Bassler, Raymond Smith

Bassler, Raymond Smith

(b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 July 1878; d. Washington, D.C., 31 October 1961),

paleontology.

In his presidential address to the Paleontological Society in 1933, Bassler lamented the passing of an era when training was acquired more in the field than in the classroom: The modern student, attaining maturity before deciding on paleontology as his lifework, loses precious years of interest and experience. As a youth, Bassler had himself spent many hours collecting marine fossils in the dusty Ordovician outcrops near his Cincinnati home, and had worked after high school every day as technical assistant to E. O. Ulrich.

Bassler’s close association with Ulrich lasted well beyond his high-school days. When the elder scientist moved to Washington, the younger withdrew from the University of Cincinnati and followed him. Ulrich’s influence colored his entire career. He adopted Ulrich’s methods and approaches to problems, his interest in paleontology, and his passion for collections and catalogs.

Bassler did graduate work at George Washington University, taking the M.S. and Ph.D., and during this time was employed by the United States National Museum. He was affiliated with these two institutions for nearly four decades.

A world authority on Silurian and Ordovician Bryozoa, Bassler assembled an outstanding collection of these fossils, now at the Smithsonian Institution. He also published valuable bibliographic indexes relating to them: “Bibliographical Index of American Ordovician and Silurian Fossils” (1915), “Early Bryozoa of the Baltic Provinces” (1911), and “Synopsis of American Fossil Bryozoa” (1900). His study of other phyla resulted in the compilation of the Bibliographic Index of Paleozoic Ostracoda (1934) and Bibliographic and Faunal Index of Paleozoic Echinoderms (1943), as well as shorter papers on tetra corals, Cystoidea, and conodonts.

In the 1933 presidential address, Bassler advocated the classical geological practice of retouching photographs of specimens, a position that has led modern paleontologists to characterize his work as “enthusiastic.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Bassler’s writings include “A Synopsis of American Fossil Bryozoa,” in Bulletin of the U.S. Geological Survey, no. 173 (1900), 9–663, written with J. M. Nickles; “A Revision of Paleozoic Bryozoa,” in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 45 (1904), 256–296; 47 (1904), 15–45, written with Ulrich; “The Early Bryozoa of the Baltic Provinces,” in Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum, 77 (1911), 1–382; “Bibliogarphical Index of American Ordovician and Silurian Fossils,” ibid., 92 (1915), 1–1521 (in 2 vols.); “Development of Invertebrate Paleontology in America,” in Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 44 (1933), 265–286; Bibliographic Index of Paleozoic Ostracoda, Geological Society of America, special paper no. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1934); and Bibliographic and Faunal Index of Paleozoic Echinoderms, Geological Society of America, special paper no. 45 (Washington, D.C., 1943).

II. Secondary Literature. Articles on Bassler are Kenneth Caster, “Memorial to Raymond S. Bassler,” in Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 76 , no. 11 (1965), 167–173; and National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XLIX (1966), 482.

Martha B. Kendall