Skip to main content

Modernizing Natural History: Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Transition

Journal of the History of Biology volume 46, pages 369–400 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century calls to modernize natural history motivated a range of responses. It was unclear how research in natural history museums would participate in the significant technological and conceptual changes that were occurring in the life sciences. By the 1960s, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, was among the few university-based natural history museums that were able to maintain their specimen collections and support active research. The MVZ therefore provides a window to the modernization of natural history. This paper concentrates on the directorial transitions that occurred at the MVZ between 1965 and 1971. During this period, the MVZ had four directors: Alden H. Miller (Director 1940–1965), an ornithologist; Aldo Starker Leopold (Acting Director 1965–1966), a conservationist and wildlife biologist; Oliver P. Pearson (Director 1966–1971), a physiologist and mammalogist; and David B. Wake (Director 1971–1998), a morphologist, developmental biologist, and herpetologist. The paper explores how a diversity of overlapping modernization strategies, including hiring new faculty, building infrastructure to study live animals, establishing new kinds of collections, and building modern laboratories combined to maintain collections at the MVZ’s core. The paper examines the tensions between the different modernization strategies to inform an analysis of how and why some changes were institutionalized while others were short-lived. By exploring the modernization of collections-based research, this paper emphasizes the importance of collections in the transformation of the life sciences.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

43,34 €

Price includes VAT (Finland)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Alagona, Peter S. 2004. “Biography of a ‘Feathered Pig’: The California Condor Conservation Controversy.’ Journal of the History of Biology 37: 557–583.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Appel, Toby. 2000. Shaping Biology: The National Science Foundation and American Biological Research, 1945–1975. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartholomew, George. 1986. “The Role of Natural History in Contemporary Biology.” BioScience 36: 324–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartholomew, George to Seth Benson, 7 April 1947, Pearson personal correspondence files, Orinda CA.

  • Benson, Etienne. 2011. “A Difficult Time with the Permit Process.” Journal of the History of Biology 44: 103–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Etienne.2012. “Endangered Species: The Regulation of Research by the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection and Endangered Species Acts.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 42: 30–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Keith. 1988. “From Museum Research to Laboratory Research: The Transformation of Natural History into Academic Biology.” Ronald Rainger, Keith R. Benson, and Jane Maienschein (eds.), The American Development of Biology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 49–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, Luther J. 1980. “The Leopolds: A Family of Naturalists.” Science 207: 1051–1055.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Confidential committee report, 5 July 1966, MVZ director transition folder compiled by William Z. Lidicker, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Archives, MVZ, Berkeley, CA.

  • Dietrich, Michael R. 1998. “Paradox and Persuasion: Negotiating the Place of Molecular Evolution within Evolutionary Biology.” Journal of the History of Biology 31: 85–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietrich, Michael R. 2008. “Molecular Evolution.” S. Sahotra and A. Plutynski (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, p. 159. doi:10.1002/9780470696590.ch9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky, T. 1966. “Are Naturalists Old-Fashioned?” The American Naturalist 100: 541–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eakin, Richard. 1956. “History of Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley.” Bios 27: 67–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eakin, Richard, 10 December 1965, “Alden Miller, an experimentalist,” Alden Miller Memorial Seminar, Miller Obituary Archives, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA.

  • Fretter, W. B. to Chairman Smith, 25 October 1966, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology archives, folder: Letters and Science. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA.

  • Gerson, Elihu M. 1998. The American system of research: Evolutionary biology, 1890–1950. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.

  • Gerson, Elihu M. 2007. “The Juncture of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology.” Manfred D. Laubichler and Jane Maienschein (eds.), From Embryology to Evo-Devo: A History of Developmental Evolution. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 435–463.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, Ann. 1991. “Systematics Goes Molecular.” Science 251: 872–874.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glickman, Stephen, Zucker, Irving. 1989. “Frank A. Beach (1911–1988).” American Psychologist 44: 1234–1235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorman, Geore C., and Atkins, Leonard. 1966. “Chromosomal Heteromophism in Some Male Lizards of the Genus Anolis.” The American Naturalist 100: 579–583.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorman, George C., and Dessauer, Herbert. 1965. “Hemoglobin and Transferrin Electrophoresis and Relationships of Island Populations of Anolis Lizards.” Science 150: 1454–1455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorman, George C., and Dessauer, Herbert. 1966. “The Relationships of Anolis of the Roquet Species Group (Sauria: Iguanidae) – I. Electrophoretic Comparison of Blood Proteins.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 19: 845–853.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorman, George to Oliver P. Pearson, 15 May 1967, Pearson Home Archives, Orinda, CA.

  • Gorman, George, 19 December 2011. Interview with Mary Sunderland, Berkeley, CA.

  • Gould, S.J., and Lewontin, R.C. 1979. “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 205: 581–598.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griesemer, James R. 1990. “Modeling in the Museum: On the Role of Remnant Models in the Work of Joseph Grinnell.” Biology and Philosophy 5: 3–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griesemer, James R. 1991. “Material models in biology.” A. Fine, M. Forbes, and L. Wessels (eds.), PSA 1990, 2 vols. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 79–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griesemer, James R. 1992. ``Niche: Historical perspectives.” Evelyn Fox Keller and Elisabeth A. Lloyd (eds.), Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 231–240.

  • Griesemer, James R., and Gerson, Elihu M. 1993. “Collaboration in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.” Journal of the History of Biology 26: 185–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grinnell, Joseph. 1910. “The Methods and Uses of a Research Museum.” The Popular Science Monthly 77: 163–169.

  • Hagen, Joel B. 1984. “Experimentalists and Naturalists in Twentieth-Century Botany: Experimental Taxonomy, 1920–1950.” Journal of the History of Biology 17: 249–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, Joel B. 1999. “Naturalists, Molecular Biologists, and the Challenges of Molecular Evolution.” Journal of the History of Biology 32: 321–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, Joel B. 2000. “The Origins of Bioinformatics.” Nature Reviews Genetics 1: 231–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, Joel B. 2001. “The Introduction of Computers into Systematic Research in the United States During the 1960s.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 32: 291–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, Joel B. 2010. “Waiting for Sequences: Morris Goodman, Immunodiffusion Experiments, and the Origins of Molecular Anthropology.” Journal of the History of Biology 43: 697–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyns, Roger W. to Oliver P. Pearson, 27 March 1967, Pearson Home Archives, Orinda CA.

  • Johnson, 31 October 1966, Ned Johnson correspondence files, MVZ

  • Johnson, Ned to Robert Connick, 29 March 1966, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Correspondence filed, folder: Ned Johnson.

  • Kelt, Douglas A., Lessa, Enrique P., Salazar-Bravo, Jorge, Patton, and James L. (eds.). 2007. The Quintessential Naturalist: Honoring the Life and Legacy of Oliver P. Pearson. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, Robert E. 2007. “Finders, Keepers: Collecting Sciences and Collecting Practices.” History of Science 45: 428–454.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory. 1988. “Museums on Campus: A Tradition of Inquiry and Teaching.” Ronald Rainger, Keith R. Benson, and Jane Maienschein (eds.), The American Development of Biology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 15–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leopold, Aldo. 1949. A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leopold, A. Starker. 3 March 1967, “Proposed Wildlife-Fisheries Program in the School of Forestry.” Wild folder, MVZ historical archives, MVZ, Berkeley, CA.

  • Leopold, A. Starker. 1983. “Wildlife Biologist” With an Introduction by Dale McCullough and an interview conducted by Carol Holleuffer, Sierra Club History Committee, 1984. Sierra Club, San Francisco, CA.

  • Lewontin, R.C. 1991. “Twenty-Five Years Ago in Genetics: Electrophoresis in the Development of Evolutionary Genetics: Milestone of Millstone?” Genetics 128: 657–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lidicker, William Z., and Patton, James L. 2009. “Obituary: Oliver Payne Pearson: 1915–2003.” Journal of Mammalogy 90: 244–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lidicker, William Z. 2010. The Miller-Pearson Transition as Directors of the MVZ. Berkeley, CA: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst. 1942a. Systematics and the Origin of Species. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst. 1942b. “Review: Speciation in the Junco.” Ecology 23: 378–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst. 1973. “Alden Holmes Miller.” Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 43: 177–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst, and Provine, William B. (eds.). 1980. The Evolutionary Synthesis: Perspectives on the Unification of Biology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCabe, Robert. 1990. “Aldo Starker Leopold.” Biographical Memoirs on the National Academy of Sciences 59: 236–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCullough, Dale. 1988. “A. Starker Leopold, 1913–1983.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 69: 21–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milam, Erika M. 2009. “The Experimental Animal from the Naturalist’s Point of View.” Joe Cain and Michael Ruse (eds.), Descended From Darwin: Insights into the History of Evolutionary Studies, 1900–1970. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, pp. 157–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milam, Erika M. 2010. “The Equally Wonderful Field: Ernst Mayr and Organismic Biology.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 40: 279–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Alden H. 1938. “Hybridization of Juncos in Captivity.” The Condor 40: 92–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Alden H. 1940. Field Technique in Collecting for a Research Museum. The Museum News March 1.

  • Miller, Alden H. 1941. “Speciation in the avian genus Junco.” University of California Publications in Zoology 44: 173–434.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Alden H. 1963. “The Curator as Research Worker.” Curator 6: 282–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Alden, and Miller, Virginia Dove. 1966. “The Behavioral Ecology and Breeding Biology of the Andean Sparrow, Zonotrichia capensis.” Caldasia 10: 83–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Alden H. to Dean Lincoln Constance, 8 May 1957, Zoology Department Correspondence, Historical Correspondence, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA.

  • Miller, Alden H. to President Sproul, 18 March 1946, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Correspondence Files, President’s correspondence folder, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA.

  • Mitman, Gregg. 1993. “Cinematic Nature: Hollywood Technology, Popular Culture, and The American Museum of Natural History.” Isis 84: 637–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitman, Gregg, Burkhardt, and Richard W. Jr. 1991. “Struggling for Identity: The Study of Animal Behavior in America, 1930–1945.” Keith R. Benson, Jane Maienschein, and Ronald Rainger (eds.), The Expansion of American Biology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 164–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morange, Michel. 2011. “What history tells us XXIII. The genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees: What did Mary-Claire King and Allan Wilson really say in 1975?” Journal of Biosciences 36: 23–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Thesis Database. MVZ Digital Archives, MVZ, Berkeley, CA. accessed 9 February 2010.

  • Nakanishi, M., Wilson, A.C., Nolan, R.A., Gorman, G.C., and Bailey, G.S. 1969. “Phenoxyethanol: Protein Preservative for Taxonomists.” Science 163: 681–683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Research Council. 1969. Systematic Biology: Proceedings of an International Conference Conducted at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 14-16, 1967. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.

  • November, Joseph. 2006. Digitizing Life: The Introduction of Computers to Biology and Medicine. PhD Dissertation, Princeton University.

  • Nyhart, Lynne K. 2009. Modern Nature: The Rise of the Biological Perspective in Germany. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • NSF-MVZ “Support of Frozen Tissue Collection and Evolutionary Genetics Laboratory of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology,” December 1977. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology archives, Berkeley, CA.

  • Patton, James L. 1967. “Chromosome Studies of Certain Pocket Mice, Genus Perognathus (Rodentia: Heteromyidae).” Journal of Mammalogy 48: 27–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patton, James L. 2 September 2011, Interview with Mary Sunderland, MVZ, Berkeley, CA.

  • Pearson, Oliver P. 1947. ``The Rate of Metabolism of Some Small Mammals.'' Ecology 28: 127–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, Oliver P. 1948. “Life History of Mountain Viscachas in Peru.” Journal of Mammalogy 29(345–374): 345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, Oliver P. 1950. “The Metabolism of Hummingbirds.” The Condor 52: 145–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, Oliver P. to Walter D. Knight, 25 September 1970, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology correspondence, folder: Pearson.

  • Pearson, Oliver P. to Robert E. Connick, Vice Chancellor, 23 March, 1966, Pearson correspondence, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA.

  • Pearson, Oliver P. to Robert E. Connick, Vice Chancellor, 7 July 1967, Chancellor Correspondence 1963–1973 folder, MVZ reprint room archives, MVZ, Berkeley, CA.

  • Pearson, Oliver P. 1967. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology annual reports. Berkeley, CA: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickstone, John V. 1994. “Museological Science? The Place of the Analytical/Comparative in Nineteenth-Century Science, Technology and Medicine.” History of Science 32: 111–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitelka, Frank to Robert Connick, 1 April 1966, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology transition folder, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley.

  • Rader, Karen A., and Cain, Victoria E.M. 2008. “From Natural History to Science: Display and the Transformation of American Museums of Science and Nature.” Museum and Society 6: 152–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rait, Ralph. 1984. “In Memoriam: A. Starker Leopold.” The Auk 101: 868–871.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez-Robles, Javier A., and Greene, Harry W. 2005. “Genes, Rats, and Sinking Boats: A Biographical Perspective on James L. Patton.” Eileen A. Lacey and Philip Myers (eds.), Mammalian Diversification: From Chromosomes to Phylogeography (A Celebration of the Career of James L. Patton). Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 5–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, Sahotra, Conservation Biology, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/conservation-biology

  • Schmidt, KP. 1936. “Guatemalan Salamanders of the Genus Oedipus.” Zoological Series. Field Museum Natural History 322: 15–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selander, R.K., Hunt, W.G., and Yang, W.Y. 1969. “Protein Polymorphism and Genic Heterozygosity in Two European Subspecies of the House Mouse.” Evolution 23: 379–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selander, R.K., and Yang, S.Y. 1969. “Protein Polymorphism and Genic Heterozygosity in a Wild Population of the House Mouse (Mus Musculus).” Genetics 63: 653–667.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shavit, Ayelet, and Griesemer, James. 2009. “There and Back Again, or the Problem of Locality in Biodiversity Surveys.” Philosophy of Science 76: 273–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibley, Charles G. to Ernst Mayr, 22 February 1966, Miller Obituary Folder, MVZ correspondence files, MVZ, Berkeley, CA.

  • Smocovitis, V.B. 1992. “Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology.” Journal of the History of Biology 25: 1–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smocovitis, V.B. 1996. Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Star, Susan Leigh, and Griesemer, James R. 1989. “Institutional ecology, ‘translations’ and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–1939.” Social Studies of Science 19: 387–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, Barbara R. 2001. On her own terms: Annie Montague Alexander and the rise of science in the American West. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strasser, Bruno J. 2010a. “Laboratories, Museums, and the Comparative Perspective: Alan A. Boyden’s Quest for Objectivity in Serological Taxonomy, 1924–1962.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 40: 149–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strasser, Bruno J. 2010b. “Collection, Comparing, and Computing Sequences: The Making of Margaret O. Dayhoff’s Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, 1954–1965.” Journal of the History of Biology 43: 623–660.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strasser, Bruno J. 2011. “The Experimenter’s Museum: GenBank, Natural History, and the Moral Economy of Biomedicine.” Isis 102: 60–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strasser, Bruno J., and de Chadarevian, Soraya. 2011. “The Comparative and the Exemplary: Revisiting the Early History of Molecular Biology.” History of Science 49: 317–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunderland, Mary E. 2011. Teaching Natural History at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. British Journal for the History of Science. doi:10.1017/S0007087411000872

  • Sunderland, Mary E. 2012. “Collections-Based Research at Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 42: 83–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sunderland, Mary E., Klitz, Karen, and Yoshihara, Kristine. 2012. “Doing Natural History.” BioScience 62: 824–829.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, EH. 1944. “The Genera of Plethodont Salamanders in Mexico, Pt. I.” The University of Kansas Science Bulletin 30: 189–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Underhill, Robert M. to A. Miller, 23 March 1933, MP, carton: 3, California University Regents folder.

  • Vernon, Keith. 1988. “The Founding of Numerical Taxonomy.” The British Journal for the History of Science 21: 143–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vernon, Keith. 1993. “Desperately Seeking Status: Evolutionary Systematics and the Taxonomists’ Search for Respectability 1940–60.” The British Journal for the History of Science 26: 207–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wake, David B. 1966. “Comparative Osteology and Evolution of the Lungless Salamanders, Family Plethodontidae.” Memoir of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 4: 1–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wake, David B. 1970. “The Abundance and Diversity of Tropical Salamanders.” American Naturalist 104: 211–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wake, David B. 2007. Oral History. Berkeley, CA: University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wake, David B. 2011. Interview with Mary Sunderland. Berkeley, CA: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, H. R. to Lincoln Constance, 18 August 1965, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology archives, folder: Letters and Science, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA.

  • Winsor, Mary P. 1991. Reading the Shape of Nature: Comparative Zoology at the Agassiz Museum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Office for History of Science and Technology, University of California, 543 Stephens Hall #2350, Berkeley, CA, 94720-2350, USA

    Mary E. Sunderland

Authors
  1. Mary E. Sunderland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary E. Sunderland.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sunderland, M.E. Modernizing Natural History: Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Transition. J Hist Biol 46, 369–400 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-012-9339-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-012-9339-3

Keywords

  • Natural history
  • Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
  • Evolutionary genetics
  • Conservation
  • Evolution
  • Collections