Footnotes

(1) This account, taken from the University of Illinois Bulletin, Vol. XXXV, No. 62 (1938), was written 70 years after instruction began at the University. Authorship of this article is unknown, but according to Prof. Wallace M. Lansford (1900), who taught in the TAM Department from 1929 to 1971 and knew Professor Talbot very well, the dedication booklet was inspired and written in large part by Melvin L. Enger, who succeeded Talbot as head of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Enger later became dean of the College of Engineering. '1 shared an office with Prof. Frank E. Richart in the old building [the Laboratory of Applied Mechanics]," Lansford recalls. "Talbot and Enger had offices right across the hall, so I got to know them very well. Enger was responsible for getting the Materials Testing Laboratory renamed after Talbot, and also for naming the University's airport after [mechanical engineering professor Arthur Cutts] Willard." Enger was probably assisted by Prof. F. E. Schmidt on this part of the Bulletin. Professor Talbot himself had written on the history of the College in several issues of the Technograph in the year 1934, and indeed the account given here may have been based in part on his work; but Talbot's extensive articles bear their own distinctive writing style.

(2) As noted previously, the articles in the University of Illinois Bulletin, Vol. XXXV, No. 62, are of unknown authorship. However, a major role was played by Melvin L. Enger, who succeeded Talbot as head of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and later became dean of the College of Engineering. In writing this biography, Enger was probably assisted by Talbot's colleagues H. F. Moore, W. M. Wilson, F. E. Richart, H. M. Westergaard, and H. E. Babbitt.

(3) Arthur Newell Talbot's paternal grandfather was Charles Talbot (1806-79), who was born in London, England, and died in Kansas. He married Suzanna Key (1809-1881) in London. They moved from London to DeKalb County, Ill., in 1853 with their six children Charles Albert, Henry, John, William, George and Richard. Eventually Charles Albert and Henry married two Newell sisters, Harriet and Hannah. Charles Albert Talbot was born in London in 1833 and died in this country (probably Cortland, E.) in 1888. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States in Sycamore, Ill., in 1858.

Arthur Newell Talbot's maternal grandfather was George Newell (1799-1878), one of 10 children of George Newell (1776-1860) and Mary Hall (1776-1841), both of England. George Newell and his wife Hannah Elizabeth Shuttlesworth (1803-81) were both born in England; they married there in 1827 and had three children (George, Charles and William) before moving to Brockville, Ontario, Canada, around 1831, where they had six more childrenÑHarriet (1832-1905), Henry, Samuel, Mary Ann, John and Hannah. In 1851, the family moved to Rockford, Ill.

Charles Albert Talbot and Harriet Newell were married in 1856, and had three children: Arthur Newell, Minnie, and Maude. Minnie married a Mr. Van Galder and lived in Rock Island, Ill. Maude married Adam Millar and lived in Madison, Wisc.; Millar was a professor at the University of Wisconsin.

(4) A few years earlier, on the seventh birthday of Peter's cousin, Warren Franklin Goodell Jr., Arthur had written to his grandson about the Civil War.

(5) Virginia Mann Hammet's brother, John Burnham Hammet (1871- 1955), married Frances Ann Keran in 1901. John and Frances had four children Martha Ellen, Laura Jeannette, and twins Florence Rachel (1914-94) and John William. Florence married Clarence A. Riddell (1911-) in 1934. They had three children: Sharon Kay (1937-), John Arthur (1943-43), and James Allen (1944-).

(6) John Hammet (1775-1834) was one of five children of Richard Hammet (17xx-1820) of Ireland. John, who was born in Dunmanway, Cork County, Ireland, came to America in 1816 and was on a plantation for Gen. John A. Preston in Virginia until about 1826. In 1818, he married Dianna Gardner in Virginia; they moved to the McDowell farms near Paris, Ky., in 1826, and to Camargo, Ill., in 1830. John and Dianna and had 8 children: Richard Dabney, John Preston, William Soule, James Richard, Martha Ann, Virginia, Louisa, and Eliza Gardner.

William Soule Hammet (1823-1900) of Camargo married Rachel lane Wibley in 1856; they had seven children Emma Bell, Virginia Mann, Charles Buck, William Allen, John Burnham, Clarence Wibley, and Laura.

(7) His first letter to her was sent from Robinson, Colo., on June 22, 1881.

(8) Virginia Mann Hammet's niece, Florence Hammet Riddel (1914-94) of Villa Grove, also preserved and hand-copied many of the early letters of the Hammet family, dating back to the early 1800s, and kept a meticulous family tree. I am indebted to Florence's husband, Clarence A. Riddell, for a copy of her work.

(9) Maynard M. Miller, a professor of geology at the University of Idaho, has been supervising the Juneau Ice Flow Research Project since its inception as an Office of Naval Research project in the late 1940s. At the time, Maynard Miller and Arthur Gilkey were graduate students under Professor Bucher at Columbia, Maynard being the more senior. In 1952. "I asked Art to serve as my administrative assistant for the expedition," Miller recalls. The job involved "myriads of details" related to field operations supporting the work of about 18 scientists. "The Juneau Ice held is the fifth largest ice field in the world. Art had a particular interest in the structural geology of bedrock materials." Art's work on the Juneau Ice held formed the basis of his master's thesis (1951) at Columbia.

(10) Robert H. Bates and Charles S. Houston, members of the First American Karakoram Expedition in 1938, selected the six other members of the Third American Karakoram Expedition of 1953, choosing from about 50 applicants. "Art and I Took to each other immediately," Bob Bates recalls at his home in Exeter, N.H., where members of the Third Expedition packed their supplies for the climb. "His eyes would sparkle. He had the keenest outlook and 'get up and go' of anyone. Although he was always considerate of other people, he was eager to push on. Art had the idea that we would all get to the top."

At the time of the 1953 expedition, Robert H. Bates was a professor of English at Phillips Exeter Academy. Bates and Houston are coauthors of the book K2 - The Savage Mountain (McGraw-Hill,1954; revised and reprinted by The Mountaineers/Diadem, 1979). The two authors have been asked by Edward Burlingame to revise their book again for Harper's new "Adventure Library" series.

(11) Art's chances of survival were extremely small. According to Or. Houston, Art's thrombophlebitis was a complication due to thickened blood at high altitude, acclimatizing to inactivity during the storm, and dehydration. "The problem is not rare," he says, "but then was unknown among mountaineers. However, even in a hospital, treatment is often useless; in our situation, l could do nothing to save him."

(12) Robert H. Bates also flew to England to examine the clothing. Bates still has the jacket he was wearing during the fall which nearly took his life and those of five others in the party. His jacket is identical to the one Art was wearing at the time of his death.

Except for Art Gilkey and Col. Ata-Ullah (the Pakistani base camp officer), all the members of the 1953 expedition are still alive; they have always maintained close ties. Their most recent reunion took place in December 1993 in Denver.

(13) Arthur K. Gilkey received his PhD. from Columbia University posthumously in June 1954. Until his death in 1953, he had been a structural geology student in the Department of Geology, working under Prof. Walter H. Bucher. Gilkey's Ph.D. thesis was entitled "Fracture patterns of the Zuni uplift."

Gilkey Tower, named after Arthur Karr Gilkey, a noted Grand Teton National Park mountain guide.

(14) Gilkey's Tower is a sharp pinnacle, located between Cloudveil Dome and the South Teton, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. The formation was first climbed by Fritiof Fryxell in 1927. Fryxell, a professor of geology at Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., was the park's first ranger-naturalist; he worked in the park from 1929 to 1939 and pioneered many of the routes there. (See photograph by Jim Olson)


Table Of Contents