The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, began in 1888 and from the beginning brought together the very best in research and teaching in laboratory biology. The MBL complemented the natural history work at the U.S. Fish Commission next door, where Wilson and many of his colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University spent some time before the MBL opened. The first MBL director, Charles Otis Whitman, had taught biology in Japan and then at Clark University before moving permanently to the University of Chicago. Whitman encouraged researchers such as Wilson to spend summers at the MBL, studying their cell linear work in different organisms and comparing notes. The upstairs offices included attractice lab benches and a place to work on one's own, while also being very close to others carrying out similar studies. Wilson clearly valued his time there.
At the MBL, Wilson began as an investigator, then became a member of the Corporation and a long-time Trustee, returning each summer, bringing his family and many students to enjoy life in their house in Woods Hole. Wilson wrote of the dedication involved to observe developing embryos through long hours as the cells divided through the night and day. He sometimes recruited his wife and eventually his daughter to help in the lab.
Early Life and Education
- Allen, Garland E. “Wilson, Edmund Beecher.” Dictionary of Scientific Biography 14: 423–6.
- Maienschein, Jane, "Edmund Beecher Wilson (1856-1939)". Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013-08-05). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/6044. embryo.asu.edu/pages/edmund-beecher-wilson-1856-1939.
- Morgan, Thomas Hunt. 1941. “Biographical Memoir of Edmund Beecher Wilson, 1856–1939,” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 21: 315–42.
The Johns Hopkins University
- Moore, John A. 1987. "Edmund Beecher Wilson, Class of '81". American Zoologist 27(3): 785-796.
The Stazione Zoologica in Naples and Music
- Groeben, Christiane. 1985. "Anton Dohrn--The Statesman of Darwinism: To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the death of Anton Dohrn". Biological Bulletin 168: 4-25. www.biolbull.org/content/168/3S/4.full.pdf+html.
- Maienschein, Jane. 1985. "First impressions: American biologists at Naples". Biological Bulletin 168: 187-191. www.biolbull.org/content/168/3S/187.full.pdf+html.
Cell Lineage
- Fischer, Antje HL et al. (2012). “The normal development of Platynereis dumerilii (Nereididae, Annelida).” Frontiers in Zoology 7(31): 1-39.
- Gilbert, Scott. (2014). Developmental Biology, 10th edition. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates Inc Publishers.
- MacCord, Kate, "Germ Layers". Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013-09-17). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/6273.
- Maienschein, Jane. (1991). Transforming Traditions in American Biology, 1880-1915. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Pearse, Vicki, John Pearse, Mildred Buchsbaum & Ralph Buchsbaum. (1987). Living Invertebrates. Pacific Grove, CA: The Boxwood Press.
- Seaver, Elaine C. (2014). “Variation in spiralian development: insights from polychaetes.” Int. J. Dev. Biol 58: 457-467.
- Sedgwick, William T. & Edmund B. Wilson. (1895). An Introduction to General Biology. New York: H. Holt.
- Wilson, Edmund B. (1892). “The Cell-Lineage of Nereis: A Contribution to the Cytogeny of the Annelid Body.” Journal of Morphology 6(3): 361-481.
