Colonel Lucien Beckner - Geologist & Museum Curator

 

Lucien Pearson Beckner (1872-1963) Firefly Gemini AI enhanced

Lucien Pearson Beckner was a figure that played a part in the formation of Louisville's knowledge of it's natural history. He lived a full life and his career spanned many directions: journalist, author, lawyer, geologist, engineer, writer, historian, and curator.

He was born in Winchester, Kentucky on December 29, 1872, the son of Judge W. M. Beckner (lawyer, ran Clark County Democrat newspaper, congressman) and Elizabeth Anne Taliaferro Beckner. Young Lucien attended the Louisville Military Academy. When he was 17 years old, he traveled to Naples Florida and collected a number of shells that are now in the possession of the author. Two of the shells have been blogged about before Oliva sayana and Fulguropsis pyruloides.

Later he went to Centre College, the University of Kentucky, Transylvania College and the University of Pennsylvania.

Lucien helped his father with publishing the newspaper. As a civil engineer he helped lay out the tracks in the City of Ashland and Lexington and eastern branch of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Later in 1903, he used this railroad expertise and went to Ecuador to help that country with its railroads.

He eloped with Marie Davis Warren (1875-1950) on August 14, 1894 in New Albany, Indiana at the residence of Reverand W. B. Ellis. The  Kentucky Advocate newspaper in their notice reported that Lucien ("Choctaw") has job in Frankfort, Kentucky paying $1,200 a year. A first daughter was born Jean Warren Beckner on April 3, 1896 and tragically died of meningitis on September 17, 1898. Their second daughter was born Elizabeth Taliaferro Beckner (1897-1967) on November 17, 1897 and the third Marie Warren Beckner Kittrell (1904-2001) was born October 25, 1904.

Beckner practiced law in Winchester, Kentucky with father from 1904-1922 and published and edited newspapers The Winchester Sun and The Clark County Republican. He sold the papers and returned to being a geologist during the Kentucky oil boom of 1916.

During the 1917 Spanish flu outbreak, he helped administer medical treatments to residents of eastern Kentucky. His World War I draft registration showed that he was a consulting geologist as his occupation. He was an assistant at the Kentucky Geological Survey and consulting geologist for Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E).

Beckner earned the title of colonel from multiple sources. 1) Kentucky Governor Edwin P. Morrow (1877-1935) commissioned him into the Kentucky Militia, he was give the honorary commission by Tennessee Governor Austin Peay (1876-1927) [a former classmate at Centre College], and in 1903 from the Government of Ecuador.

In 1933, Lucien was named curator of Louisville Museum of Natural History and Science and remained at that position till 1959. A major challenge during this time was dealing with the Ohio River flood in 1937. One of the highlights of the museum collection was Gerard Troost (1776-1850) mineral collection from 1811-1850. It was heavily damaged by the flood and a lot of mineral specimens lost their labels. With a Work Projects Administration (WPA) crew, they cleaned and re-identified the museum's 100,000 items. This work included baking the Egyptian mummy in a bread oven to dry it out. He oversaw the move of the museum from the main public library building (Fourth and York Streets) to the old Monsarrat school building (Sixth and York Streets).

The Filson Club 

He published a number of articles in the The Filson Club Quarterly:

April 1927 - John Findley, The First Pathfinder of Kentucky

January 1928 - A Sketch of the Early Adventures of William Sudduth in Kentucky

October 1928 - Letter from George Washington to Charles Morgan, 1795

April 1931 - John D. Shane's Interview with Benjamin Allen, Clark County 

October 1932 - Eskippakithiki, The Last Indian Town in Kentucky

July 1936 - Rev. John D. Shane's Notes on Interviews, in 1844, with Mrs. Hinds and Patrick Scott of Bourbon County

October 1937 - John D. Shane's Interview with Elijah Foley

July 1938 - John D. Shane's Notes on an Interview with Jeptha Kemper of Montgomery County

January 1946 - John D. Shane's Interview with Jesse Graddy of Woodford County

October 1946 - Groping for Health in the Mammoth Cave

April 1947 - Scientist (R.C. Ballard Thruston Issue)

October 1948 - John D. Shane's Copy of Needham Parry's Diary of Trip Westward in 1794

January 1952 - Kentucky's Glamorous Shorthorn Age

July 1955 - The Moundbuilders

April 1959 - Abraham Lincoln, Influences That Produced Him

Beckner was a director at the Kentucky Historical Society, elected president of the Kentucky Academy of Science, a representative of the American Geophysical Union, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Death

Aged 90, Colonel Beckner died on Wednesday August 28, 1963 at 5 p.m. at a Louisville, Kentucky nursing home. He had broken some bones the year before and never really recovered from that injury. At his funeral the Reverand Conrad G. Crow gave this tribute, "We in the city of Louisville possess a museum because of his devotion and labor... His range of interests was so wide, his conversations so gripping that those who heard him could not but be impressed by his scholarship. But he possessed something more: that intangible spark which fired the enthusiasm of his hearers and influenced many young people to take up their life work. " He was buried with other family members in the Winchester, Kentucky cemetery.

Memories of Colonel Beckner by Dr. James Conkin

James Conkin writes in his autobiography, "When I was a senior at Louisville Male High School in early 1940... I spent (after school) the remainder of most days studying fossils and rocks under Col. Lucien Pearson Beckner at the old Natural History Museum."  He writes later in the endnotes, ""As Director of the Louisville Free Public Library Museum, Col. Beckner led me, from a junior high school student until his death (at 90) along with my geologic studies, it mattering not whether he was physically with me. I still sense his presence. I was able to nominate him for his Doctor of Science given him by the University of Louisville."

Dated October 28, 1948, James published his first paper in the Annals of Kentucky Natural History entitled On the Occurance of a New Species of Cyrtodonta from the Liberty Formation of Oldham County, Kentucky in which he named a pelecypod fossil after Lucien Beckner calling it Cyrtodonta beckneri.

 

In Dr. Conkin's house in Louisville, he had a fireplace constructed consisting of a number of fossils. One of Lucien Beckner's fossils that was embedded there was what appears to be an Evactinopora quinqueradiata (Ulrich, 1890) byrozoan (its cross section looks like a starfish).

Musician Delcy Marcum

His daughter Elizabeth Anne Taliaferro Beckner (1897-1967) became a regional celebrity musician under the name Delcy Marcum. Like her father, she had quite a variety in her career who was a Kentucky State Board of Health medical technician, song writer, radio actress, ballad singer, dulcimer player, and writer of short stories, professional comedy skits, and newspaper features. Two of her father's poems "Spring Fever" and "Vine Leaves Serenade" she converted to songs. She wrote two more songs "One Kiss Devine" played by Wayne King and his orchestra and "Louisville Stomp" performed by Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra. She sang mountain ballads and played the dulcimer on Cincinnati and Chicago radio programs mostly in the 1930s and 1940s.

Troost's Unpublished Manuscript and the Actinocrinus Crinoid

Recently, I purchased a book containing the Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin 64 A Critical Summary of Troost's Unpublished Manuscript on the Crinoids of Tennessee by Elvira Wood, a graduate student at Columbia University, New York City 1909. Even though PDF scan copies can be found on the Internet, I wanted the original printed plates to make images from. Also, the book has given me an opportunity to learn more about the characters from America's invertebrate paleontology "golden age". I hope to document more on this blog about the paleontologist Dr. Elvira Wood and material from Bulletin 64.

The above image is a drawing of a reconstructed fossil of an Actinocrinus magnificus Wachsmuth and Springer 1897. It is specimen PAL 39900 and still shows up in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History database. Elvira Wood notes "The calyx plates are sufficiently preserved to show their number and arrangement as represented, but the arms are not preserved." The image was a reconstructed from Troost's fossil by Adolphus Heiman (1809-1862), his architect friend in Nashville. Colonel Heiman later died in the American Civil War soon after being released as a Confederate prisoner at Fort Henry. Troost named the fossil Actinocrinites Humbolti after Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) whose The Aspects of Nature he translated into Dutch in 1807 while in school in Paris, France. In Troost's own words from page 80 of Bulletin 64, "From the moment I became acquainted with it, I dedicated this splendid species to Baron von Humboldt in whose company I had often the honor to spend some of my time when in Paris." The fossil was discovered near White's Creek Springs, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA.

My interest in Gerard Troost (1776-1850) began when I was a volunteer at the Louisville Science Center around 2008-2012 (now known as Kentucky Science Center). I spent a considerable amount of volunteer time working in the collections department that housed the Troost mineral collection. The collection was acquired by the Louisville Library in 1882 for $20,500. It was raised through a series of lotteries. The public library moved the collection from their basement to Louisville Museum of Natural History & Science building in 1977. I believe the Troost mineral collection was moved to the Indiana State Museum in 2019. 

Time has not been kind to Gerard Troost's legacy. His natural history collection was broken up after his death in 1850 and a lot of his papers lost. It took decades for his mineral collection to finally find a home in Louisville but by that time a number of the valuable specimens were missing. The meteorite portion of the collection was later transferred John Lawrence Smith (1818-1883) whose estate sold it to Harvard Museum. In 1937, the Ohio River flooded downtown Louisville and submerged most if not all of the mineral collection. A lot of the labels were lost and a number of specimens destroyed. Once the Louisville museum converted to a science center the collection was put in storage and not really utilized. Hopefully, the Indiana State Museum will be able to put more of it on exhibit. Dr. Troost briefly lived in New Harmony Indiana during 1826 and the museum created a New Harmony exhibit in 2012. Troost finally settled down in Nashville Tennessee. In 1849, he completed a manuscript describing 84 species of crinoids plus some blastoids/cystoids and a starfish. He could not raise the money in Tennessee to publish this work so he sent it to the Smithsonian for publication. Dr. Troost died a few weeks later. Authorities there pass it to Dr. Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) who gave it to Dr. James Hall (1811-1898) for review. He did not finish his review and it was returned to the Smithsonian after his death in 1898. The manuscript was given to Elvira Wood (1865-1928) who published it in 1909.

Due to being published 60 years after it was written a lot of the new fossils that had not been published thus named by Troost could not as later researchers published them. In Ohio State University's Dr. Bill Ausich's 2009 paper A Critical Evaluation of the Status of Crinoids Studied by Dr. Gerard Troost (1776-1850) analysis of  Elvira Wood's 1909 work, he found Troost was the valid author of 27 species and genus (Zeacrinites) of the 84 he listed in his manuscript. 

Fossils from Waterway Protection Tunnel Project - Louisville, Kentucky

The Kentucky Science Center has an interactive display for the Metro Sewer District (MSD) Waterway Protection Tunnel project. This project is a 4 mile (6.43 km) tunnel 200 feet (60.96 m) under the city to store up to 55 million gallons (208 million liters) of storm runoff water. It will take at least 3 years to complete.

As of this writing, the tunnel was 15% dug. I found the display really well done and resourceful way to divert storm water from the sewer system instead of using basins. The future will show us how well this system will work. I encourage you if in the Louisville area to visit the Kentucky Science Center as see this exhibit. Look out the windows on either side of it as it has some views riverfront and a MSD sewer line project.

Included in the exhibit are 3 core samples from the test drillings. If you look close you can see different fossils in them (horn coral and colonial coral).

I was contacted months ago by the Cubero media company that created this display. They asked for permission to use some images from this blog site in the display. It was nice to see me given credit on one of the screens.

Below are examples of a few of the images used.

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2009/07/recent-finds-corals-and-brachiopods.html

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/06/stromatoporoids.html

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2012/12/lichenalia-concentrica-bryozoan-fossil.html

Below are embedded videos describing the MSD project:


Learn more about  this MSD project at their web site:
http://www.louisvillemsd.org/tunnel

Links to videos above if they did not embed properly in web page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9CHHpB5xek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLWF2T-klAU

Learn more about the Kentucky Science Center (aka Louisville Science Center) at their web site:
 https://kysciencecenter.org/

Louisville Insider did a story about the opening of this exhibit:
https://insiderlouisville.com/government/infrastructure/science-center-exhibit-showcases-new-waterway-protection-tunnel/

Toy Dinosaur

Toy dinosaur in the KidZone at the Louisville Science Center.  Maybe a T. rex?

Determining Specific Gravity of Minerals

I have been working on a procedure that visitors to the Louisville Science Center can use to learn about calculating specific gravity of select minerals.  If you have any corrections or suggestions for improvement, I would appreciate it.  Thanks! Below is the procedure:

There is a famous story involving the Greek mathematician/scientist Archimedes and whether a crown was solid gold. The king was trying to determine if a gold crown was pure or if the goldsmith had substituted cheaper silver in the construction of it. Archimedes has his “Eureka” moment when determining gold being denser metal displaces less water than silver thus allowing him to show the crown is not pure gold. Whether this story is true or not, it helps introduce the topic of specific gravity of objects.

The measurement of the specific gravity is useful in helping identify minerals. Specific gravity is the ratio of density of material to the density of water. An easier way to think of it might consider two equal size containers. One holds water and the other contains a mineral like galena (lead). If one weighs both, the galena would be approximately 7 times heavier than the water.

Use the table below to see some characteristics of common minerals found in Kentucky and Indiana.

Equipment Needed

• Metric Scale to measure in grams
• Graduated Cylinder 100 mL
• Pencil and Paper
• Pitcher of Water
• Waste Water Container
• Minerals to test

 

 

Procedure

1. Weigh the mineral on the digital scale. Note the weight in grams.

2. Pour water in 100 mL graduated cylinder to a mL mark.
3. Place mineral specimen in cylinder and read the mark where the water has risen to.
4. Drain the water and mineral into the tub.
5. Subtract the water mark value with the starting water mark value.
6. Take that value and divide it in to the mineral’s weight.
7. The value is the specific gravity of the mineral.
8. Use the specific gravity and appearance to study the table to find the closest match to a mineral name.

  

Example

Water is placed in graduated cylinder and measures 56.1 mL.  A specimen is placed in cylinder and water level rises to 58.5 mL.  The difference is 2.4 mL.

The specimen weighs in at 10.3 g.  So 10.3 / 2.4 = 4.29.  Since specimen is black it matches the mineral a sphalerite (3.9-4.2).

Another example

Water in graduated cylinder measured 46.5 mL and with specimen water raises to 50.5 mL.  The difference in water level is 4.0 mL.

The weight of the specimen is 17.41 g.  Using the displacement from the earlier value 17.41 / 4.0 = 4.35.  The specimen is white and fits in the 4.3-5.0 which matches barite.

Sea Rex Movie Review... Sort Of

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World opened at the Louisville Science Center IMAX theater on June 12, 2010.  The movie was not quite what I expected in that being more of a learning experience and less of an action movie.  My only comparison would be a the Sea Monsters IMAX movie which was action oriented and told from the point of view of a sea creature.  Going into Sea Rex, my big question was, "What actually is Sea Rex?"  By the end of movie, I knew the answer.

The movie takes an interesting tact by using a modern aquarium or museum setting with a visitor named Julie who takes a trip through time with a famous paleontologist Georges Cuvier.  Interspersed in the scenes of marine reptiles swimming in ancient seas, paleontologists give explanations of paleontological concepts.  Scientists need to do more presentations like this to help the general public try to understand the scientific research.  One should watch the credits as the scientists might be portrayed by actors [see this review at the smithsonian.com site].

Georges Cuvier

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

The scientists highlighted the film are Dr. Nathalie Bardet who shows a Mary Anning discovery at the British Museum that becomes animated. Dr. Olivier Rieppel of the Rowe Family Curator at Chicago's Field Museum, Dr. Ryosuke Motani of the University of California Davis, Dr. Zulma Gasparini from La Plata Museum in Argentina, and Dr. Benjamin Kear of Australia's La Trobe University.  Dr. Kear's presentation in the film is definitely unique (he needs to eat more to put some meat on those bones).

Prognathodon solvayi

Marine Reptile - Late Cretaceous Period

Drawn by Dmitry Bogdanov

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

The film really utilizes computer graphics to help the viewer realize geologic time, continent formation, and marine reptile structure/anatomy.  I did have to guess at some of the time periods in the graphics and I assume the major extinction events they refer to are Permian and the K-T.  You also get to see a lot of creatures rendered like the Shonisaurus, Pterodactyl, Prognathodon, Mixosaurus, Liopleurodon, Ichthyosaur, Parasaurolophus, Mosasaur, Rhomaleosaurus, Kronosaurus, and Tanystropheus.

Ichthyosaur Marine Reptile Fossil

Jurassic Period

Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle

Paris, France

Being a volunteer at the Louisville Science Center, one will get questions about the movies being shown.  Weekend visitors tend to be families with young children and one concern is will the movie scare young children.  As for this movie, I would say not.  It is rated for 4 year old children and up.  Predator-prey relationships are explored in the movie but not in gory detail.  Violent conflicts mostly take place off screen, leaving a good deal to the imagination.  So it is a good film to show children, the marine reptiles are not too scary in my opinion. 

If you like dinosaurs (and marine reptiles) or paleontology, the film is good to see. I enjoyed watching it and the educational topics and events they presented.  I definitely plan on seeing it again!

It would be nice if they would put the names on the screen of the marine reptiles they were showing because it was hard to remember their names or keep track of them.  The DVD with captions turned on should remedy this issue though.  Another issue is they never tell the exact names of the sharks that appear, they are just referred to as sharks.

SLIGHT SPOILER: One last piece of advice for the movie character Julie, don't leave the museum with that item still in your purse.  Security is not going to believe how you obtained it. :)

Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World

On June 12, 2010 the Louisville Science Center IMAX theater will begin showing the movie Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World.  Looks like Saturday's show times are 1, 3, 6, 7, and 9 PM and Sunday 1 and 3 PM.  Be sure to check with the science center to verify the exact movie times.

Official movie website can be found here.

Coal Display - Louisville Science Center

My interest in coal is two fold: first it is the main source of fuel that drive the generators that provide electricity and second I find coal sometimes while looking for fossils in coral localities around Louisville.  Elaborating on the second point, the area I search for coral fossils contains dumpings from an old garbage dump pre-1920s.  The dump contained remains from residents coal burners and bins thus small pieces of coal were thrown away.  The picture above is of one of the pieces of coal I found.

Coal is an important part of energy generation in the United States.  It can be costly in terms of human lives as seen recently when 29 miners died in a explosion at the Upper Big Branch, West Virginia mine.  May they rest in peace. That mine produced coal for steel mills.  The environment can also suffer from improper mining techniques and unfiltered burning.  Work is being done to rectify these issues.

It is a trade-off with electricity being a necessity in today's society.  Hydrocarbon energy generation is one of the primary factors that drives the world economy.  Coal is an important resource to Kentucky.  The material is fossil remnants from the Pennsylvanian Period.

Below are images of four types of coal: lignite (brown coal), sub-bituminous, bituminous (mined in Kentucky), and anthracite.  These images were produced from pictures I took of a public display at the Louisville Science Center on coal.  Click the images to see larger versions.

According to the 2008 Louisville Science Center report, contributors to the World Around Us: Coal Exhibit Kiosk were International Coal Group, Kentucky Coal Association, Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence ($50,000 grant), Peabody Energy ($2,500 grant), and Teco Coal.

Learn more about Kentucky Coal at the education website.

The other images are from a Adobe Flash movie I created illustrating coal formation and its uses in society.  I would link to the movie but I lost access to a server that could host swf files.  Maybe be one day I remedy this situation.

Walking With Dinosaurs

It is Thunder Over Louisville day here in Louisville Kentucky which is an event that is part of the celebration leading up to the Kentucky Derby.   The day is marked by an air show and capped off with one of the largest firework displays in the United States.  I usually leave in the evening before the large crowds (sometimes numbering in 500,000-750,000 people are at full force).  Here is a picture of a F-16 almost hovering over the Kennedy Bridge downtown.

As in past years, I have volunteered at the Louisville Science Center for their fundraiser, ThunderBlast.  This year we had a special visitor from the show Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular.  This baby Tyrannosaurus rex replica suit is part of a show that will be visiting Louisville's Freedom Hall May 14-16, 2010.  Note to self: next year bring sunblock and a hat!

I was sort of expecting some sort of animatronic creature but the suit has a person in and you can see their legs which somewhat removes the realism.  But the movement, sounds and crowd interaction were good and it made for a fun event.

The T. rex would move along the crowd and kids wanted to pet it which it would them but then suddenly snap at them causing them to jump or laugh.  It was interesting to watch the interactions.  Unfortunately for the girl in front of me holding the hot dog and fries, it startled her into dropping her meal.

The T. rex then sort of roared (shriked, laughed, ???) after sending her lunch to the pavement.  It did not go to waste, I saw somebody afterward pick it up for their dog to eat.

Baby T. rex will be making some more appearances around Louisville this month:

Sunday, April 18, 2010 at the Louisville Bats vs. Columbus Clippers game at Louisville Slugger Field, 6:05 pm

Monday, April 19, 2010 at Fourth Street Live! 11 am to 1 pm

Monday, April 19, 2010 at Kentucky Exposition Center's North Wing front patio 3:30 pm to 6 pm

The main show will be May 14-16, 2010 at Freedom Hall check www.freedomhall.org or www.dinosaurlive.com for more information. "Get your tickets before they're extinct!"

Trilobites at Louisville Science Center

There is a small round window in the natural science area of the Louisville Science Center that contains 3 trilobite fossils. The following pictures are not the greatest because they were taken in odd lighting and through display glass. No labels are on the fossils.

The first two are of the same Silurian Dalmanites specimen. I took one in shadow and the other from the overhead lighting. I am guessing the segment is about 10 cm long.


Here is unknown trilobite fragment.

This looks like an enrolled Devonian Phacops rana trilobite found in the Louisville Kentucky area.

Trilobite at Louisville Science Center - Elrathia kingii?

Here are a series of pictures taken of an imprint(?) of trilobite in the hands on activities in the Discovery Gallery of the Louisville Science Center. This trilobite does not look like anything I have found in the Louisville, Kentucky or southern Indiana area. Also I first thought the blackish rock was some sort of coal but after examining it seems pretty hard. The last picture shows the cut marks of probably a diamond circular saw blade.

Since it was an unknown trilobite to me I consulted the BEST trilobite fossil site on the internet Sam Gon III's http://www.trilobites.info/. It appears to me after looking at his drawings and images on the site, this speciment might be an Elrathia kingii. Specifically, the site lists it as Order: Ptychopariida, Suborder: Ptychopariina, Superfamily: Ptychoparioides, Family: Ptychopariidae. The site has a picture gallery with references to pictures on another site http://www.trilobite.com/ which sells Elrathia kingii trilobites that lived during the Middle Cambian in Utah. Also I believe it or another site noted that this trilobite is the most common one sold today that is intact.



Click on pictures to view larger version.



Part of the pygidium is missing. I count 12 thorax segments.

Bottom of plate that contains the trilobite. Rock is almost black to very dark gray in color.

Side of rock plate containing trilobite with maybe diamond blade cut marks. This specimen could have been part of a large group and was sold as an individual piece. If I had to guess, the trilobite size is about 3 cm long and 2 cm wide.