Jules Marcou

Born in Salins, France, on April 20, 1824, Jules Marcou became a geologist after early studies in France and time spent in Switzerland, where he met influential scientists including Louis Agassiz. He worked on the geology of the Jura and later traveled widely, building a career that moved between Europe and the United States.

Marcou first came to the United States in the late 1840s and went on to study regions from the eastern states to the Lake Superior country and farther west. He is especially remembered for his large geological map of the United States and the British Provinces of North America, published in 1853, and for later books such as Geology of North America and Geological Map of the World.

He spent much of his working life in American science while keeping strong ties to Europe, and he died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 17, 1898. Today he is remembered as one of the energetic early geologists who helped turn vast travel observations into a clearer picture of North American geology.