3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

256 7 The Harvard Years (1953–2005)
The move to Cambridge meant to Mayr, most of all, “exchanging New York for
a pleasant and stimulating university town which perhaps has more of a European
character than any other town in the United States. I will be able to walk to work,
instead of standing for an hour in a crowded train or bus. I still plan to spend several
months every year at the American Museum, although my official association will
be with the Museum of Comparative Zoology” (to Erwin Stresemann, Berlin, on 25
March 1953). Mayr enjoyed “the contact with outstanding scholars in all fields, and
I find the place scientifically stimulating. You realize, of course, that the existence (in
the same area) of Harvard Med[ical] School, Mass[achusetts] Gen[eral] Hospital,
M. I. T., and various branches of the Harvard Biology Department provide an
almost endless opportunity for scientific stimulation” (to J. Lederberg, Madison,
Wisconsin, on 28 February 1957).
MayrtookwithhimtoHarvardUniversitythelargeempiricaldatabaseongeographical
diversification of animal populations he had assembled during his work
at the AMNH and began his career as evolutionary biologist and later historian
and philosopher of biology. A revised edition of Systematics and the Origin of
Species (1942e) had been under way since the late 1940s separating subject matter
on the principles of “new systematics” from evolutionary aspects. The former
were included in his textbook (with E.G., Linsley and R. L. Usinger) on Methods
andPrinciplesofSystematicZoology(1953a), whereas the latter formed the central
theme of his synthesis on Animal Species and Evolution (1963b). Continued work
on these topics led to the publication of thoroughly revised editions of these books
in 1969 (PrinciplesofSystematicZoology,againrevised,withP.Ashlockascoauthor,
in 1991) and in 1970 (Populations, Species, and Evolution), respectively. Although
the subtitle of this latter work states that it is an “Abridgement” of Animal Species
and Evolution, actually several chapters, particularly Chapter 10, were thoroughly
revised, and certain phenomena such as gene flow and the role of chromosomes
in speciation and evolution were dealt with in a novel fashion.
With his move to Harvard, Mayr did not lose contact with ornithology. He became
editor as well as contributing author for more than half of the 16-volume
Check-list of Birds of the World which was completed in 1987, a detailed catalogue
of all species and subspecies of birds of the world (Bock 1990). No comparable
list exists for any other group of animals. Mayr was President of the American
Ornithologists’ Union (1957–1959) as well as President of the XIIIth International
Ornithological Congress (Ithaca, USA, 1962) and he summarized repeatedly the
progress of ornithology and its relation to general biology (1963r, 1980d, 1983i,
1984a, 1988d, 1989c,k) emphasizing that throughout the history of biology, ornithology
has played a leading role in making new discoveries and in developing
new concepts.
Since Mayr’s biological interests and national participation had greatly broadened,
the percentage of straight ornithological publications decreased since 1953
and those on evolutionary biology greatly increased (Fig. 4.2). His activities now
also comprised committees of the National Academy of Sciences, governing boards
in the National Science Foundation, discussions on evolutionary biology (Fig. 7.1),
biogeography, book reviewing, presidency of the 13th International Ornithological