In 2013, the MBL became an affiliate of the University of Chicago. However, this was not the first time that the two institutions considered setting-up an alliance. By 1900, after 12 years of operation, the MBL was in dire financial straights. The cost of running an ever-expanding research and teaching laboratory, independent of a university setting, had proved too costly to maintain. Then-director Charles Otis Whitman sought financial support for the MBL, which was offered by L.L. Nunn and a group of business representing the University of Chicago, in return for some simple expectations of financial accountability. The MBL Board of Trustees refused the offer, despite Whitman's wishes that it go through.
In addition to financial history, there is a long connection between the MBL and the University of Chicago in terms of research and education. Charles Otis Whitman, the founding director of the MBL, established the biology department at the University of Chicago in 1892. Among his first faculty members was Jacques Loeb, the noted biologist who became famous for his parthenogenesis experiments at the turn of the 20th century, and who also founded the MBL's Physiology course in 1893. The MBL's second director, Frank R. Lillie, arrived at the MBL in 1892 for the Embryology course. Whitman quickly directed his work towards cell lineage studies in freshwater mussels (Unio), and lured Lillie to University of Chicago to become his graduate student. Lillie graduated with his PhD in 1894, and after working at the University of Michigan and Vassar College for several years, returned to the University of Chicago as a professor in 1900. Lillie stayed with the department for the next 30 years.
A Convening Place
- Allen, Garland. 1989. Introduction to 100 Years Exploring Life 1888-1988: The Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
- Maienschein, Jane. 1989. 100 Years Exploring Life 1888-1988: The Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Boston: Jones and Bartlett.
- Maienschein, Jane. 2013. “The Marine Biological Laboratory.” MBL History Project article. http://history.archives.mbl.edu/archives/items/marine-biological-laboratory
Dual Mission
- MacCord, Kate, and Jane Maienschein. 2018. “Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.” eLS. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester. DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0027989
MBL Directors 1888-2018
- MacCord, Kate, and Jane Maienschein. 2018. “Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.” eLS. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester. DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0027989
Select Scientific Notables
- Allen, Garland, Dletrich, Michael, Huber, Florian. 2016. "Victor Hamburger and Experimental Embryology." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/viktor-hamburger-and-experimental-embryology
- Elliott, Steve. 2009. "Jocques Loeb." The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. embryo.asu.edu/pages/jacques-loeb-1859-1924
- LaTourelle, J.J. 2016. "Squids, Axons, and Action Potentials: Stories of Neurobiological Discovery." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/squids-axons-and-action-potentials-stories-neurobiological-discovery
- LaTourelle, Jonathan Jacob. 2015. "The Neurobiology of Vision at the MBL." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/neurobiology-vision-mbl
- Lowe, James. 2016. "Shinya Inoué: Capturing Dynamic Cellular Processes." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/shinya-inoue-capturing-dynamic-cellular-processes
- Maienschein, Jane. 2015. "Edwin Grant Conklin." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/edwin-grant-conklin
- Nobel Prize. 2018. "Albert Szent-Gyorgyi - Biographical." The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobelprize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1937/szent-gy...
- Steinert, Beatrice and Jane Maienschein. 2016. "Edmund Beecher Wilson." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/edmund-beecher-wilson
- Turriziani Colonna, Federica. 2016. "Envisioning the MBL: Whitman's Efforts to Create an Independent Institution." MBL History Project digital exhibit. history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/envisioning-mbl-whitmans-efforts-create-independent-institution
Women at the MBL
- MBL. ND. "Women of Science at the MBL." MBL Website. http://comm.archive.mbl.edu/publications/women_index.html
Woman's Education Association
- The Harvard Crimson. ND. "Anderson School of Natural History at Penikese Island." The Harvard Crimson. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1875/4/23/anderson-school-of-natural-...
- Massachusetts Historical Society. 2018. "Woman's Education Association (Boston, Mass.) Records." Massachusetts Historical Society Collection Guides. http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0393
- Marine Biological Laboratory. ND. "History of the MBL." Marine Biological Laboratory website. http://www.mbl.edu/history-of-the-mbl/
- SNAC. 2018. "Woman's Education Association (Boston, Mass.)." Social Networks and Archival Context website. http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6hb45b0
- Starr Jordan, David. 2018. "Louis Agassiz Swiss-American Scientist and Educator." Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Agassiz
Woods Hole Community
- Children's School of Science. ND. "Children's School of Science of Woods Hole." http://childrensschoolofscience.org/
- The Collecting Net. 1927. "Mixer Marks Start of Social Season." The Collecting Net. p 1. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55219#page/10/mode/1up
- The Collecting Net. 1927. "Episcopal Church Entertains M.B.L.." The Collecting Net. p 4. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55219#page/10/mode/1up
- Woods Hole Cantata. ND. "History." The Woods Hole Canata Consort website. https://woodsholecantata.org/history/
