3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

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116 3 The New York Years (1931–1953) Museum Tasks Before the Whitney Wing was completed the Bird Department in the eastern half of the north wing of the museum was very crowded. Chapman, Chapin, and Murphy had offices, whereas J. T. Zimmer and Ernst Mayr sat at small tables in a little empty space among the collection cases. Whenever they needed to compare series of specimens they had to take them to a larger table in Chapman’s office. After the department had moved into the new quarters during 1935, Mayr had a spacious office at the north end of the 4th floor with large windows overlooking Central Park (Fig. 3.6). One of his main tasks at the museum during the mid- and late-1930s (besides his study of the Whitney birds) was to supervise the unpacking, storing, and cataloguing of the Rothschild Collection comprising 280,000 bird skins. The sale of this collection in 1932 had come about by the blackmailing activity of a “charming, witty, aristocratic, ruthless lady” beginning in the early years of the century. She continued her activity so successfully that (it is rumored) Lord Rothschild was in debt around 1930 (Murphy 1932; Snow 1973; M. Rothschild 1983: 92, 139, 302; LeCroy 2005). The sale was kept a secret until the deal was concluded. “If Sanford was the shining knight in this tale, she was the dark lady, but just as important to the outcome of Mayr’s career” (Bock 2004c), because her activity led to Mayr’s employment in New York. In a sense we may say he owed his career in New York to this still anonymous aristocratic lady. Mayr attempted to find out her name for 50 years but was unsuccessful. Historically more important was, however, to what good use through hard work Mayr put the new opportunities at the AMNH. The 185 wooden packing cases (76×76×152 cm) in which Rothschild’s birds had been packed in Tring under R.C. Murphy’s supervision arrived successively in New York during the course of 1932 and were stored in an unused hall at AMNH. They could be unpacked only during the summer of 1935 (Fig. 3.8). The approximately 30,000 New World birds of the AMNH had been transferred to the 5th and 6th floors, the other 250,000 to the 3rd and 4th floors of the Whitney Wing during the course of 1933 and 1934, on completion of this building. For about three months Mayr and several colleagues calculated for each family of birds how many cases or half-cases were required. The calculations turned out to be correct with one exception—the unexpected size of the giant Siberian eagle owls required some last minute changes. The catalogue of the 185 large packing cases prepared by Phyllis Thomas, Ernst Hartert’s former secretary, and R.C. Murphy was useful; furthermore Ms. Thomas herself came to New York for several weeks to assist with the organization. The ornithology collection manager Charles O’Brien was in charge of the move, assisted by three helpers: H. Birckhead, T. Gilliard, and C. O’Brien’s younger brother. They transferred the birds from the shipping boxes in the storage room to the trays of three different sizes, wheeled them on carriages over to the Whitney Wing, and then placed the trays into the proper cases where they would remain permanently. “The unpacking of the Rothschild collection is progressing favorably. We are now working on the small birds, of which we can unpack only a case and a half
CuratorofOrnithologyattheAmericanMuseumofNaturalHistory 117 Fig.3.8.Examining the newly arrived Rothschild Collection, 1935. Left to right:R.C.Murphy, E. Mayr, J.T. Zimmer, and President F.T. Davison (AMNH Library photographic collection, negative no. 314574) per day. Some of these cases contain as many as 10,000 specimens. We have, so far, unpacked 61 cases containing 62,000 specimens. This was done in fifteen days, which means that we have done an average of four cases and 4,000 specimens per day. This is just about twice as much as I had thought we could do. The boys who are doing the unpacking really deserve a great deal of credit for their fine work” and “The moving into the new wing is proceeding at a fast rate. By the time you come back from fishing the greatest part of the collection will already be installed in the new wing” (E. Mayr to Dr. Sanford on 5 March and 21 June 1935). Not surprisingly, these activities consumed most of Mayr’s time causing a noticeable drop in the number of taxonomic papers published during 1934 to 1936. After several months of unpacking it took another 6–8 years to catalogue the entire collection. This required decisions which families to recognize and which sequence of genera within each family and which sequence of species within each genus to accept. The consequence of this new classification was a whole series of family revisions by J. Delacour, E. Mayr, D. Amadon, D. S. Ripley and also C. Vaurie’s authoritative survey Birds of the Palaearctic Fauna (1959, 1965). Mayr’s
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Jürgen Haffer Ornithology, Evoluti
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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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294 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Prize (1
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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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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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314 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man with a r
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316 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man conceptu
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10 Systematics and Classification T
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322 10 Systematics and Classificati
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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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