Marbut Memorial Slide Collection Preface

MARBUT MEMORIAL SLIDE COLLECTION

The Soil Science Society of America takes this opportunity to honor one of America's foremost soil scientists by naming this collection the "Marbut Memorial Slide Collection."

Curtis Fletcher Marbut was born July 19, 1863, in Barry County, Missouri. Although he grew up in the primitive and isolated pioneer environment of the times, his mother encouraged his love of learning, a love that continued undiminished throughout his lifetime.

Marbut's school attendance began in a one-room, hewn-log Missouri schoolhouse. He went on to receive his B.S. degree from the University of Missouri in 1889 and in 1890 was appointed to the Missouri Geological Survey where his attention was centered on the science that was to be the keystone of his future. It was during this pause in his formal education that Curtis Marbut married Florence Martin. Marbut was granted the Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1894. Residence requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy were competed at Harvard in 1895, and Marbut's thesis was finished and published in 1896.

Marbut served as Professor of Geology and Physiography at the University of Missouri from 1895 until 1910. In 1910, the year following his wife's untimely death, Professor Marbut accepted an appointment with the Bureau of Soils as a Scientist in the Soil Survey. In 1913, Marbut was appointed Scientist in Charge of the Soil Survey, the position he held almost until his death.

From 1920 until 1935, Dr. Marbut assumed the role of an internationalist in the field of soils. His extensive travels during this period carried him to many parts of the world and gained for him the well-earned reputation as an international authority on soil geography -- as much at home in the study of the soils of Europe, Africa, and South America as those of his homeland.

In 1935 Dr. Marbut accepted the assignment to act as adviser to the Chinese Geological Survey in organizing a Soil Survey. While somewhere in the vast area of Siberia, Dr. Marbut was attacked by pneumonia. He died in the early morning of August 25, 1935, in Harbin, the capital of Heilungkiang province of China.

Professor Marbut made his own independent place in science. The American Geographical Society, in awarding him the Cullum Medal -- its highest distinction -- described his achievements in the following words. . . "For geographical works on the study of soils -- the foothold of all things."

The slide collection should serve as a valuable teaching aid in the dissemination of knowledge about soils and, hopefully, contribute to a solution to the world food problem--a problem that was close to the heart of C.F. Marbut.