Scientific Editor, Lillian A. Ross, Retires 



A hirty-four years ago, on Novem- 

 ber 1, 1929, Miss Lillian A. Ross was 

 appointed Chicago Natural History 

 Museum's first Editor of Scientific Pub- 

 lications. Miss Ross had come to the 

 Museum from the University of Chica- 

 go and Columbia University, and was 

 equipped with a strong background in 

 Latin, German, and French for the spe- 

 cialized editing required by the new 

 position. 



In December of last year, after 750 

 scientific publications had been printed 

 under her editorial supervision, Miss 

 Ross announced her retirement. This 

 decision, however, has not removed her 



Chicago Natural History Museum 



Founded by Marshall Field, 1S93 



Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive 



Chicago, Illinois 60605 



Telephone: 922-9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Lester Armour 

 Wm. McCormick Blair 

 Bowen Blair 

 Walter J. Cummings 

 Joseph N. Field 

 Marshall Field, Jr. 

 Stanley Field 

 Clifford C. Gregg 

 Samuel Instill, Jr. 

 Henry P. Isham 

 William V. Kahler 



Hughston M. McBain 

 J. Roscoe Miller 

 William H. Mitchell 

 James L. Palmer 

 John T. Pirie, Jr. 

 John Shedd Reed 

 John G. Searle 

 John M. Simpson 

 Edward Byron Smith 

 Louis Ware 

 J. Howard Wood 



OFFICERS 

 Stanley Field, Chairman of the Board 



Clifford C. Gregg, President 



James L. Palmer, First Vice-President 



Joseph N. Field, Second Vice-President 



Bowen Blair, Third Vice-President 



Edward Byron Smith, Treasurer 



and Assistant Secretary 



E. Leland Webber, Secretary 



THE BULLETIN 



EDITOR 

 E. Leland Webber, Director of the Museum 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of Anthropology 



John R. Millar, Chief Curator of Botany 



Rainer Zangerl, Chief Curator of Geology 



Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator of Zoology 



MANAGING EDITOR 

 Paula R. Nelson, Public Relations Counsel 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

 Marilyn J. Arado, Associate in Public Relations 



Members are requested to inform the Museum 

 promptly of changes of address. 



from the Museum scene. She still comes 

 to the Museum everyday as usual, but 

 instead of reaching for her editor's blue 

 pencil, she reaches for a microscope. 



What Miss Ross scrutinizes under the 

 microscope are spiders, for many years 

 her private hobby — an interest that de- 

 veloped as the result of her association 

 with the Museum. 



It all began a number of years ago, 

 Miss Ross told us, when she was plan- 

 ning a vacation trip to the Virgin Islands. 

 One of the Museum entomologists, hear- 

 ing of her contemplated trip, asked Miss 

 Ross to do him the favor of collecting 

 some insects the Museum needed from 

 that area. In hunting the desired speci- 

 mens, Miss Ross became aware of the 

 beauty of certain spiders' webs, "gold- 

 en threads artistically and ingeniously 

 woven into intricate nets that spread 

 overhead like canopies in the lush jungle 

 vegetation." As a result, on that trip 

 she collected spiders, as well as the in- 

 sects requested. 



"Now, every place I go I take bottles 

 for gathering specimens," Miss Ross 

 admits. 



So far, her spider expeditions have 

 taken her to numerous islands in the 

 Caribbean, including Cuba, Jamaica, 

 the Cayman Isles, and Puerto Rico. In 

 addition to preserving specimens in al- 

 cohol for microscopic study, Miss Ross 

 has also taken some spiders alive for 

 pets. The most famous of her pets, 

 kept for years in a glass box on her 

 office desk, was a tarantula. 



Many Members may recall Miss Ross' 

 tarantula from Members' Nights in the 

 past, when for years it was a non-offi- 

 cial attraction that drew a steady flow 

 of visitors to the editor's office. Visit- 

 ing Members would press fearlessly 

 around Miss Ross' desk for a glimpse of 

 the creature, but, Miss Ross relates jo- 

 cularly, when she thought it was time 

 for the next group to have a look, all 

 she had to do was make a movement 

 toward the lid of its glass box, "and the 

 crowd would scatter miraculously." 



Currently, Miss Ross is most inter- 

 ested in the genus Ceraticelus, a group 

 of small spiders found locally and in the 



subtropics. 



Miss Ross plans eventually to pub- 

 lish some of her findings — which will 

 give her an opportunity, at last, to sit 

 on the other side of the editor's desk. 



New Botanist 

 Appointed 



DR. GABRIEL EDWIN 



An march, Dr. Gabriel Edwin was 

 appointed Assistant Curator of Vascular 

 Plants in the Department of Botany. 



Dr. Edwin did most of his under- 

 graduate work at Washington Univer- 

 sity and received his Ph. D. from that 

 institution. For the past fifteen years 

 he has been with the U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture, most recently serving as 

 Curator of the Herbarium of the Na- 

 tional Arboretum in Washington, D.C. 



For a number of years, Dr. Edwin 

 has worked on the American hollies, 

 and recently completed a monograph 

 on this subject which will be published 

 this year. He has also worked on the 

 flora of the western United States and 

 that of tropical America. 



At the Museum, his initial research 

 project will be to complete the remain- 

 ing portions of the Museum's monu- 

 mental Flora of Peru. 



also in Botany 



Mrs. Dorothy Gibson has been ap- 

 pointed Custodian of the Herbarium in 

 the Department of Botany. For the 

 {Continued on page 8) 



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