3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

96 3 The New York Years (1931–1953)
one year to work on the bird collections of the Whitney South Sea Expedition. He
did not leave Germany until the beginning of next year, having finished the report
on his New Guinea bird collection. Arriving in New York on 19 January 1931 he
entered the museum on the following day.
MayrcametotheUnitedStatesasanemployeeoftheMuseumofNaturalHistory
of Berlin on temporary assignment of one year. When the AMNH was able to
purchase the Rothschild Collection in 1932, he accepted the position of Associate
Curator at the AMNH responsible, over the next several years, for organizing,
cataloguing and preserving the 280,000 specimens which filled a huge number of
cases. His salary had to be raised annually from the Whitney family. There was no
tenure. This meant that if the Whitneys should ever stop giving the money (which,
of course, never happened), he would be without a job and probably forced to go
back to Germany. In view of his fascination with his work and with the institution
he gladly accepted this risk. 1
I emphasize that Mayr’s move from Berlin to New York in 1931 had the simple
reason that his position there was better, scientifically, than any he could expect
in Germany (pers. comm.). Moreover, Mayr was the youngest of four assistants
at the Museum in Berlin and knew that he would have to wait many years before
a curatorship might open up for him. The Nazi regime which came to power in
Germany in 1933 (i.e., 2 years after Mayr had arrived in New York) had nothing
to do with his emigration to the United States, although Mayr was outspoken in
his denouncement of this regime (see also p. 300, footnote). In addition, there
was no room for a second major ornithologist in Berlin and probably not in all
of Germany, next to Professor Stresemann. Their careers might have “collided,”
as Mayr thought in retrospect (pers. comm.; Bock 1994a). Moreover, Mayr would
have had little chance of surviving World War II had he stayed in Germany.
Employment in New York
BasedonasuggestionbyDr.L.C.Sanford,trusteeoftheAMNHwhohadconsulted
in this matter with Hartert and Stresemann 2 , Dr. Frank M. Chapman (1864–1945),
head of the Department of Ornithology of the AMNH, offered Ernst Mayr, in
October 1930, a position in New York as Visiting Research Associate for one year
1 The Whitneys paid Mayr’s salary until he left for Harvard University in 1953. He received
an annual salary of $2,500 in 1931, $4,000 in 1932–1933, $4,500 in 1934, $5,000 from 1935
to 1944 and $6,540 starting in 1945 (M. LeCroy, pers. comm.).
2 In January 1930, while the Whitney Expedition was in the Solomon Islands, Dr. Sanford,
forever making enthusiastic plans and fully informed, through H. Hamlin, about E. Mayr,
had already written to E. Hartert (Tring) regarding a further expedition to New Guinea:
“IfwewaituntillaterwemighthavethechanceofbringingMayrhome,restinghim
and sending him back. Personally he appeals to me more than any one else. Talk the
matter over with Lord Rothschild.” At the same time, Rothschild had decided to offer the
position of curator of his museum to Mayr as successor to Hartert who retired in April
of that year (Mayr 1984f). This plan, however, had to be dropped when Rothschild was
in financial difficulties (p. 116).