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History

Geology and Geography have been taught at WVU since its founding in 1867 initially as the Agricultural College of West Virginia.  The Department of Geology established in 1877 with the appointment of I.C. White for whom White Hall was named. Early faculty and students in the geology program played key roles in the development of the oil industry in the Appalachian basin which was the principal hydrocarbon province of the world in the 19th century. Key areas of early specialization were petrology, stratigraphy, structural geology, paleontology and paleobotany.  Geography was taught in the Department of Geology since the early 1900s leading to the creation of the Department of Geology and Geography, as it is now known, in the mid-1960s. The Department moved into newly renovated Brooks Hall in 2007.

                                            IC White
Picture: Walter Michael, Professor I.C. White, S.P. Wells (Chub); W.T. Barbe; H.L. Robinson; R.C. Berkeley; John D. Sweeney from West Virginia History OnView