His work was generally ignored until the 1920s, though in 1917 Joseph Barrell, a professor of geology at Yale, redrew geological history as it was understood at the time to conform to Holmes's findings in radiometric dating.
O seu traballo foi en xeral ignorado ata a década de 1920, aínda que en 1917 Joseph Barrell, un profesor de xeoloxía en Yale, redeseñou a historia xeolóxica como se entendía daquela para que concordase cos descubrimentos de Holmes sobre datación radiométrica.