Mary Welleck Garretson

Personal life

Mary was born on December 16, 1896 in Cincinnati, Ohio where she spent the majority of her childhood. She attended grade school at the Girls Latin School in Boston from 1909 - 1914. After graduating from grade school, she attended Bernard College in New York where she studies a wide diversity of subject, mostly related to the sciences, and earned an A.B. in 1918. While attending Bernard college, she studies under professor Amadeus W. Grabau, who she then later went on to do multiple research papers with at Columbia University. While working and studying at Columbia, Mary met her husband, William Melvin Garretson and got married on September 27, 1922. She has two children, Mary Louise Garretson and William Welleck Garretson.

Life in Geology and Science

While working on her graduate studies at Columbia University, Mary found a job as a teacher at the Young Men's Christian Association. In her first teaching job, Mary taught her students an Introduction to Geology course from 1921 to 1923. During her teaching job, she also became an assistant at the Brooklyn Children's Museum where her contributions were made throughout 1920. While continuing teaching, Mrs. Garretson began her consulting work in the field of geology during World War Two. She was hired by airline and industrial companies from 1946 to 1951, where she studied and wrote about the geological characteristics of many areas to help these companies thrive. One of these articles was published in the New York Times and was about the geological characteristics of New York City. After finishing her consulting roles, Mary returned to her teaching jobs and eventually become the Vice President of the Haitian- American Resource Company from 1956 to the time of her death. She made tremendous contributions to the Haitian government by consulting and advising on mineral economics, and the development of geological studies and developments in Haiti.

In 1966, Mrs. Garretson's contributions to geology were recognized and she became a member of The Geological Society of America, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, the International Society of Economic Geologists, the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of China, the New York Historical Society, and became a founder of the Westchester County Conservation Association and was on the board of Directors from 1933 to 1950.

Perhaps Mrs. Garretson's greatest achievement was her contribution and aid to the works of Professor Grabau, one of her early professors at Columbia. Mary is referenced in Grabau's Introduction to Geology textbook, and says that she "has been my assistant throughout the arrangement of this text for the press, and has been of the greatest service in securing illustrations.” Professor Grabau and Mrs. Garretson's research was instrumental in the studies and knowledge of sedimentation. With Garretson's help, Grabau went on to write papers about his findings on North American index fossils. Grabau attempted to collect fossil evidence that could link North American fossils to fossils around the world in hopes of reaffirming his idea of a Paleozoic Pangaea.

North American Index Fossils

Grabau and Garretson believed in and studied the theory of horizontal displacement, and was considered to be a mobilist. The theory of horizontal displacement was first proposed by Alfred Wegner in 1912 and, due to popular belief at that time, was not widely accepted, especially in North America and Europe. The theory starting gaining traction when the model of plate tectonics and continental drift were first introduced. With these models in place, geologists began searching for fossil evidence that could prove that organisms, that can be found all over the globe now, once existed in the same location. Professor Grabau and Mrs. Garretson were among the scientist who took interest to Wegner's claim, and began looking for fossil evidence in North America. During her tenure at Columbia University, Mrs. Garretson assisted Professor Grabau in his book titled "North American Index Fossils." The goal of this paper was to study the various index fossils found in North America and try to compile evidence that supported the theory that a single, great continent was existed on Earth called Pangaea. The book goes into tremendous detail regarding information on each class of fossils found, and each class having its separate structural descriptions and general description of key characteristics tying it to a family, or, genus. A few examples of evidence from Grabau's book are provided:

Glossopteris

Glossopteris is a genus of extinct seed fern that is found throughout India, South America, Central America, Southern Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. This extinct plant is one of the focuses of study in the book and is thought to have existed during the Jurassic area, which is presumably when the Pangaea era ended. The plant existed before and after the supposed creation of Pangaea, yet its fossil evidence can be found all over the modern day Earth, which provides great evidence towards the drift theory. Because of its remains being found around the globe, this species of plant provides evidence of what are known as Isthmian links, or land bridges that connected all the continents together during the Pangaea era (a modern example of an isthmian link is Mexico, located in Central America).

Mesosaurus

Mesosaurus is another highlighted index fossil featured in the book. The Mesosaurus is thought to be one of the first aquatic reptiles, though it had also adapted to live on land at one point. Mesosaurus' fossils can be found in South Africa and South America, and is believed to have gone extinct during the Permian era. This is interesting because the Permian era ended millions of years before Pangaea broke apart during the Jurassic period. So this life form went extinct all in the same general location, yet its current fossils can be found on opposite sides of the ocean.

These two examples are just a few of many index fossils analysed by Grabau and Garretson that provide further evidence that Pangaea could have existed millions of years ago.

Early Permian Fossils of China

In the early 1930s, Professor Grabau moved to China to study the continental stratigraphy and index fossils the country possessed. During his study in China, Mrs. Garretson was his representative in the United States, and served as his research assistant. Grabau searched for further for evidence of the ancient super continent and informed Mrs. Garrestson of his research, who then graciously reported his findings to several Geology groups and faculties in North America. Mrs. Garretson assisted, and was referenced in, all of Professor Grabau's Chinese research papers until his eventual death, including: