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MBLSciShoots: History of the MBL

Published on May 6, 2020
MBLSciShoots: History of the MBL
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Did you know that there was just a single class taught during MBL’s inaugural season? Or that that first summer, seven scientific investigators came to Woods Hole (and four of them were women)? Take a trip back to 1888 with Jen Walton, MBL Archivist and co-director of the MBL-WHOI Library, to learn all abut the first 25 years of the Marine Biological Laboratory in our latest #MBLSciShoots video lesson.

Learn more about the MBL-WHOI Library.

Related Reading

Historical Photo and Document Archives | MBL-WHOI Library

History of the Marine Biological Laboratory | MBL History Project

Questions from the Audience

Have any courses been taught every year since MBL opened?

The original courses were invertebrate zoology (1888-1988) and marine botany (1888-1979)  although the name changed a few times. Of the courses still taught today the oldest are Physiology (1892) and Embryology (1893)!

You said four of the investigators that came that first year were women. Was that by intention? (Did they reach out to women intentionally?)

It was the intention of the founders of the Lab to include women. The Boston Women’s Educational Association intended that the lab would provide the opportunity for women to get instruction and do research. The original announcement does not specifically mention women, however it was sent to women’s colleges.

Have Questions for the Jen? Fill out this form and we will update this post with the answers!


Watch the rest of the MBLSciShoot videos on our Youtube channel.

Posted in @MBL | Tagged History, library, mbl-whoi library, MBLSciShoots

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One Response

  1. Harold Burstyn says:
    May 16, 2020 at 1:16 am

    In 1973 we celebrated at MBL the Centennial of the Anderson School that Louis Agassiz founded. For the role of women in that first year, see Joan N. Burstyn, “Early Women in Higher Education: The Role of the Anderson School of Natural History,” Journal of Education, 159, no. 3 (August 1977): 50-64.

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