Hedwig Thusnelda Kniker (1891-1985) was an American geologist and micropaleontologist. ^[1] Kniker, alongside fellow female geologists Alva Ellisor and Esther Applin, changed the landscape of oil well drilling in the United States by discovering the importance of foraminifera in stratigraphy.

Biography

H.T. Kniker was born to Reverend Carl Kniker and Mrs. Natalie Knicker in 1891 in Gay Hill, Texas. ^[2] After graduating as valedictorian from the Opera House School in New Braunfels in 1908 and becoming a teacher in Washington County, she began her studies at the University of Texas. There, she earned a B.A. in German, psychology and geology, graduating in 1916. The following year, she returned to the school to earn her M.A. alongside professor Francis L. Whitney, focusing on the subject of Cretaceous Bivalves. She graduated from the program in 1917. Her education continued in future years at Cornell University and the University of Chicago. ^[1]

Kniker worked with Fraccis Whitney at the Bureau of Economic Geology, a research branch of the Jackson School of Geosciences at her alma mater. There she remained until 1920 when she left the institution to work for a series of petroleum companies in the United States and Chile. Her work included the study of Cretaceous and Tertiary period well cuttings, as well as the study of Permian aged fusulinids and their stratigraphic significance. ^[1]

In her work, she is often credited as H. T. Kniker, a moniker used in order to avoid the gender-based discrimination which was prevalent in her field of work at the time. ^[3]

She retired in Seguin, Texas in the year 1950, moving to San Antonio, twenty years later. Kniker died on October 12th, 1985. ^[4]

Research and career

In the 1920s, Hedwig and her coworkers, Esther Applin and Alva Ellisor were hired by oil companies in Houston, Texas. They were encouraged to collaborate and have daily discussions about their work, problems and perceptions. Most of their time was centered on looking at microfossils. Their bosses believed that focusing on these macrofosssils could be a key to solving stratigraphic problems. The companies provided them with samples that they found while drilling but these samples were too damaged to be considered useful in the macrofossil study. Hedwig, Esther and Applin noticed how intact the microfossils were, particularly the Foramineifera. Professional Micropalaeontologists at the time believed that these one-celled organisms did not have enough diversity and specificity to be useful. However, the women could recognize suites of Foraminifera species that provide detailed stratigraphic correlations which proved to be a profound breakthrough. They also found that Foraminifera were abundant and undamaged by the drill bit. Over the years this discovery was claimed by the men who had dismissed them and has been attributed to several different men since. ^[5]

Publications

Impacts of her work

The work done by Hedwig and her colleagues at The Texas Company revolutionized the field of micropalaeontology in the oil industry and paved the way for modern more sophisticated stratigraphic models which companies use today.

Legacy

Upon her death in 1985, Kniker’s estate funded the addition of 39 bells to the University of Texas’ carillon. Following the completion of the project in 1987, the building was renamed the Kniker Carillon, in her honour. ^[6] The carillon celebrates Kniker as one of the first female graduates in geology from the University of Texas. ^[7]

A portion of the specimens that Kniker collected throughout her lifetime are contained within the Non-vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory’s Type Collection at the Jackson School Museum of Earth History, a division of the University of Texas. ^[1]

References