Directors of Hopkins Seaside Lab
William Emerson Ritter, founder and Director of the Marine Biological Association of San Diego, (today’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego) described who, among the early faculty of Stanford University were instructing the summer sessions at Hopkins Seaside Laboratory during those first twenty-five years:
"Professors C.H. Gilbert and O.P. Jenkins, of the departments of zoology and physiology, respectively, have been from the beginning joint directors of the laboratory, but the courses of instruction have been mostly given in later years by the younger men of the university, Professors Harold Heath, F.M. McFarland and W.B. [G. C. sic] Price having been especially faithful and efficient in this capacity." (5)
Charles Henry Gilbert and Oliver Peebles Jenkins held the positions of Acting Directors of Hopkins Seaside Laboratory from 1892-1917. A letter written from Professor George C. Price, Professor of Zoology to W. K. Fisher stated the following as to who was in charge of the facility:"
I was at the laboratory in 1893, 1894 and 1895. These years Jenkins and Gilbert were there in charge. As I remember they were never there after the summer of 1895 and did practically nothing for the laboratory though they kept their names as directors. I was in charge of the work the following years, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914 and 1915." (6)
The Stanford Annual Reports confirm that Professor Price held the position of “Instructor in Charge” during the years he outlines in the letter to Walter K. Fisher.
Photograph below of Professor George C. Price, faculty member of the Department of Zoology, Stanford University.
A review of the Stanford Annual Registers outlining the sessions at the Laboratory show that, after the summer of 1895, the course instructions for the summer sessions were left to the associate professors and assistant professors from the department of zoology and department of physiology. Also apparent from reviewing the Stanford Annual Registers is that the directors of the department of botany, Dr. Douglas H Campbell and Professor William R Dudley, only participated during the summer session of 1893. After the summer of 1893, the course instructions for the summer sessions were left to the associate professors and assistant professors from the department of botany.
Professor CH Gilbert and Professor OP Jenkins held the position of “Instructors in Charge” during the summer sessions of 1892 through 1896. As previously mentioned George C. Price, Professor of Zoology, held the position of “Instructors in Charge” during the summer sessions of 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914 and 1915. Regular sessions for students were not held in the summer of 1903 or 1904. During these two years there was no need to name a professor to hold the position of “Instructor in Charge” (7)
The regular session during the summer of 1909,Professor Heath held the position of “Instructor in Charge.” (8) For the regular session, during the summers of 1910 through 1913, Frank Mace MacFarland held the position of “Instructor in Charge” and Associate Professor John O. Snyder was “Instructor in Charge” during the summer session of 1916.
William E. Ritter failed to mention one additional Professor who contributed to instruction at the facility, Clara S. Stoltenberg; one of only two women to attain the rank of professor during Stanford University’s first four decades. (9) Miss Stoltenberg participated in seven of the twenty-three years of regular sessions of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory; attending as a Stanford student in the summer of 1894; in the position of Assistant Instructor during the summer of 1896; occupying an investigators room during the summer of 1899 and in the position of Instructor during the summers of 1906, 1907 and 1908.
IN RECOGNITION OF CHARLES H. GILBERT AND OLIVER P. JENKINS
Though Charles H. Gilbert and Oliver P. Jenkins served as the Acting Directors of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, be it, for a significant amount of this time, in name only, according to George C. Price, their efforts in establishing the facility were remembered by Charles Wilson Greene (Class of 1892) in a letter to then director of Hopkins Marine Station, Walter K. Fisher in 1936.
"On my last visit to California, Doctor Jenkins personally presented me the enclosed photograph of a painting of himself. I had in mind the hope that it might adequately be framed, labeled and mounted on the walls of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory with one of C. H. Gilbert, in recognition of the fact that the two struggled over almost insurmountable difficulties to give the Hopkins Laboratory its starting in research trends. At the present time this recognition of their pioneer leadership is about as minimum that can be done in honor of their work and names. Both have gone to their long rest, leaving work and memories that have doubtless faded from most of the Stanford pioneer minds except a few old-timers like myself and Mrs. Greene" (Letter of Correspondence, April 28, 1936).(10)
Footnotes
(5) Ritter, William E. (1914). Popular science monthly and world's advance: The Biological Laboratories Of The Pacific Coast. 86:226 (Volume 86 - Page 226).
(6) Letter written by George C. Price, then Emeritus Professor of Zoology, Stanford University, to Walter K. Fisher, then Professor of Zoology, and then Director of the Hopkins Marine Station. August 15, 1934. . [Quoted by permission of the Harold A. Miller Library, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University.]
(7) Leland Stanford Junior University. Annual Report of the President, 1904-1905.
(8) Leland Stanford Junior University. Annual Report of the President, Stanford University. Office of the President. 1909.
(10) Charles Wilson Greene to Walter K. Fisher. Letter of Correspondence, April 28, 1936. [Quoted by permission of the Harold A. Miller Library, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University.]