Geology has been taught at the University of Kansas since the school's founding in 1866. Francis Huntington Snow taught the natural sciences when the university opened, including geology. He worked effortlessly to expand the natural science programs, including geology. In 1890 after becoming, Snow was intent on building the university's reputation in the sciences, leading him to hire scientists Samuel Wendell Williston and Erasmus Haworth.

In 1892, Haworth was hired as a professor of geology and mineralogy and to create the department of geology. He created a curriculum for an undergraduate degree in geology. Graduate courses would also be offered, and fieldwork would be required for advanced undergraduate students.

As the university expanded, so did the Geology department. The department moved from North Hall to old Fraser and in 1909 into the newly completed Geology and Mining Engineering Building. The name of the building would be changed to Haworth in honor of Erasmus Haworth, who continued to lead the department until 1920. The department would relocate again in 1945 when it moved to the newly constructed Lindley Hall.

In 1916, Professor R.C. Moore arrived at the University of Kansas to teach in the Geology Department. During Moore's period at KU, the Geology Department excelled in stratigraphy and paleontology. Moore published continuously and his ideas on genetic stratigraphy was the forerunner of sequence stratigraphy and cyclic sedimentation. Moore is the most decorated KU geologist-paleontologist of all time. In 1973, Raymond C. Moore Hall was constructed on West Campus to house the Kansas Geological Survey, in which Moore was also active during his time at KU. It is in part of Moore's foundational work in geology that the University of Kansas Department of Geology continues to be ranked highly among other university and college programs across the nation.

Today's geology department has programs in Geobiology, Geophysics, Glaciology, Hydrogeology, Paleontology, Sedementary Geology, and Tectonics, with multiple fields within this programs.

(History from Daniel F. Merriam, Geology at The University of Kansas: The First Century (1866-1966) and a Bit Beyond. Lawrence: University of Kansas Department of Geology and Paleontological Institute, 2009.)