SEPTEMBER 11, 2018
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Speaker: Albert Kollar, Geologist, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
John Kane and his family emigrated from Scotland in the late 19th century and settled in Port Perry near the present day United States Steel Edgar Thomson Works. Most of the landscapes were drawn from his experiences living near the George Westinghouse Bridge (Turtle Creek Valley No. 1, circa 1930), Frick Park (Nine Mile Run seen from Calvary, circa 1928), and Schenley Park (Panther Hollow, Pittsburgh, circa 1933-1934). Mr. Kollar will discuss his 2010 publication “Geology, Landscape, and John Kane’s Landscape Paintings.
About the Speaker: from Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Albert D. Kollar is a scientist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the section head in the Section of Invertebrate Paleontology and is responsible for the collection management of more than 800,000 invertebrate fossils and rocks some of which are approximately 1 billion years old.
Mr. Kollar has degrees in Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology. He has conducted research and field work throughout the United States, in Alaska, Canada, England, Wales Germany, and Sweden. He has authored more than 30 research papers on fossil brachiopods, reefs, climate change, and the geology of Carnegie dinosaurs, eurypterids and fossil amphibians.
Current research includes an assessment of the geology, architectural, and cultural significance of thirty architectural stones, used in the exterior and interior construction of the Carnegie Institute in 1895, 1907, and 1974. All these stones from Algeria, Croatia, Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Norwegian, and the United States have historical importance. Many were used in Greek, Roman and Venetian antiquities for sculpture and buildings. Mr. Kollar traveled to Croatia and Ireland in 2015 to research the original rock quarries. Future travel is planned for France and Italy.
Mr. Kollar has presented well over a hundred geology seminars and fossil field trips throughout western Pennsylvania for schools, regional parks, community organizations, conservancies, and professional meetings. He has organized several forums on Energy and History of Fossil Fuels of Western Pennsylvania at the University of Pittsburgh Osher Institute. He has collaborated with the Shady Side Academy Middle School – Earth Science program for more than a decade on earth history and the geology of fossil fuels of western Pennsylvania.
Albert is past President of the Pittsburgh Geological Society from 2011 – 2014. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity, Geological Society of America, Global Heritage Stone, and The Pittsburgh Geological Society.
Squirrel Hill Historical Society 