Florence Bascom (1862-1945) was a pioneer in expanding career opportunities for women in the sciences. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in geology from an American university, the first female to receive a Ph.D. of any kind from the Johns Hopkins University (1893), and the first woman to join the United States Geological Survey (1896). Bascom was a widely known and respected geologist whose work mapping the crystalline rock formations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland became the basis for many later studies of the area.

Bascom was born on July 14, 1862, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. This town was the home of prestigious Williams College, where her father, Dr. John Bascom was professor of oratory and rhetoric. Both Professor Bascom and his wife Emma (Curtiss) Bascom actively supported women's rights and had strong interests in the natural sciences. In 1874, John Bascom accepted the presidency of the University...