Jewell Jeannette Glass (December 24, 1888 – January 28, 1966) was an American mineralogist and geosciences educator whose research focused on discovery and analysis of minerals, particularly those found within the United States of America. She is best known for her work on beryllium minerals, her discovery of

pyroxmangite Pyroxmangite has the general chemical formula of MnSiO3. It is the high-pressure, low-temperature dimorph of rhodonite. It was first described in 1913 and named for the mineral group, pyroxenes, and is known as the manganese member. It forms a ...

in Idaho, and a pioneering study of the cerium-bearing mineral bastnaesite, which facilitated discovering in

Mountain Pass, California Mountain Pass is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is situated on Interstate 15 in the southeast mountainous desert region of the state approximately from the Nevada border at an elevation of � ...

the largest deposit of this rare-earth mineral known at the time.

Early life

Jewell Jeanette Glass was born in

Daleville, Mississippi Daleville is an unincorporated community along Mississippi Highway 39 in North Lauderdale County, Mississippi, United States. It has a post office with the ZIP code 39326. The settlement is named for Samuel Dale, Lauderdale County's first repre ...

on December 24, 1888, to Julia Ann (née Vance) and Levi Lafayette Glass. She was raised in Mississippi and in 1918 moved to Washington, DC to accept a War Department civil service position.

Scientific education and career

Between 1918 and 1930, Glass worked for the War Department and the Department of Agriculture. During this period of time, she completed her A.B. degree (1926) and M.A. degree (1929) from the Columbian College of

The George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presid ...

. In 1930, Glass joined the U.S. Geological Survey as an Aid in Mineralogy. In her 30-year career at this institution, she rose through the ranks to become a full Mineralogist as well as a Geologist, with a focus on petrology and mineralogy. In addition to producing over 30 research publications and contributing her expertise to many others (e.g.), Glass also served as a geosciences educator throughout her life. She taught at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

on teaching fellowships, served as an instructor at the Department of Agriculture Graduate School in Determinative Mineralogy during 1937–1941, and after retirement, taught Mineralogy at The George Washington University.

Legacy

Beyond her published works and the students she trained, Glass bequeathed lasting gifts to two organizations with which she had a life-long affiliation, the

Mineralogical Society of America The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) is a scientific membership organization. MSA was founded in 1919 for the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology, and promotion of their uses in other sciences, industr ...

and the

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is a volunteer organization that works to maintain hiking trails in the Washington, D.C. area of the United States. PATC was founded in 1927 to protect and develop the local section of the then new Appal ...

. To the former, she gave an unrestricted monetary gift, which was recognized in a dedicated issue of ''The American Mineralogist'' in 1969. To the latter, she donated the cabin she had built in 1950 in Fort Valley of the

Massanutten Mountain Massanutten Mountain is a synclinal ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, located in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is near the West Virginia state line. Geography The mountain bisects the Shenandoah Valley just east of Strasburg ...

s in Virginia. In 1968, the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club purchased land adjoining the cabin, which Glass originally willed to her life-long friend and collaborator Lena Clemmons Artz, and dedicated this cabin as the Glass House, which is maintained to this day as a resource for hikers in Fort Valley.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Jewell Jeannette 20th-century American women scientists 1888 births 1966 deaths 20th-century American geologists American women geologists Scientists from Mississippi George Washington University alumni People from Lauderdale County, Mississippi