Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Department of. Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Department of. Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Department of. Instruction in geology was first offered from 1818 to 1822 by the Professor of Experimental Philosophy, Chemistry, and Natural History, Jacob Green, who gave courses in paleontology. Thereafter instruction in this area lapsed until 1855 when Arnold Guyot, a colleague of Louis Agassiz at Neuchatel, Switzerland, arrived in Princeton to begin what has become the present department.
Continuous instruction has been given in geology or, more broadly, the earth sciences ever since.
Until 1873 Guyot was the sole faculty member in geology and physical geography. During the next ten years four men came to Princeton to offer instruction and carry on research in the general field of geology. Henry B. Cornwall, a chemist, taught mineralogy. William Berryman Scott 1877 arrived with Libbey in 1880 and began his long career in vertebrate paleontology. His classmate, Henry Fairfield Osborn, was in the section of biology.