Geological Society of America
nonprofit organization for the advancement of geoscience
The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences.
History
The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchcock, John R. Procter and Edward Orton and has been headquartered at 3300 Penrose Place, Boulder, Colorado, US, since 1967.
GSA began with 100 members under its first president, James Hall. In 1889 Mary Emilie Holmes became its first female member. It grew slowly but steadily to 600 members until 1931, when a nearly $4 million endowment from 1930 president R. A. F. Penrose Jr. jumpstarted GSA's growth. As of December 2017, GSA had more than 25,000 members in over 100 countries.
The society has six regional sections in North America and twenty-two scientific divisions. The oldest such regional interest group is the Cordilleran section, which first met December 29–30, 1899 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. At the time, travel back east was difficult for western geologists during that period of the year.
The public source identifies “Geological Society of America” as nonprofit organization for the advancement of geoscience. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Geological, Society and America.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Geological Society of America”, the useful work is to connect “nonprofit organization for the advancement of geoscience” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1503216. VIAF identifies the subject as 126513658. The Library of Congress control number is n80126153. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1967, 1889 and 1931.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Geological Society of America”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Geological Society of America primary sources, Geological Society of America archive and Geological research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Geological Society of America”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Geological Society of America” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.