the woman who built the room she was never supposed to enter

In 1893, Johns Hopkins awarded its first doctorate to a woman for proving that rock formations across Pennsylvania and Maryland, long classified as ancient sediment, were actually disguised remains of volcanic stone.

Florence Bascom had to sit behind a screen to attend her classes. She went on to become the first woman hired by the USGS and to build the school that produced the next generation of American women geologists.

image credit: Bryn Mawr College Photo Archives