1 ARRIVING IN WOODS HOLE 



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25 



own pocket. Whitman had ambitions to build biology in the United States 

 and to gain a more important professional position than that at the Allis 

 Lake Laboratory, and he had a vision of what biology should be like and 

 what a marine laboratory could do. He worked hard and sacrificed much 

 to put that dream into effect, to create a unique national research place 

 where students, researchers, and scientific leaders could meet and com- 

 municate and exchange ideas. He wanted to create a vital organism that 

 would grow and mature. To him the MBL and Woods Hole offered the 

 perfect opportunity. 



Modern visitors to Woods Hole often do not appreciate the reasons 

 behind the choices. Indeed most never have any sense of the very real 

 people and ideas behind those street sign names in town: Spencer Baird, 

 Hyatt, Whitman, Conklin, Clapp, Lillie and, yes, even Brooks. Tourists roll 

 through town all summer wdthout ever realizing why all those people are 

 going to the Friday evening lectures and without understanding the striking 

 number of important contributions to biological science that have begun in 

 this spot. 



Woods Hole as it looked in 1886, before the MBL began. 

 Photograph by Franklin Gifford. MBL Archives. 



