin H. Barbour Collection
at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

Photographs in the Erwin H. Barbour Collection
at the