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Rocky Road | TWO INSTITUTIONS BRIDGE A 75-YEAR-OLD RIFT

gILBERT HARRIS ARRIVED ON the Hill in 1883, an undergraduate interested in science. He left fifty years later, a distinguished paleontologist embittered by Cornell.

In between,Harris pioneered the study of the Tertiary period (65 million–2 million B.C.) and became a world authority on marine clam and snail fossils. Traveling the world, Harris amassed thousands of specimens that now form the bedrock of one of the country's largest such collections, with 3 million fossils. He also founded two paleontology journals, printing them himself on presses in McGraw Hall, that are still published and are among the oldest of their kind. His students described him as a terrible teacher in the classroom but an inspiring one in the field. They often found themselves boating up Cayuga Lake and hiking miles to gather fossils embedded in Oriskany sandstone.

Harris's dedication to research was apparently matched only by his growing animosity for his employer.He communicated with his department chair via typewritten letters sent from one floor of McGraw to another, and generally felt that Cornell didn't appreciate his work. The tipping point came when the University refused to build a fireproof space for his collection. So in 1932 he founded an independent scientific organization, the Paleontological Research Institution, in a concrete building next to his Ithaca home.

Harris's departure essentially left Cornell without a paleontology department. Meanwhile, PRI published research, gained a global reputation, expanded its collection, and moved into a former orphanage on West Hill.When Harris died in 1952, he apparently passed on his dislike of the University.His successor at PRI refused to conduct business with Cornell, and his daughter, Rebecca Harris '13, vowed that if PRI ever restored ties with Cornell it would forfeit her endowment.

Now, nearly seventy-five years after the rift, Cornell and PRI have reconciled. PRI Director Warren Allmon set the stage thirteen years ago, stipulating that he would take the directorship only if he could try to make amends with the University. Last November, PRI and Cornell signed an affiliation, although one without financial or legal ties.

PRI now owns Cornell's nonbotanical fossils (including specimens purchased by Ezra Cornell in the 1860s) and houses its modern mollusk collection. PRI displays some 650 of these and other wonders, as well as Cornell research exhibits, at the Museum of the Earth, an $11 million addition completed in 2003. Cornell staff and faculty serve on the PRI board, while Allmon is an adjunct associate professor. As the partnership evolves, both Cornell and PRI are reaping the benefits.

But what would Gilbert Harris have thought?

"I think he'd like it, but I don't know," says Allmon. "The main thing that upset him was his sense that he and his science were not valued at Cornell. Paleontology is now valued at Cornell again. If he was convinced of that, he'd likely--albeit grudgingly--approve."

-- Julie Zeveloff '07

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