James Hall

James Hall was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, the oldest of four children. His parents, James Hall Sr. and Sousanna Dourdain Hall, had emigrated from England two years earlier. Hall developed an early interest in science and enrolled in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a recently established college that emphasized student participation and focused on science. He was a student of Amos Eaton and Ebenezer Emmons, both notable geologists. Hall graduated with honors in 1832, received his master's degree in 1833, and remained at Rensselaer to teach chemistry and later geology.

In 1836 a multi-year survey was established to collect information on the geology and natural history of New York. For purposes of the survey, the state was divided into four districts, and Hall became assistant geologist for Ebenezer Emmons, chief of the Second District. Hall's initial assignment was to study iron deposits in the Adirondack Mountains. The following year the survey was reorganized: Hall was put in charge of the Fourth District, in western New York. Other notable geologists working on the survey included Lardner Vanuxem and Timothy Conrad. Working together, the survey staff developed a stratigraphy for New York and set a precedent for naming stratigraphic divisions based on local geography.

At the end of the survey in 1841, Hall was named the first state paleontologist. In 1843 he made his final report on the survey of the fourth geological district, which was published as Geology of New York, Part IV. (1843). It was received with much acclaim and became a classic in the field. Hall had built a solid reputation and was to devote the rest of his life to stratigraphic geology and invertebrate paleontology.

He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1854.

Hall built a laboratory in Albany, New York, which became an important center of study and training for aspiring geologists and paleontologists. Many notable scientists began their career serving an apprenticeship with Hall, including Fielding Meek, Charles Walcott, Charles Beecher and Josiah Whitney. Now known as the James Hall Office, the laboratory was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Among his many works, James Hall identified that stromatolite fossils discovered at Petrified Sea Gardens, a site near Saratoga Springs, New York that is now also a National Historic Landmark, were originally organic.

In 1838 Hall married Sarah Aikin, the daughter of a Troy lawyer. They had two daughters and two sons. Sarah helped illustrate some of Hall's publications. In 1849 she published an illustrated book of poetry, Phantasia, and other poems. Included in this volume was her English translation of Schiller's Ritter Toggenburg. She died in 1895.