The first stirrings at Princeton of biology as we know it today came from geology and paleontology. The famous geologist Arnold Guyot had a number of brilliant students, three of whom in particular straddled biology, paleontology, and geology. They were Henry Fairfield Osborn, William Berryman Scott, and William Libbey, Jr. All three graduated from the college in 1877. The first two studied abroad in a number of laboratories, including that of Thomas Henry Huxley in London. Huxley was a most vigorous proponent of a unified science of life, i.e., biology, rather than the more traditional fragmentation into the separate study of plants and of animals. Undoubtedly Osborn's and Scott's exposure to this modern view had the favorable effect of ultimately producing a biology department at Princeton at a time when most universities had separate botany and zoology departments. All three of these remarkable men became assistant professors at Princeton in 1881. Professor Libbey remained in physical geography, while Professor Osborn left for the Museum of Natural History after ten years. But Professor Scott became intimately involved in the formation of the first Department of Biology. Although Blair Professor of Geology, he taught courses in biology also, and after President Woodrow Wilson first formed the Departments of Geology and Biology in 1904, Scott was chairman of both for four years, a staggering thought in modern times.
The year 1908 was an important one for biology at Princeton. It not only marked the beginning of the construction of Guyot Hall; it was also the year when Edwin Grant Conklin was persuaded by President Wilson to become the first full-time chairman. The president said that he wanted to build a ``great school of biology'' at Princeton, and some years later Professor Conklin reported that he was carried away by Wilson's splendid vision of the perfect place of learning, and he told the president he would ``like to have a part in its development.'' As one looks back over the changes since 1908 it is clear that in the case of biology the ``development'' has been enormous, and it did not stop with Conklin's retirement in 1933.
Before Guyot Hall was built, biology was housed in various scattered locations over the campus, including the top floor of Nassau Hall. When the building was finished in 1910, the department had a faculty of five, and the new quarters, which they shared with the Department of Geology, were positively commodious. Today the faculty has quadrupled and has long since burst the seams of its end of Guyot Hall. Several steps were taken to meet the department's burgeoning needs. First, part of the natural history museum was converted into two floors of laboratory space. This was possible because the museum has an extremely high ceiling, said to have been built especially to accommodate the skeletons of large animals; in fact until recently a giraffe stood with head unbowed in the center of the main hall. Then, in 1960, the Moffett Laboratory was added to the south end of Guyot Hall, almost doubling the department's space. The second floor of Guyot Hall has recently been converted into a splendid, modern library, and the department has overflowed into Eno Hall, formerly occupied by the Psychology Department. There is also, northwest of Princeton, the Stony Ford Field Station, whose ninety acres of beautiful wood and meadow (and the restored barn it uses for its headquarters) are employed for experimental work in ecology and animal behavior.
Between 1908 and 1977 there have been only four chairmen of the department, rather an unusual record. Edwin Grant Conklin served twenty-five years, Elmer Butler for fifteen years, Arthur Parpart for seventeen years, and John Bonner for twelve years. Edward Cox became chairman in 1977. Similarly, the elementary biology course has passed through relatively few hands, although as student enrollment has increased more faculty have been involved. This was, for years, Conklin's famous course, which inspired so many undergraduates. He was followed by Wilbur Swingle and, in more recent years by Colin Pittendrigh, who was later dean of the Graduate School.
There have been some important milestones in the teaching program of the department. In 1920, E. Newton Harvey started what must have been the first undergraduate course in biochemistry in the country. In the early 1960s, a program in biochemistry was started up by Arthur Pardee. This program, made up of professors in biology and chemistry, became a separate department in 1970. Another new development has been the introduction of two new areas of teaching and research: neurophysiology and behavior, and ecology and evolution (population biology). The former was organized by Vincent Dethier in 1967, and the latter by Robert MacArthur in 1965. Besides these new subjects, the department has strengthened its faculty in developmental and cell biology (so vigorously initiated by Professor Conklin), and in genetics. The latter began in 1915 when Conklin persuaded George Harrison Shull to come to Princeton. Professor Shull had already achieved renown for his work on hybrid vigor; he was one of the co-discoverers of hybrid corn.
At the moment, the world is in a golden age for the biological sciences. The interest and importance of the subject grows steadily. Princeton is fortunate in being one of the most desirable places to do graduate study; and the undergraduate enrollment, with the strong increase in interest in medicine and the life sciences in general, has more than doubled in the last few years. The department no longer lies obscurely in the laryngeal cavity of the whale. John Tyler Bonner