Necessity for Invention

Henry Stetson, an assistant curator of paleontology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, was among the earliest appointments to the WHOI staff.  As research associate in submarine geology, he designed early seafloor coring and dredging equipment. He began to dredge rocks and to core sediments from nearby continental margins as early as Atlantis Cruise #34 in 1934. Shown here circa 1953, he stands next to the top section of the Hvorsler-Stetson corer.
(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)