MBLSciShoots: History of the MBL

Did you know that there was just a single class taught during MBL's inaugural season? Or that that first summer, seven scientific investigators came to Woods Hole (and four of them were women)? Take a trip back to 1888 with Jen Walton, MBL Archivist and co-director of the MBL-WHOI Library, to learn all abut the first 25 years of the Marine Biological Laboratory in our latest #MBLSciShoots video lesson.

Learn more about the MBL-WHOI Library.

Questions from the Audience

Have any courses been taught every year since MBL opened? The original courses were invertebrate zoology (1888-1988) and marine botany (1888-1979) although the name changed a few times. Of the courses still taught today the oldest are Physiology (1892) and Embryology (1893)!

You said four of the investigators that came that first year were women. Was that by intention? (Did they reach out to women intentionally?)

It was the intention of the founders of the Lab to include women. The Boston Women's Educational Association intended that the lab would provide the opportunity for women to get instruction and do research. The original announcement does not specifically mention women, however it was sent to women's colleges.

Watch the rest of the MBLSciShoot videos on our Youtube channel.

Related Reading

Questions from the Audience