3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

260 7 The Harvard Years (1953–2005)
‘Always have in your folder a table with columns and lines and all that and if you
think you’ve run out of material, you say, ‘Well, this is all very well illustrated by
a table, which I will now put on the blackboard,’ ’ and ‘if you make the right kind
of a table, you’ll use up fifteen minutes and keep the class fully busy all the time.’
Well, I think I used it once. But Professor Minnich helped this young inexperienced
first-time teaching professor through a crisis.”
Shortly afterwards Mayr became an adjunct professor at Columbia University,
New York (1950) and taught a course each winter. He related these developments
in several letters to E. Stresemann (Berlin):
“The great news here is that I have been offered a guest professorship at the
University of Minnesota. I am to give a course on evolution and speciation” (7
February 1949). “Since usually about 20–25 professors of zoology, paleontology,
botany, entomology, etc. also listen to the great authority from New York, I have
to prepare myself well. My book [Systematics and the Origin of Species, 1942e] is
wellknownhereandIamexpectedtolectureontheliteraturethatappearedsince
1942” (20 May 1949; transl.). “My visit to Minnesota was very stimulating and has
induced me to consider whether or not I should take up teaching more seriously.
Life in a university town would certainly be more pleasant than in New York and
far less strenuous than the daily commuting. However, it would break Dr. Sanford’s
heart if I should leave here, and I don’t expect at the present time to make any
changes, even though I had two additional offers” (15 June 1949). “Perhaps I shall
make a compromise and do some teaching at Columbia. […] In most places they
do everything to discourage young taxonomists rather than the opposite. This has
been one of the reasons why I have been tempted to go into teaching. I feel that it is
very necessary to provide some counterbalance against the strictly physiological,
bio-chemical trend in our zoology departments” (8 August 1949).
Mayr renewed such a teaching experience with a course on species and speciation
as a visiting professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, in the fall
semester of 1952. This was an exciting event, particularly because Richard Goldschmidt
(1878–1958) was teaching there at the same time. Mayr gave his class on
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Goldschmidt on Tuesday and Thursday. What
amused the faculty and rather puzzled the students was how often Goldschmidt
and Mayr disagreed in their interpretations. Their personal relations were very
cordial, Mrs. Goldschmidt coming from the same little town in Bavaria (Kempten)
as Mayr. They met in private several times, and Mrs. Goldschmidt always prepared
some Kempten specialty for dinner.
When Mayr arrived at Harvard University in 1953, he learned that evolution had
not been taught there in many years. He was to change this situation within a short
time. His main graduate courses were entitled “Principles of Evolutionary Biology”
(with G.G. Simpson in some years, with S.J. Gould in others) and “Methods and
Principles of Systematic Biology,” which he offered alternately every other year.
He was also occasionally guest lecturer on “Evolution and speciation” for more
general courses organized by a colleague (e.g., on “Biology of the vertebrates”
and “Biogeography of animals”). In addition he offered more specialized research
courses for graduate students of the MCZ, for example, in the spring term of 1955