Mines Magazine Turns 100 - the Timothy and Bernadette Marquez ...

absent from most of the issues of 1940. Reflecting the isolationistmood of the nation during this time, the first substantial article onthe subject doesn’t appear until the October issue, which includesthe article “Geology and Strategy in the Present War,” by DouglasJohnson, a geology professor at Columbia University. Interestingly,the apparent silence was broken in October with one of the longestarticles published in the magazine all year long, and the Novemberissue features a tank on the cover and includes an article titled “Petroleumfor War,” by John N. Shuffler.The magazine tackles another subject in 1940 that had beenrarely addressed: women at Mines. In the April issue, Frederick C.Steinhauer ’99 traces the history of the school’s first three womento earn degrees from the school. While Mines was never legally anall-male institution, by 1940 only a handful of women had ever attended,and even fewer graduated. According to Steinhauer, FlorenceCaldwell ’98 attended Ohio Wesleyan prior to coming to Mines andcompleting the Civil Engineering degree. She was followed by GraceMcDermut ’03, who earned the more difficult Engineer of Mines degree;however, she was unable to find a job in the mining industryafter her family’s mine was sold, so she pursued a successful careerwith the National Bureau of Standards. The third woman was NinettaDavis ’20, whose degree was also in mining engineering. Followingher graduation, Davis worked for the Midwest Refining Company inWyoming, the Union Oil Company of California, and the GeologicalSurvey. The subject of women at Mines received national attention12 years later when freshman Nancy Easley, the only female studenton campus at the time, appeared on the cover of Life magazine with900 male students in front of Guggenheim Hall.Among the 12 magazines published during 1950, the Octoberissue stands out—by a mile. While other issues from the year areall around 48 pages, the October issue clocks in at 146. It wasthe “Fifteenth Annual Petroleum Number,” and along with regularadvertisers, the issue includes a host of companies targeting thebooming petroleum industry. Most impressive of all, over 100 pagesare devoted to 22 technical articles, which include titles such as• “On the Use of Geophysical Tools” by L. L.Nettleton• “Summary of the Gas and Oil Possibilities ofUtah” by Dorsey Hagaer and Mendell M. Bell• “Recent Oil and Gas Developments in Alberta,Canada” by Theo A. Link• “The Developments of Directional Drilling” byJ. B. Murdoch, Jr.• “Metallurgy in Petroleum Refining” by DonaldA. Craig, ’48• “Geophysics Grows at Mines” by John C. Hollister’33To compile this impressive issue, Bowmanwas supported by an assistant editor, two staffmembers responsible for production and circulation,15 associate editors and 24 section editors.The November 1950 issue includes a full-pageobituary for President Emeritus Melville F. Coolbaugh,who led the school from 1925 until 1946.The memorial includes details of his childhood, his distinguishedacademic career, his service during World War I in the chemical warfaredivision, and his 26-year term as president of the school—thelongest term served by any Mines president to date.The October 1960 publication was the official 50th AnniversaryIssue of Mines magazine. The cover is gold and appears to depict acopy of the first issue of the magazine, but it is inaccurate. An originalfirst edition may not have been available to the editors, becausethe October 1960 cover features an October 1910 cover with theschool’s spherical triangles on the cover—a design that was adoptedshortly after launching the magazine, but was not used on the firstedition. Thankfully both Harvard and the University of California atBerkeley have first editions in their library that were scanned as partof the Google Books program and can now be viewed online.This minor detail aside, it’s a great issue. To alert readers ofthe approaching anniversary, a gold cover had been used for eachmonthly issue since April, but the October issue takes the theme astep further by including a wide variety of articles relating to gold,including “Gold Forms in Ores” by Arthur Weinig ’08, “The Role ofGold in International Liquidity” by Oscar Altman, an article aboutgold mining in the Cripple Creek valley by Max Bowen ’24, and a historicalreview of gold mining in Colorado by Arthur Mayham.Another article found in the anniversary issue, “The MinesMagazine—Reminiscing,” covers the same period we’ve attempted tospan in this article. Written in a very different style, and including along passage quoted directly from the 25-year retrospective printedin 1935, it would serve as an interesting follow-up to this article.The conclusion used in the 1960 article also provides an appropriatestopping-off point for this article:The MINES Magazine has recorded the activities of these men fora half century, and we look forward to the next half century in whichThe MINES Maga zine will continue to play an important part in recordingthe events of an astounding era.Part II of this Mines magazine retrospective will be published inthe spring 2011 issue. In the meantime, visit the newly-designedmagazine website at magazine.mines.edu to view complete searchableelectronic copies of more than 110 issues from throughout thecentury, including all the articles referenced above.Colorado School of Mines 21