Born in
Lachute, Canada East, the son of Francis Coleman (an ordained minister) and Emmeline Maria Adams, he received his
Bachelor of Arts in 1876 and
Master of Arts in 1880 from
Victoria College in
Cobourg, Ontario. He received a
Ph.D. at the
University of Breslau in 1881. Coleman joined the department of geology and natural history at Victoria College in 1882 as a professor. From 1891 to 1901, he was a professor of geology at the School of Practical Science in Toronto. From 1893 to 1909, he was a geologist at the Bureau of Mines of the
Government of Ontario. From 1901 to 1922, he was a professor of geology at the
University of Toronto and was
dean of the
Faculty of Arts from 1919 to 1922. From 1931 to 1934, he was a geologist with the Department of Mines of the Government of Ontario. In 1886, Coleman was the first to describe one of the most important (both scientifically and historically) and largest meteorites to ever fall in Canada. This 145 kg
iron–nickel meteorite, likely the differentiated centre of a failed protoplanet, is called the , Creator's Stone, or Iron Creek meteorite. In 1898, Coleman led a field expedition with the intent of surveying resources, along with the Geologist
George Mercer Dawson and the famed anarchist,
Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin gave his credit to Coleman, writing he was "well acquainted with the mining region of Central Canada." from analysis of a geological formation near
Lake Huron. Coleman was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada in 1900 and was its president in 1921. He was awarded the
Murchison Medal of the
Geological Society of London in 1910 and in 1928 was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's
Flavelle Medal. In 1902, he was elected President of the
Royal Canadian Institute and in 1910, he was made a fellow of the
Royal Society. In 1929, he was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the
Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He was author of: •
Reports on the Economic Geology of Ontario (1903) •
Lake Ojibway; Last of the Great Glacial Lakes (1909) •
The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails (1911) •
Ice Ages, Recent and Ancient (1926), and was co-author of
Elementary Geology (1922). •
The Last Million Years (1941) Edited by George F. Kay •
A meteorite from the northwest (1886) He achieved the first ascent of
Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb
Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giant mountains
Hooker and Brown. Coleman was awarded the
Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America in 1936. His younger half-sister was poet
Helena Coleman; the two shared a home in Toronto for much of their adult lives. ==Legacy==