38 ^ CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



That anything at all was saved was due especially to Miss Eastwood, then as 

 now [1942] the Academy's curator of botany, who lost all of her own possessions 

 while attempting to save those of the Academy. ... It was justice in the most poetic 

 sense that more than half a century after the Academy had voted to admit women to 

 its activities, the book of minutes containing the record of that action, along with 

 other documents and specimens of inestimable value, should have been saved through 

 the energy and resourcefulness of a woman curator. 



Alice Eastwood first visited California in 1890 as a tourist, then returned the 

 next year for a brief but active visit engaged in Academy affairs. In 1892 she 

 joined the Academy staff as joint Curator of Botany with Mrs. Katharine 

 Brandegee. Following Mrs. Brandegee's taking up residence in San Diego in 

 1894, Miss Eastwood became the Academy's Curator and head of the Department 

 of Botany. She struck her characteristic stride in a series of papers published 

 in the Botanical Gazette, the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Chib, and the 

 Proceedings of the Academy on the California flora. She prefaced A Handbook 

 of the Trees of California with the statement that "the pressing need of a popular 

 manual of the trees of California is the reason for this little book." "Throughout 

 the work the aim has always been brevity and clearness — the desire to help rather 

 than to shine." Endowed with unusual energy, she rebuilt the Academy's botani- 

 cal resources and initiated many worth-while activities. These ranged from the 

 around-the-year "live exhibit" of named flowering specimens in the Academy's 

 foyer for the instruction of visitors to the republication of Lindley's useful 

 glossary of botanical terms and the initiation of the Leaflets of Wester7i Botany, 

 a periodical founded jointly with Jolm Thomas Ilowell, the present Curator of 

 Botany. For Alice Eastwood, as for Sir ChristoiDher AVren, we may well recall 

 his motto. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice. 



The Academy's first salaried director was B. AV. Evermann, whose California 

 residence from 1879 to 1881 as a school superintendent has been mentioned. 

 Beginning in 1914 Dr. Evermann served the Academy for eighteen years. In 

 1915 he reported 20,000 specimens in the Department of Birds; 31,500 reptiles 

 and amphibians, including 266 specimens of the Galapagos land tortoises; and 

 the recent acquisition of the Hemphill conchological collection of over 60,000 

 specimens. At that time Evermann reported that the Academy's herbariiun 

 contained more than 18,000 sheets. The collections were then temporarily housed 

 at 343 Sansome Street, but soon were installed at the new quarters in Golden 

 Gate Park. Under Dr. Evermann's direction the Academy grew in prestige and 

 importance. A hard-driving worker for himself as for others, he introduced the 

 punching of time clocks on one occasion! Evermann made capital gains during 

 his years at the Academy. In addition to his own research studies on fishes and 

 the bringing of the Eigenmann South American fish collections to the Academy 

 as the nucleus of its ichthyological department, he implemented the Steinhart 

 Aquarium in 1921 and eight years later the Leslie Simson habitat groups of 

 African wild life. During his directorship the Academy published twenty-five 

 volumes of scientific reports. His energies were so thoroughly dedicated to the 

 Academy and the natural sciences that it is doubtful if he gave more than 

 passing thought to the amenities of social living. Certainly the awesome severity 

 he evinced toward his Academy associates was more defensive than real. 



During Evermann's directorship John Van Denburgh served as Curator of 

 Reptiles and his assistant was the present citrator, Joseph R. Slevin, most widely 



