Since its founding in 1887, the Logan Club has provided a significant strand in the history of the Geological Survey of Canada. Its raison d'être continues today - the Club is the Survey staff's forum for presentations and discussions on earth science topics. In its mid-life, however, its scope and impact were much broader and engaged its members more actively. In those decades the Logan Club was also the professional staff's forum and voice to management on operational concerns in the field and offices and on the Survey's relationship to its community.

When the Club originated in 1887 the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, numbering 53 all told from caretaker to director, was housed at the corner of Sussex and George streets in the stone building that today is a historic monument. The Survey had moved from Montreal only a few years previously and was best known to Ottawa's citizens as the Geological Museum, for good reason. Public education was important to the Survey: its museum had 17,575 visitors that year and would have been open on Sundays if the Survey had its way. Many of the staff were engaged in the era's truly great explorations of Canada's new northern and western lands and were, by training, inclination or necessity, naturalists as well as geological generalists.

1887-1888

The first such record in the red notebook is headed "Meeting of the Logan Club in room over Terrapin Restaurant". It includes the names of attendees (except for Whiteaves'), the evening's discussion topic ("Methods of Fieldwork"), and states that the Secretary read the minutes of the last meeting. This record is of the Logan Club's first full-scale meeting, i.e., the first to include programmed discussion on a scientific theme, probably in November or early December 1887. One or more organizational meetings evidently preceded it, during which the members named their new club for the Survey's founding director who had died twelve years previously, devised a constitution (evidence presented below), established a funding system, and chose E.D. Ingall as secretary-treasurer.

Under the heading "2^nd Meeting. Meeting of Friday [date blank] Dec. '87 at Terrapin Room" (financial records elsewhere in the book give the date as 16 December) the next minutes record agreement to hold future meetings on the first and third Fridays of each month "beginning with the first Friday in Jan. '88 (so as not to interfere with the Medico-Chirugical Society)". This schedule reflects the influence of geologist Robert Bell, M.D. The next meeting, entitled 3^rd, was on Friday, 6 January 1888.

Twenty nine men signed the Roll of Members of the Logan Club in the red notebook: F.D. Adams, H.M. Ami, S. Barlow, R. Bell, A. Bowman, A.S. Cochrane, E. Coste, G.M. Dawson, D.B. Dowling, R.W. Ells, H. Fletcher, N.J. Giroux, R.A.A. Johnston, L.M. Lambe, A.C. Lawson, A.P. Low, John Macoun, James M. Macoun, J. McEvoy, W. McInnes, L.N. Richard, A.R.C. Selwyn, W.H. Smith, J.B. Tyrrell, T.C. Weston, J. White, J.F. Whiteaves and C.W. Willimott. The name of one Survey man is significantly absent. R.G. McConnell was wintering, and working, on the Mackenzie River in the course of a remarkable geological reconnaissance of northern British Columbia, the Mackenzie and tributaries, into northern Alaska and through the Yukon, during a "field season" that extended from April, 1887 to October, 1888.

Young Andrew C. Lawson sparked the founding of the Logan Club. At the last meeting of its 1887-88 season the members tendered a vote of thanks "to Mr. Lawson for the important part he took in starting the idea of the Club and its inauguration". In that autumn of 1887 Andy Lawson was fresh from fieldwork at Rainy Lake, Ontario, where the rocks were giving him revolutionary ideas on Precambrian geology; ideas that the Survey establishment had difficulty in digesting comfortably. In 1888 he took his new interpretations to the International Geological Congress in London, where he was heartened by their reception. In that year he became Dr. Lawson, the first member of the GSC to achieve the Ph.D.

The meetings were evening events. At the first full-scale meeting Ingall gave notice of a motion for the second meeting "In order not to weary the members of the more formal discussion the chairman leave the chair at 2200" (hours). The Terrapin Restaurant at 11-13 O'Connor Street was a convivial, convenient location, within easy walking distance for most of the members in the small Ottawa of that day, especially for George Dawson who lived just around the corner on Wellington Street.

The Club operated on a committee system: at each meeting a committee of two or three was appointed to be responsible for the next meeting, which one of them would chair and another might introduce the topic of the evening. The sole continuing officer was the secretary-treasurer. Funding was by periodic assessments on the members: in 1887-88 there were two, (40 cents and 50 cents) and in 1888-89 three (50 cents, 50 cents and 15 cents).

After the topic "Methods of Field Work" at the first meeting there came two sessions on the Archean introduced by Lawson. Topics of the following meetings were Volcanic rocks in stratigraphy, Prehistoric man, Cretaceous rocks in Canada, the Quebec Group, Natural gas and petroleum, Postglacial lake basins and the first dry land. The last meeting of the 1887-88 season was to be on subjects for discussion during the next season but "this intention was not altogether stuck to, some really brought forward short discussions on controversial subjects". These were: Relationship of Huronian and Quebec Groups (Selwyn), Theory to account for boulders (Ells) and Statement of views of Irving, Winchell, Bonney etc on the Animikie being Huronian (Lawson).

1888-1889

On 7 December, 1888 Lawson duly moved and Ingall seconded this motion. After spirited discussions the members voted to postpone the issue until the "end of the Session" (i.e. presumably, the end of the season). An amendment or separate proposal by Ells, seconded by Tyrrell, for an Honourary Member category was defeated. John Macoun observed that a club member could require that voting on these questions be by ballot. The minutes for 1888-89 make no further reference to these issues. This is our only information on the existence of the formal constitution of the original Logan Club. Our next record of discussion on a formal constitution comes half a century later.

The early restriction on membership obviously did not preclude visitors; there were one or more at most of the meetings in 1888-89.

That meeting on 7 December, 1888 is notable for reasons other than the constitution. After the business matters, Lawson regaled the members with an account of the International Geological Congress. They then repaired to an oyster supper. Here Lawson presented "Mente et Malleo" whose lines "By thought and dint of hammering. . . . . . . ", now known widely among geologists, are dedicated to "the Logan Club on the occasion of its First Annual Symposium". (This word has various definitions but "ancient Greek after-dinner drinking party with intellectual conversation, music etc." seems appropriate here). Annual dinners were a feature of the Club in later years.

The twelve meetings of the 1888-89 season were well attended and the range of discussions reflected the scope of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. Further topics were: Gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia (Faribault), Superficial geology of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Valleys (Ami), Effects of pressure on rocks (Adams), Field methods (Bowman), Methods of zoological collection (Whiteaves), Glaciation of Eastern Canada (Chalmers), Winchell on conglomerates in gneissic terrane (Selwyn), Entomological collection methods (various members), Chemical and geological relationships of iron ores (Adams) and Relationship of topographical features to geological structure (Dawson).

The minutes for 1 March, 1889 include "that this meeting consider it advisable to follow out Dr. Bell's suggestion re putting portraits of pioneer members of staff in the staff picture". This almost certainly relates to the montage of the Survey staff as of 1888, prepared by the Notman Studio, (illustrated on p.147 of M.Zaslow's "Reading the Rocks", 1975) which depicts portraits of Logan, Hunt, Billings, Murray and Richardson in the background.

This brings us to the end of our earliest Logan Club records. (The reference in "Reading the Rocks" p. 146 to a dozen meetings in 1889-90 should read "1888-89".) The next series of minutes we now have starts in November, 1896. Our scant information on the period from 1889 to 1896 comes from non-Logan Club sources.

1889-1890

1891

1892-1893

1893-1894

"If you want a new building that's somewhat secure
You must wait till the sweet bye and bye...............
For our factor of safety is now very small
T'will be less in the sweet bye and bye."

Much of his audience had the same outlook and demanded repeated encores. (Brophy's sour bye and bye came in little more than three years - - fired for his politics). H.Y. Russel (mis-spelled Russell by both newspapers), responding to a toast "The ladies" (none were present), "expressed his mournful anticipation that with the present progress of woman suffrage the chief and assistant directors of the Survey in fifty years or so would be ladies and the men would be relegated to hoisting rocks and fossils from place to place in the museum".

1894-1895

The 1895 Annual Dinner was again at the Russell (G.M. Dawson's private journal).

A fresh black notebook terminates the gap in our Logan Club records: it contains minutes of meetings from 1896 to 1906. The first entries are of a meeting in the Survey's Long Room in November, 1896 "for the purpose of iscussing the advisability of reorganizing the Logan Club". Attendees agreed to do so "as formerly" except that instead of having only a single officer, the secretary-treasurer, there should be four, an honourary president, president, vice president and secretary-treasurer. Elected to the respective positions were G.M. Dawson (unanimously) and (by ballot) R.W. Ells, W. McInnes and A.A. Cole. They agreed also to hold a dinner, to be arranged by the committee responsible for the previous dinner. Twenty-seven men signed the membership roll.

1896-1897

1898-1899

There were five further meetings in the 1898-99 season, the last in Arpil. All were on Saturdays, apparently in the evening, in Brouse's Hall, 181 Sparks Street. H.M. Ami put his stereopticon lantern at the Club's disposal. Topics were: Certain Archean conglomerates (Barlow), Baffin Island (Bell), Goldfields of Nova Scotia (Faribault), West Kootenay orebodies (Brock) and Devono-Carboniferous question in Nova Scotia (Ami).

1899-1900

1901

1901-1902

1902-1903

On 4 December, 1902 twenty-five members of the Club met in the "Ladies Ordinary" at the Russell House. R.A. Daly introduced "in a capital way" the topic 'The mechanics of intrusion'. Lively discussion prompted agreement to devote a second evening to the topic. Thereupon the members adjourned to the dining room for an oyster supper, parting afterwards "with the feeling that the resumption of the Logan Club meetings had begun under very auspicious and favourable conditions".

There was another business meeting in the Long Room on 12 December. It was agreed to include discussion of the Survey Library Extension question in the next meeting. A second assessment of half a dollar was approved and thirty men paid in then or later.

The Oddfellows hall in the Sun Life Building at the corner of Sparks and Bank was the scene for the second session on The mechanics of intrusion, on 18 December. Discussion then turned to extension of the library. A committee consisting of Dowling, Senécal, Daly, McInnes and Thorbun was elected to "look into the question and draw up a recommendation to improve the present state and submit plans of alterations". (Their report is almost certainly the one referred to by Zaslow (p. 212, 214) and, if so, the name "Logan Club" apparently did not appear in it.) Finally, a proposal to make Thomas Macfarlane an Honourary Member was carried "heartily and unanimously". The minutes make no mention of any discussion relative to a constitution, in contrast to 7 December, 1888.

The minutes for 18 December, 1902 are noteworthy for providing the first indication of the Logan Club serving as a voice for the staff on a matter of working conditions, a role that became important in later decades.

The next three meetings in the Oddfellows Hall considered Glacial phenomena in the Yukon (Keele), Individuals (sic) of stratigraphic classification (Ami) and Nickel deposits of Sudbury district (Barlow). Huckell's Hall, corner of Bank and Frank streets was the meeting place on 20 March, 1903 for Iron ores of Canada (Low, back again with the Survey). The committee for the next meeting was Dowling, Ells and Ingall but there is no evidence that it took place. The next page in the minute book is dated 1905.

1903-1905

1905-1906

The GSA was thoroughly pleased with its Ottawa meeting and with the Logan Club (GSA Proceedings of 1905 Annual Meeting, 1906). The Club looked after operation arrangements for the sessions, which were held in the Normal School on Elgin Street, provided a smoker following the presidential address, arranged the dinner and provided a reception after that. Operational expenses amounted to $98.24, $40.00 of which was for a projection lantern (and operator?). Entertainment expenses were $392.25, all but $9.75 for lithographed menu cards, incurred at the Russell, whose account was for $386.70 as follows:

Dinner - 80 plates @ $2.50 $200.00
Reception 100.00
Smoker 22.95
Wine 32.70
Cigars 23.05
Music 8.00

The Club's income to offset its total expenditure of $490.49 was $467.50 consisting of a $300 government grant and $167.50 from the sale of 67 dinner tickets. (Only 11 of the 13 additional plates the Russell charged for could be accounted in the guest list, which may explain the settlement for $382.50.) Faced with a deficit the Club canvassed its members. Twenty-five responded, four with $2.00, four with 50 cents and the rest with $1.00, so it ended $5.01 in the black.

The GSA meeting in Ottawa adopted a resolution that "it would be appropriate and desirable to hold the International Geological Congress in Ottawa in 1909". Later that day T.L. Walker, University of Toronto, who presumably was not present for the resolution, questioned its purport and effect. (Toronto succeeded in hosting the 1913 IGC sessions).

Two weeks later, on 16 January, 1906 the Logan Club met to consider whether to take action on a possible Canadian meeting of the International Congress of Geology (sic). Fifteen attended, with R.W. Ells in the chair. After long discussion and in hope of greater participation they adjourned until 19 January. In that meeting, with 23 in attendance, vigourous discussion on a motion and countering amendments resulted in a decision to take no action on 1909 and none on 1912 (sic) until after the 1909 Congress.

Blank pages follow this entry in the Minute Book and our knowledge of the Logan Club is completely blank until the first entry in a new book on 4 November, 1925. Efforts to locate probable missing records have been unsuccessful).

The Logan Club's on again-off again course in its first two decades likely reflects problems the Survey faced, as Zaslow (p.146) pointed out. Good men left because of pay and program restrictions, some who remained became disgruntled, and animosities developed between a few of the strong-willed oldtimers. With the pool of enthusiastic young iconoclasts depleted and the views of veterans well known, interest in evening discussions would slacken, despite the rekindling effect of some of the animosities.

The Club may well have been buoyed up and beefed up after Brock took the Survey's helm and was able to bring in enthusiastic recruits with new ideas and skills. Preparation for the 1913 IGC, to say nothing of the Congress itself, would have provided fodder for discussions and raised esprit de corps. But then came the War and, again, the departure of good men. We can only conjecture what was happening to the Club.

The red field notebook that breaks the gap in our information commences on its page 1 on 4 November, 1925 with "The first meeting of the Logan Club after the field season of 1925 was held......" thus giving no suggestion of a hiatus other than the normal one of a field season. At least one prior set of minutes must be missing.

G. B. Leech