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COLLECTION Identifier: HUG 4557.xx

Papers of Edward Laurens Mark

Overview

Edward Laurens Mark (1847-1946), zoologist, worked at Harvard University from 1877 until his retirement in 1921. Mark's papers document his teaching and research activities, and include personal and professional correspondence, notes and zoological drawings, journals, and photographs. The collection also includes notebooks, lecture notes, and an original manuscript copy of Mark's dissertation from his student years at the University of Michigan and the University of Leipzig.

Dates

  • Creation: 1868-1944 and [undated]

Creator

Language of Materials

English and German

Researcher Access

The Papers of Edward Laurens Mark are open for research.

Extent

16.25 cubic feet (44 document boxes, 6 volumes, 5 pamphlet binders, 1 accordion folder)

The Papers of Edward Laurens Mark document his teaching and research activities. The collection includes personal and professional correspondence, including letters and other records related to the Bermuda Biological Station, as well as letters from former students and colleagues concerning Mark's teaching career at Harvard, including three letters from Harvard president Charles William Eliot. Mark’s papers also contain notes and drawings for studies of fishes Phylloxera and other zoology sketches; a daily journal from 1900; and other diaries and sketches made while Mark was an astronomer on the United States Northern Boundary Survey in 1873. There are materials from Mark’s student days, including an 1868 mathematics notebook from the University of Michigan; lecture notes, written in German, from Mark’s classes with German zoologist Rudolf Leuckart at the University of Leipzig from 1870 to 1874; and an original manuscript of Mark's inaugural dissertation for his doctorate degree at the University of Leipzig in 1876. Additionally, there are photographs and a Festschrift volume entitled, "To Edward Laurens Mark... in Celebration of Twenty-Five Years of Successful Work for the Advancement of Zoology from his former Students."

Biographical note on Edward Laurens Mark

Edward Laurens Mark (1847-1946), zoologist, worked at Harvard University from 1877 until his retirement in 1921. He received his AB in 1871 from the University of Michigan, remaining for another year to teach mathematics. Mark then worked as an astronomer for the United States Northern Boundary Survey. He received his PhD in Zoology from the University of Leipzig, Germany in 1876, and then came to Harvard the following year.

At Harvard, he became assistant professor of zoology in 1883 and Hersey Professor of Anatomy in 1885, a position he held until his retirement in 1921. Mark also served as the director of Harvard’s Zoological Laboratories from 1900 to 1921, during which he helped found the Bermuda Laboratory for Research. Mark also created the “Harvard Citation System,” which structures references parenthetically within the body of a scientific article using the author’s name and publication date. Throughout his career, he published many works, and was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1903. He died in 1946.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in twenty series:

  1. General folder (HUG 4557)
  2. Correspondence files, 1880-1897 (HUG 4557.1)
  3. Correspondence, 1900-1905 (HUG 4557.2)
  4. Correspondence, 1906-1911 (HUG 4557.3)
  5. Correspondence, 1912-1920 (HUG 4557.4)
  6. Correspondence, 1918-1944 (HUG 4557.5)
  7. Photographs (HUG 4557.5 p)
  8. Bermuda Biological Station files, 1902-1907, 1914-1917 (HUG 4557.6)
  9. Letters to Edward Laurens Mark, May 30, 1937 (HUG 4557.8)
  10. Mathematics notebook, 1868 (HUG 4557.10)
  11. Diary and sketches, Summer 1873 (HUG 4557.15)
  12. Inaugural Dissertation, University of Leipzig, 1876 (HUG 4557.20)
  13. Zoology sketchbook, [circa 1877-1880s] (HUG 4557.22)
  14. Notes and drawings, 1868-1944 (HUG 4557.24)
  15. Coccidae, Phylloxera, Anthropod Eyes, Trichina, Lepidosteus, etc. [reprints], 1876-1890 (HUG 4557.25)
  16. Daily journal, March 1-5, 1900 (HUG 4557.26)
  17. Notebook containing handwritten copy of Monographie du Polypiers Fossiles des Terrains Palaeozoiques (HUG 4557.35)
  18. Vergleichende Anatomie, Leuckart [lecture notes], [1870-1871] (HUG 4557.36)
  19. Entwickelungsgeschichte, Leuckart (HUG 4557.37)
  20. Mark anniversary volume, 1877-1902 (HUG 4557.68)

Acquisition

Specific acquisition information, when available, is noted at the series level:

  1. Gift of Mrs. Goreth Mansfield, May 6, 1983; Accession 09722

Inventory update

This document last updated 2022 April 22.

Processing Information

This finding aid was created by Olivia Mandica-Hart in March-April 2021. Information in this finding aid was assembled from legacy paper inventories and container management data. The collection was not re-examined by the archivist.

"List of publications of Ed.ward Laurens Mark, 1877-1899" (HUG 4557.30) has been recorded as missing since February 1990, and could not be located at the time of the creation of this finding aid.

Title
Mark, E.L. (Edward Laurens), 1847-1946. Papers of Edward Laurens Mark, 1868-1944 : an inventory
Status
completed
Author
Harvard University Archives
Date
March 31, 2021
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hua26021

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository

Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.

Contact:
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461