Mignon Talbot

American paleontologist

Mignon Talbot (August 16, 1869 – July 18, 1950) was an American paleontologist. Talbot recovered and named the only known fossils of the dinosaur Podokesaurus holyokensis, which were found near Mount Holyoke College in 1910, and published a scientific description of the specimen in 1911. In 1909 she became the first woman elected to be a member of the Paleontological Society. In the state of New York, she contributed to the Helderbergian crinoids and studied the faunas of Stafford limestone. In 1908, Talbot became professor and chairman of the Geology department. In 1929, she became the chairman of both Geology and Geography departments. and almost all the specimens were destroyed, including the one extant partial skeleton of Podokesaurus. Talbot retired in 1935 and is said to have remained passionate about her profession. The specimen was formally described in June 1911 by Talbot, who thereby became the first woman to discover and name a non bird dinosaur. Many of her research notes are considered historical artifacts. Talbot's contributions to geology were later reproduced in a collection decided upon by various scholars.

Talbot's maternal grandfather was a doctor, and her father served as the superintendent of a school for deaf children. Even though her parents died within days of each other in 1899, by that time her family situation had allowed her to pursue a post secondary education and further a career in academia. She served as a high school teacher in Columbus, Ohio even while continuing graduate work at the State University and at the same time "keeping up a home for [her younger] brothers." She left Ohio to continue her study of paleontology full time at Yale beginning in early 1903. She was one of four children, her sister being Dr. Ellen Bliss Talbot, a professor of philosophy at the same college—Mount Holyoke College—as Mignon, and two brothers, Herbert S. Talbot and Benjamin Talbot. Throughout her years of university, she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, serving on the national council of that organization, and Phi Beta Kappa. After her successful career as a paleontologist and professor, she retired in Stevens House, South Hadley.