Origins

From 1886 to 1889 Charles Otis Whitman was director of the Allis Lake Laboratory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The lab was established by Edward Phelps Allis, Jr. to provide a place for biological research separate from a university setting and a place where an independent scholar like Allis himself could work. Allis had hired Whitman as an instructor to establish the lab, direct it, and lead a research program there. The lab lasted for eight years, attracted several researchers, and the papers that came out of the lab included a focus on embryology. This raised the question of where to publish the work since there were few life science journals being published in the United States , which led Whitman to propose a new journal.

Source: Maienschein, Jane, "The Biological Bulletin". Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2008-10-24). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/1952