24 i^ 100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



adjusting it to the conditions there and in Boston; the receiving of and 

 answering of applications, the reception and settling of those admitted; the 

 labor of giving lectures, arranging courses and providing material; and the 

 establishment and preservation of a cordial feeling between the U. S. Fish 

 Company and that of the Laboratory— as well as between all those in the 

 Laboratory." He declined. 



The trustees then decided to offer the directorship to William Keith 

 Brooks, who was probably the most well-placed biologist in America at the 

 time, uath his professorship in zoology at the research-oriented Johns 

 Hopkins University. He had attended Agassiz's Anderson School and had 

 then organized his own Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory for his students 

 at Hopkins. However, one member thought that Brooks might possibly 

 accept the position for no salary and bring the support of Johns Hopkins as 

 well. Optimistically, they offered Brooks the job. Then they waited; and 

 waited throughout the spring and into the summer months. The time came 

 closer to announce and then begin the first summer session in 1888. Finally, 

 Brooks declined. He saw no reason, he explained, to have another labora- 

 tory in Woods Hole. The Fish Commission was there. That was good enough 

 for his few professional students. And he really did not see the point of having 

 a teachers' school. 



Besides, it was clear from his actions at Hopkins that this shy and 

 retiring man did not want to teach biology to women. And women there 

 would be. That was understood from the beginning. In fact, the original 

 board of trustees included women ft'om Boston. Natural history was re- 

 garded as a "safe " subject for women, and women teachers wanted to have 

 experience in the laboratory and the field just as much as men did. As long 

 as the purpose of the MBL was seen as educational and as providing a place 

 for both students and investigators to work together in a community setting, 

 women promised to play a significant role. 



Today, women have indeed begun to fulfill that promise. Thirty to fifty 

 percent of students enrolled in courses are women, though a much smaller 

 percentage participate as course instructors or primary laboratory direc- 

 tors. In fact, after the early years the proportion of women students remained 

 well over half until the 1930s, when it dropped ofi" radically, and has 

 gradually risen only in recent decades, as is generally true elsewhere in the 

 professions. 



So, having to teach women and teachers, and a strong conservative — or 

 pragmatic — streak kept Bi ooks from accepting the directorship. The trust- 

 ees decided to make the next offer to Whitman, tiie only other American 

 who had directed a biological laboratory, tiiough admittedly an inland 

 facility: the Allis Lake Laboratory near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Almost im- 

 mediately. Whitman accepted — at no salary. And he continued as director 

 until 1908, at no salary, and sometimes at considerable expense from his 



