Rollin D. Salisbury

One of Chamberlin's first actions as head of the Department of Geology was to recommend the appointment of Rollin D. Salisbury as Professor of Geographic Geology. Salisbury had first been a student of Chamberlin's at Beloit College and then succeeded Chamberlin as a faculty member (1882-1891) before joining the faculty at University of Wisconsin for a brief time. This letter from Chamberlin to Salisbury contains a lot of detail on the early work to organize the Department of Geology at the University of Chicago, including fundraising efforts, course proposals, recruiting a faculty, and library collection building.

Salisbury became Dean of the University College (1894-1896), University Examiner (1895-1898), and Dean of the Ogden Graduate School of Science (1899-1922). In 1903, Salisbury's duties as professor and dean were enlarged by his appointment as the first Head of the Department of Geography, the first graduate department of its kind at an American university.