164 JL 100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



Charles R. Crane, who felt that the young men and women needed a place 

 to meet, as the laboratory crowd and the wealthy summer crowd did not mix 

 much then. There was relatively little social life for the students and young 

 investigators who were not married and did not have houses. The MBL Club 

 promised to remedy that. 



Actually, the MBL Club should have opened in 1913 with the gift of the 

 building, but researchers needed the space for laboratories until the next 

 year when the Crane Building was completed. Very soon thereafter, the 

 directors introduced denatured alcohol for their "teas." Magazines made 

 an appearance a few years later. At first tlie Club offered a place for a few 

 workers to gather for a smoke in the evening, but as people's living quarters 

 grew more scattered they turned to the quiet, relaxing setting of the Club to 

 gather and talk. They might discuss a recent book or movie for a while, but 

 conversation inevitably drifted back to the latest scientific idea or technique. 

 While the director, Merkel H. Jacobs, in 1930 officially applauded the MBL as 

 a place of individualism but cooperation and a "center for healthy critical 

 interchange and stimulating contacts of individuals," others seem to have 

 partaken of the lighter attractions tliere. 



The MBL has continued to provide a place for people to gather 

 informally. At first everyone at the MBL could gatlier on the front porch to 

 talk or sing and smoke. Later they could still all fit into the boat for a picnic 

 or together in the Mess. As time progressed, more and more people have 

 come, of course. They have also come at irregular times, witli staggered 

 schedules so that everyone is not new all at the same time. "Other people 

 all seem to know each other, but I don't," someone complained recently. 

 Some people are in more of a hurry when tliey are here, tiying to squeeze 

 in visits to old ft-iends with time in tlie libraiy or collaboration with a 

 colleague in the lab. Some noted the speeded-up pace and tlie crowded 

 calendars as the centennial year approached. People live farther away so that 

 not everyone is in easy walking distance of tlie main buildings anvmore, 

 which produces greater anonymity tlian before. Yet tlie MBL Club has 

 nonetlieless continued to provide a setting for social interaction during all 

 that change and hurry, whether on Sunday morning over newspapers or 

 with dancing and singing. 



Singing 



Singing became a favorite evening activity right away, and the founders 

 intended singing to serve as a central focus of the Children's Science School. 

 It did, but no longer does everyone know th(; same songs. There is no 

 common repertoire so widely shared as in earlier times, so singing at the 



