Bio


I am the Branch Library Specialist at the Harold A. Miller Library of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove. I have degrees in biology and library science and my current efforts entail researching the history of the Pacific Grove’s Chautauqua Program (1880-1926), the history of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory (1892-1917) and the early years of the Hopkins Marine Station (1918-1950), Edward F. Ricketts and Jack Calvin: The Publishing of Between Pacific Tides (1939), and The Hamilton Family: John Steinbeck Maternal Ancestors.

Current Role at Stanford


Branch Library Specialist at the Miller Library of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove

Education & Certifications


  • B.S. Biological Sciences, University of South Florida, Biology (2000)
  • M.S. Biological Sciences, University of South Florida, Marine Macrophytes (2002)
  • Masters Library Science, San Jose State University, Academic Libraries and Archives (2008)

Projects


  • The History of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory (1892 -1917)

    The Hopkins Seaside Laboratory (1892-1917)
    Pacific Grove, California

    The Hopkins Marine Station (1918-1950)
    Pacific Grove, California


    In 1892, the first building of Stanford University's Hopkins Seaside Laboratory was built for about $700. This 60 x 20 foot wood frame building contained 3 general laboratories, a library, a store room, and 7 private rooms for investigators. The wood braces on the corners were added to keep it from being blown over by the wind. Two years later a second building was added. In 1905, for reasons that are explained within the chapters below, the name of the facility was changed to the Marine Biological Laboratory of Stanford University.

    Then Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, while carried on under the auspices of the University, was by no means to be regarded as simply a provision for members of that institution. Its advantages were planned for and freely offered to investigators from whatever source. The regular sessions of this laboratory were held during the summer months, when teachers, students, and others desiring to attend, had their vacations, while the use of the buildings was allowed to investigators at all times of the year. This regular organization of the facility provided for three classes of participants, 1) the undergraduate and graduate students of Stanford University, 2) the scientific investigators, and 3) schoolteachers and students. See images.

    In 1918, the Marine Biological Laboratory of Stanford University was relocated from Lovers Point to its current location of China Point and became a year round facility with a resident director and faculty. It was during this time that the name of the research facility was changed to Hopkins Marine Station. The chapters of the book are the initial efforts aimed at presenting the history of the twenty-five years Hopkins Seaside Laboratory (i.e. Marine Biological Laboratory) was located at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove.

    Location

    Miller Library, Hopkins Marine Station 120 Oceanview Blvd, Pacific Grove, California

    For More Information:

  • The History of Hopkins Marine Station: The Early Years (1918 -1950)

    In 1916, through the efforts of the third President of Stanford University, Ray Lyman Wilbur and the Stanford Board of Trustees, a land exchange was negotiated with the Pacific Improvement Company that secured five acres of land at a rocky headland named Point Almeja for the immediate purpose of relocating the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory. Having been the site of Pacific Grove's Chinese fishing community for many years, this particular location was known to the residents of the Monterey peninsula, as China Point. During the first years of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, this vibrant and picturesque fishing village became particularly dear to a number of students and researchers, as it was the home of Quock Tuck Lee; an exceptionally skilled collector whose efforts provided the necessary material for important research associated with the comparative embryology of primitive fishes.

    With the China Point property secured, the next stage in the development of the research facility at this location was initiated in January of 1917, when the Board of Trustees of Stanford University approved plans and authorized the construction of a new building at a cost not to exceed $23,000.

    On October 26, 1917, with the construction of the new building in process, the Board of Trustees, in recognition of the financial support provided by long-time Stanford Trustee, Mr. Timothy Hopkins, during the life of the original seaside laboratory, named this new facility 'Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.

    Location

    120 Oceanview Blvd, Pacific Grove, California 92950

  • Chautauqua: The Nature Study Movement in Pacific Grove, California (1879-1926)

    The following account of the Pacific Coast Assembly of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) introduces the reader to California's first summer school of science. Positioned along the shoreline of southern Monterey Bay, the Chautauqua Assembly program placed a particular emphasis on the study of natural history; offering courses in terrestrial and marine botany, marine zoology and conchology for over twenty five years. Along with the teaching of natural history, the Pacific Coast Chautauqua Assembly offered daily lectures and courses of instruction in normal school training, the humanities and the arts.

    Weaved within the history of the Pacific Coast Assembly of the CLSC, are new details related to the life of John Muir. Within this account one learns of Muir's participation in a Yosemite Sunday School Assembly in 1879, led by Reverend John Heyl Vincent, founder of the Chautauqua program. In addition to Muir’s participation one learns how the Yosemite Sunday School Assembly served as an opportunity for the construction of the Yosemite chapel.

    Beyond his participation in the Yosemite Assembly, there is the telling of Muir's close friendship with Charles Herman Allen, Principal and Professor of California State Normal School in San Jose. In addition to CH Allen, there is recognition of the numerous friends of John Muir who contributed to the Pacific Coast Assembly of the CLSC, including California botanists Volney Rattan, Charles Christopher Parry, John and Sarah Lemmon, Stanford University’s President David Starr Jordan; University of California's Professors Joseph Le Conte and Cornelius B. Bradley, and many others.

    Accompanying this acknowledgement of John Muir’s many friends, and their involvement with Pacific Grove’s Chautauqua Assembly, one is presented with a chronological summary of the few occasions Muir spoke in public. This outline of Muir’s lectures, intertwined with letters of correspondence, provide an appreciation for the eminent naturalists’ immense fear of speaking to large public audiences.

    The above elements are just a few illuminating bits of history presented in this book, with the overall context of the monograph imparting a possible explanation for a nations’ extreme reverence for nature.

    Location

    Pacific Grove, California

  • The Science and Philosophy of Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts (1897-1948)

    Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts, known by many simply as Ed Ricketts, was an American marine biologist, ecologist, and philosopher. He is best known for the publication Between Pacific Tides (1939), a pioneering study of intertidal ecology, and for his friendship with writer John Steinbeck, which resulted in their collaboration on the Sea of Cortez, later republished as The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951). Steinbeck based the character “Doc” in his novel “Cannery Row” on Ed Ricketts.
    Finding Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts began as a project to identify and present online as a list those books, both personal and scientific, that comprised the library of Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts. The project was broadened to include those items of E. F. Ricketts that would provide a greater appreciation of the level of effort associated with his philosophical and scientific works. These items include his bibliographic card catalog, that cross references his scientific reprint collection, and his collection cards, that identified the marine animals that he collected, as well as the date and location of their collection. The project was broadened further to identify and present as a list, the artists and art, composers, musicians and poets that comprised the interests of E. F. Ricketts at one time or another during the course of his life. The purpose of the “Finding Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts” project is to spur a renewed interest among, researchers, historians and the general public about the life and times of California’s most renowned marine biologist who never acquired a college degree.

    Location

    800 Cannery Row, Monterey California

  • Edward F. Ricketts and Jack Calvin: The Publishing of Between Pacific Tides First Edition (1939)

    There is a story behind Edward F. Ricketts and Jack Calvin’s effort to have their
    seminal work, Between Pacific Tides, published. Upon being presented an outline
    of the manuscript, it took 10 years for Stanford University Press to publish the
    book. Was the publication slowed by then Director of Hopkins Marine Station
    Walter K. Fisher’s critical review of the manuscript? Did Stanford University
    Press dislike the ecological approach that Ricketts and Calvin chose for the book?
    Was Ed Ricketts completely isolated from the scientific community of Hopkins
    Marine Station, as has often been suggested? The discovery of numerous letters of
    correspondences between Ed Ricketts, Jack Calvin, Stanford University Press, and
    invertebrate specialists scattered around the world provide answers to these and
    other unanswered questions.

    Location

    800 Cannery Row, Monterey California

All Publications