Joseph Augustine Cushman

[1][2][3][4] He specialized in the study of marine protozoans (foraminifera) and became the foremost foraminiferologist of the first half of the twentieth century, developing to a "world-famous system of discovering petroleum deposits".

[6] His parents were Jane Frances (née Fuller and Pratt) and Darius Cushman; this was a second marriage for both.

[7] He planned on studying medicine but this changed due to financial circumstances when his father died shortly after his graduation.

[2][3][4] Next to his home in Sharon, Massachusetts, he constructed a building that would become the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research in 1923.

[2][4] In his laboratory, he conducted research, worked as a consultant for oil companies, and taught classes in micropaleontology to undergraduate and graduate students.

[5] In 1925, he established the journal, Contributions from the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research, which published many of his papers.

[3] Cushman bequeathed his collections and library to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

[11][5] Cushman married Alice Edna Wilson at her home Steep Brook in Fall River, Massachusetts on October 7, 1903.

[1] In January 1913, Cushman's engagement to Frieda Gerlach Billings of Sharon was announced.