6 JOEL ASAPH ALLEN— CHAPMAN "■"""""nSSKaS: 



Only one in daily contact with Doctor Allen can realize the extent of the demands upon his 

 time and strength made by his duties for the Union and the loving attention he gave to its 

 affairs. It occupied a place in his affections second only to that held by members of his family, 

 and he never spared himself in advancing its aims. 



Doctor Allen was chiefly responsible for the formulation of the Union's Code of Nomen- 

 clature, a subject in which he took a deep interest and on which he was an authority. For 

 years he served as chairman of the Union's committee on classification and nomenclature, and 

 for the last 10 years of his life he was a member of the International Commission on Zoological 

 Nomenclature. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 



Doctor Allen's distinguishing characteristics as a man were modesty, sincerity, unselfish- 

 ness, gentleness, consideration for others, and a purity of mind and purpose which made it difficult 

 for him to bebeve that anyone was not actuated by the same direct, guileless motives which 

 ever animated him. I do not recall ever hearing him speak ill of another, but he was unsparing 

 in his condemnation of careless work, and particularly of generalizations based on insufficient 

 data. But so impersonal was his attitude, so impossible was it for him to cherish resentment, 

 that whffe for an author he would show only helpful consideration, for his work honesty would 

 compel him to be merciless. I have seen him treat with fatherly kindness a man whose theories 

 he had subjected to fatally destructive criticism. 



As a student Doctor Allen was inspired by love of truth for truth's sake and by an intense 

 absorbing interest in his work. "All I aspired to," he wrote (Autobiographical Notes, p. 42), 

 "was opportunity for scientific research, believing that diligence, singleness of purpose, and 

 honest work would bring its own reward. I was content to follow my own lines of dominating 

 interest to such limit as the circumstances of earning a living would permit. I have never had 

 any desire for money as such, nor any interest whatever in financial projects, nor any longing 

 for honors beyond those my colleagues in science saw fit to impose." His powers of application 

 and concentration were phenomenal ; his enthusiasm for research so unlimited that he constantly 

 overtaxed his physical resources and the end of the day often found him on the verge of complete 

 exhaustion. But so vitalizing was his love for his profession that, in spite of a frail physique 

 and the fact that he never rested from his labors when it was a possible thing to pursue them, 

 he was actively engaged in research to within a few weeks of his death. 



But he was never too absorbed in his work to be interested in that of others; an appeal to 

 him for advice or assistance received his whole-hearted attention and he made your problem 

 his. The writer owes him a debt which accumulated during 34 years of almost daily association. 

 Coming to the museum in March, 1888, as an inexperienced assistant, he found in Doctor Allen 

 not only a friend but a teacher to whom he might turn for instruction in even the most trivial 

 matters with the assurance that he would meet with a sympathetic response. Doctor Allen's 

 counsel was always based on a logical consideration of the facts at issue; for, as far as was 

 humanly possible, he eliminated the personal equation in reaching conclusions. The inestimable 

 privilege of securing Doctor Allen's advice was sought, therefore, not only by members of his 

 staff but by workers in other departments of the museum and in other institutions. 



HOME LIFE 



In 1879, after five years of wedded life, Doctor Allen's first wife, Mary Manning Cleveland, 

 of Cambridge, died, leaving him his only child, Cleveland Allen, now in business in New York 

 City. 



Seven years later, and a year after coming to the American Museum, Doctor Allen married 

 Susan Augusta Taft, of Cornwall-on-Hudson, who survived him. " I owe to her deep love and 

 sympathy," Doctor Allen writes, "to her supreme optimism and constant watchfulness over my 

 health, and to her inspiration, the greater part of the little I may have achieved in these last 

 thirty years, and doubtless many years of activity beyond those I otherwise would have attained." 



