Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

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CuratorofOrnithologyattheAmericanMuseumofNaturalHistory 113 sexual dimorphism of Passer species and some other birds was not affected by male or female gonadal hormones or else that it is affected by a pituitary hormone, as in fowl, certain weaver birds and others. He was a good friend of Erwin Stresemann. The last stop was in Chicago where Mayr spent a few hours at the Field Museum. Gretel had gone home several days earlier because she was worried about their children who had been with friends for the duration of their parents’ trip. Curator of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History For over 10 years Mayr worked mainly on bird collections of the Whitney South Sea Expedition from Polynesia and Melanesia, on collections from many areas in New Guinea, the Malay Archipelago and from southeastern Asia. A steady stream of articles and books documented his research activities. Mayr also assembled general data for a comprehensive analysis of geographical variation and speciation in birds for which purpose the large collections of the Whitney South Sea Expedition from the islands of Oceania and of various expeditions to New Guinea were unusually well suited. There was no better qualified ornithologist to work on this rich material than Ernst Mayr whose scientific interests had been directed toward taxonomic and evolutionary topics by Stresemann and Rensch at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. Without realizing it, he carried out in New York the suggestions he had written to Stresemann in May 1924 (pp. 27–28). ThenaturalhistorymuseumofNewYorkCityislocatedalongCentralPark West, between 77th and 81st Streets (Fig. 3.6). Since the 1930s its bird collections had become the most comprehensive and most representative in the world and the Department of Ornithology the foremost center of research. Numerous scientists from all over the world came to study the collections in conjunction with their own projects. The department occupies an entire eight-story building called the Whitney Wing in honor of its patron Harry Payne Whitney (however, the Biology of Birds Hall has been replaced by a Geology Hall in 2000). In early 1929, Whitney had contributed stock worth half the cost of the building, or $750,000, with the understanding that New York City provide for the other half. As Mary LeCroy (2005: 39) related the story: “For once, the city acted quickly and okayed the matching funds by the summer. The museum’s comptroller rushed out and sold the stock against the advice of many, and he had the cash in hand when the stock market crashed in the late summer of 1929!” Construction of the Whitney wing began in April 1931 (Fig. 3.7), the collections and offices were transferred to the new Whitney Wing during 1933–1935. However, the official opening and dedication of the building took place only after the completion of the adjacent “Rotunda,” the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, in 1939. After the purchase, in 1932, of the Rothschild Collection, the department held about 700,000 birds. Today the collections comprise ca 1 million specimens representing more than 99% of all known species of birds (Lanyon 1995; Vuilleumier 2001).
114 3 The New York Years (1931–1953) Fig.3.6. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, a red brick structure in the Victorian Gothic style built from 1874 to 1877. The Theodore Roosevelt memorial (the Rotunda) and the Whitney Wing (to the right) were added during the 1930s. Ernst Mayr’s office from 1935 onward was located in the right hand (northeastern) corner of the Whitney Wing on the 4th floor (large windows). Aerial view over the Museum westward with the Hudson River in the background. Photograph taken in 1957 (AMNH Library photographic collection, negative no. 125037) Mayr would have had several opportunities to go out again on expeditions, but F.M. Chapman, Chairman of the department, firmly pointed out to him, that he was paid from the Whitney Fund to work on the Whitney Collections. To compensate for these restrictions, Mayr in his free time did quite a bit of birdwatching and fieldwork around New York, especially during the late 1930s and in 1940. In 1932, he had contacted the group of geneticists at Columbia University (New York) in conjunction with his studies of avian plumages. These contacts and those with Th. Dobzhansky in California guided him to general systematic and evolutionary problems on which he began to lecture in late 1939 (“Speciation phenomena in birds”) followed by the Jesup Lectures on evolution at Columbia University in 1941, the foundation of his major work: Systematics and the OriginofSpeciesfromtheViewpointofaZoologist(1942e). He became very active as a member and secretary of the Society for the Study of Evolution (1946), first editor of its journal Evolution (1947–1949) and president (1950). Now an authority on evolutionary biology he was invited by various universities as a lecturer or visiting professor (e.g., Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, 1947; University of Minnesota, 1949; Columbia University, New York 1950–1953; University of Wash-
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Jürgen Haffer Ornithology, Evoluti
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Preface Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), emi
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Contents Introduction 1 Part I The
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Contents IX 2 Bibliography of Ernst
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2 Introduction and speciation, the
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4 Introduction (1928-1929) to repla
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Ernst Mayr has been an observer all
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The Family 9 court system. He had a
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The Family 11 Fig.1.1. Family genea
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The Family 13 where they learned La
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Birdwatching 15 even finishing befo
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Birdwatching 17 Fig.1.5. ErnstMayr
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Birdwatching 19 Fig.1.6. Ernst Mayr
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Birdwatching 21 he simply smoked ci
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University Student in Greifswald an
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Friendships at School and Universit
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2 The Budding Scientist PhD Thesis
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TheInfluenceofTeachers 37 excellent
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Erwin Stresemann—Teacher and Frie
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Erwin Stresemann—Teacher and Frie
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Assistant Curator at the Museum of
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Expeditions to New Guinea and the S
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184 5 Biological Species and Specia
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6 Life in North America during Worl
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244 6 Life in North America during
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Part III Professor of Zoology at Ha
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256 7 The Harvard Years (1953-2005)
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8 Evolutionary Biology— Mayr’s
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268 8 Evolutionary Biology—Mayr
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284 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man his coll
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286 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man addresse
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288 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man undertak
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292 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man His hand
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294 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Prize (1
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296 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man the inte
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298 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man I have s
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300 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Fig.9.4.
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302 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man not mali
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304 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man papers d
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306 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man 2005. Me
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308 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Fig.9.5b
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310 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man health i
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312 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man person a
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314 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man with a r
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316 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man conceptu
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318 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man the two
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10 Systematics and Classification T
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11 History and Philosophy of Biolog
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340 11 History and Philosophy of Bi
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376 12 Summary: Appreciation of Ern
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Acknowledgments Iamdeeplygratefulto
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List of Abbreviations AAAS American
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386 References Beehler BM, Pratt TK
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388 References Cracraft J (2002) Go
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390 References Haffer J (1997a) Ess
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392 References Keast JA (1996) Avia
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394 References Olson SL (1975) The
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396 References Smith JJ (1936) Eric
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398 References Wiglesworth LW (1898
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Appendix 1 Curriculum Vitae (includ
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Appendix 1 403 1978 Prêmio Jabuti,
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Appendix 1 405 Society Offices Linn
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Appendix 2 407 1926c Das Freibrüte
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Appendix 2 409 1932 1932a Birds col
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Appendix 2 411 1936g Melidectes bel
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Appendix 2 413 1941e Birds collecte
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Appendix 2 415 1944f Chromosomes an
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Appendix 2 417 1947g On the correct
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Appendix 2 419 1952e Six new subspe
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Appendix 2 421 1954g The tail molt
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Appendix 2 423 1958c Concluding rem
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Appendix 2 425 in E. Mayr, Evolutio
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Appendix 2 427 1964l Introduction [
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Appendix 2 429 1967d Subfamily Pach
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Appendix 2 431 in Acta Soc. Zool. B
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Appendix 2 433 1974b The diversity
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Appendix 2 435 1976m Evolution and
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Appendix 2 437 Mankind 13:430; P.W.
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Appendix 2 439 (1984) in Queen’s
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Appendix 2 441 1984c Evolution and
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Appendix 2 443 1987b The status of
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Appendix 2 445 1990 1990a The Myth
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Appendix 2 447 1992f Haldane’s Ca
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Appendix 2 449 1995g The search for
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Appendix 2 451 1999 1999a Thoughts
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List of Books by Ernst Mayr 453 200
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Coauthorship 455 Coauthorship In th
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Appendix 3 457 (4) Systematics 1942
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Index Achievements 379 Adaptation 2
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Index 461 Faunas 164-165 Family 8-1
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Index 463 Realism and education 372
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