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ROCK STARS
The Lady and Her Fossils:

Katherine Van Winkle Palmer (1895–1982)

William R. Brice, professor emeritus, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, wbrice@pitt.edu

Charles E. Weaver (1880–1958), a well-known expert on Paleogene
fossils. She graduated with her B.S. in 1918 and published her senior
thesis on age determinants within faunal provinces that same year .
2
The fieldwork she did in 1916–1917 for the thesis was “... by means
of a compass and tape traverse…” up and down several creeks. This
first paper, which was almost 30 printed pages, plus plates, proved
to be the first of many long publications devoted to paleontology.
After briefly working as a post-graduate laboratory assistant to
Dr. Weaver, and upon his recommendation, Katherine applied for
and received a Goldwyn Smith Fellowship (1918–1920) to do grad-
uate work at Cornell University with the east coast Paleogene
expert, Gilbert D. Harris (1864–1952) . Later (1921–1925), she
3
received an assistantship in paleontology and historical geology to
continue her work with Professor Harris.
LIFE AS A CORNELL STUDENT
Because Gilbert Harris was an expert in Katherine’s chosen field
Katherine Van Winkle Palmer, ca. 1940. of Paleogene paleontology, it was natural that she would be working
(Courtesy of the Paleontological Research Institution [PRI].) with the east coast expert. But there was another reason she was to
become a student of G.D. Harris at Cornell, for, at that time, he was
After God made Katherine, he broke the mould. —Gilbert D. Harris. the only professor in the geology department who would accept
women as students (Brice, 1996). Katherine received her Ph.D. in
INTRODUCTION paleontology in 1925, but not before she had to set the type, make
Katherine Evangeline Hilton Van Winkle was born in the plates, and then print her thesis on Professor Harris’s own print-
Washington State on 5 February 1895, the only child of Jacob ing press. Not many paleontologists have done that.
Outwater Van Winkle, a doctor, and Mary Edith Hilton Van A legacy of her student days at Cornell University is the organi-
Winkle, a nurse. Katherine grew up in the small town of Oakville, zation Sigma Delta Epsilon , which was founded at Cornell in
4
southwest of Tacoma, and not too far from Olympia. She and her 1921. At the time, it was the only national organization for women
father, a local physician, had a very close bond, and it was he who in science, and Katherine was one of the founders and later served
introduced her to nature and the out-of-doors. No doubt given the as national president.
proximity of their home to outcrops of the Tertiary-age Cowlitz Katherine had intended to return to Washington State and resume
1
Formation, she and her father had fun collecting fossil mollusks, her work with Dr. Weaver, but those plans changed. She had fallen
and it was on these trips that she developed her love of science and in love with the Ithaca region and with a Cornell professor of rural
her fascination with fossils. As she said later in life, “I knew fossils education, Ephraim Laurence Palmer (1888–1970) . They were mar-
5
as a child, so by the time I went to the University of Washington I ried in 1921 while she was still a graduate student. The couple had
knew I wanted to study geology” (Allmon, 2007, p. 31). As a young two children: Laurence Van Winkle Palmer, born in 1923, and
girl, she attended the local schools, and she was the only girl in her Richard Robin Palmer, born in 1930. However, tragedy stuck the
class to go to college. family when Laurence, “Punky” as he was known, was stricken
It was at the University of Washington that Katherine started her with a Streptococcus infection at age 4, which left him with severe
formal work in paleontology under the watchful eye of Professor arthritis and eventually took his life at the age of 17.

1 Although this was the proper terminology for this part of geologic time when Katherine was growing up, this has since been redefined as the Paleogene. To keep with
current terminology, the term Paleogene will be used in place of Tertiary in the rest of the paper.
2 For a complete bibliography for Katherine Palmer, see Caster (1983, p. 1142–1144).

3 For details of Harris’s life see Brice (1996).
4 The formal founding name was Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women’s Scientific Fraternity. It is now known as Graduate Women in Science.

5 For details of Dr. E. Laurence Palmer’s life and work, see Pruitt (1963).

20 GSA Today | August 2020