Marine Biological Laboratory history

The MBL Library was established in 1889, with scientist and future MBL trustee Cornelia Clapp serving as librarian.

faculty and students in the 1895 Botany course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Participants collecting specimens

In 1899, the MBL began publishing The Biological Bulletin, a scientific journal that is still edited at the MBL.

Cousteau’s Austrian counterpart, Doctor Hans Hass (1919-), also helped introduce the wonders of the underwater world to the public.

As that firm’s archives reveal, original drawings for Lillie show a simple, cast-stone urn in the pediment. Its first known appearance was in 1925 on the façade of the newly constructed Main Brick Building, later renamed the Lillie Building in honor of the MBL’s second director, Frank R. Lillie.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), an offshoot of the laboratory established in 1930, is maintained by a permanent staff of more than 850.

Inspired by the work of William Beebe, Doctor Sylvia Earle (1935-) began her work as an oceanographer at the tender age of 3 when she was knocked off her feet by a wave.

He invented one of the first underwater flash cameras and contributed to the development of the Drager oxygen rebreather which he and Lotte used in 1942 to film “Men Amongst Sharks” and continued to use on diving expeditions aboard their research vessel “Xarifa” in the Red Sea and Caribbean.

In 1951, she published “The Sea Around Us” a prize-winning bestseller on the history of the sea.

The Trieste’s first dive was made in 1953.

In the years following, the bathyscaphe was used for a number of oceanographic research projects, including biological observation, and in 1957 she was chartered and later purchased by the United States Navy.

Shortly after, her focus turned to the negative impact of pesticides, a cause to which she remained devoted to by fighting to raise public awareness until her death in 1964.

In 1969, the Smithsonian Institute released a call for proposals that was circulated in the marine science community for those interested in conducting research while living in an underwater habitat.

Writing in 1972, Lewis Thomas both explained and praised the nature of the MBL as a scientific institution.

Following her experience aboard the underwater habitat, Earle developed an interest in deep sea exploration, and in 1979 she broke the record for deep diving at 381 m/1,250 ft below the surface in a special suit called the Jim suit designed to withstand the pressure.

Faculty and students in the 1982 Neurobiology of the Leech Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA

Left to right: Jim Laundre, Anne Giblin, Gus Shaver, and Knute Nadelhoffer, in a snowstorm at Toolik Lake, July 18, 1984.

One of the institution’s best-known achievements was the discovery (using the Argo) of the luxury liner Titanic in 1985; the following year Alvin and Jason were used for a detailed examination of the wreck.

Since 1998, the MarineBio Conservation Society has been a nonprofit volunteer marine conservation and science education group working online together to educate the world about ocean life, marine biology, marine conservation, and a sea ethic.

The MBL became formally affiliated with the University of Chicago on July 1, 2013.

During the summer of 2014, the MBL History Project will return to Woods Hole for another round of expanding the digital archives.