Robert Harding Whittaker papers, 1940-1984
Collection Number: 4248
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Robert Harding Whittaker papers, 1940-1984
Repository:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Collection Number:
4248
Abstract:
Collection includes research data, course notebooks, manuscripts, and letters of Dr.
Robert H. Whittaker, an ecologist who taught at Cornell University and elsewhere.
Creator:
Whittaker, Robert H. (Robert Harding), 1920-1980.
Niering, William A.
Woodwell, G. M.
Westman, Walter E., 1945-
Olsvig, Linda Susan, 1953-
Quanitities:
22 cubic feet.
Language:
Collection material in English
Robert H. Whittaker received a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Washburn Municipal
University in Topeka, Kansas in 1942, served in the Army Air Force as a weather observer
and forecaster in England until 1946, and received a Ph.D. in zoology from the University
of Illinois in 1948. In 1948, he was appointed as an instructor in the Dept. of Zoology
at Washington State College in Pullman. He worked for the Aquatic Biology Unit at
the Hanford Laboratories of the General Electric Company, taught at Brooklyn College
and at the University of California at Irvine, and at Cornell University. He spent
two years at Brookhaven National Laboratory, served as American editor of the journal
Vegetatio; was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences; and served as vice president of the Ecological Society of America and
president of the American Society of Naturalists. Robert H. Whittaker died on October
20, 1980.
Collection includes research data, course notebooks, manuscripts, and letters of Dr.
Robert H. Whittaker. Projects documented include field work on the Siskiyou Mountains
of Oregon and California; an effort to obtain measurements of the biomass and productivity
of the forest communities along an elevation gradient in the Great Smoky Mountains;
with William Niering, a gradient analysis and productivity study of the Santa Catalina
Mountains in Arizona; a study with George M. Woodwell at the Brookhaven National Laboratory
about the Brookhaven and Hubbard Brook oak-pine forest; and on California vegetation
in the San Jacinto Mountains. In 1968, Whittaker accepted a position as Professor
of Biology in the Dept. of Ecology and Systematics at Cornell University. While at
Cornell, his projects included a study of production, nutrient circulation, and ordination
of the vegetable gradient from the pygmy forest through the Bishop pine forest to
the redwoods in Mendocino County, Calif., with Walter Westman; continued work on primary
production for the Hubbard Brook forest and the Santa Catalina Mountains; and work
on species diversity in Nylsvely, South Africa. Also a CD including a PDF file of
scans of data.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Robert Harding Whittaker papers, #4248. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
Cornell University Library.
Names:
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Cornell University. Department of Ecology and Systematics
Places:
South Africa -- Description and travel.
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (N.H.)
San Jacinto Mountains (Calif.)
Santa Catalina Mountains (Ariz.)
Siskiyou Mountains (Calif. and Or.)
Great Smoky Mountains (N.C. and Tenn.)
Subjects:
Species diversity.
Plant ecologists.
Ecologists.
Sequoia (Genus) -- Ecology.
Pine -- Ecology.
Oak -- Ecology.
Vegetation boundaries.
Mountain ecology.
Biotic communities.
Plant communities -- Ordination.
Plant ecology.
Ecological surveys.
Ecology -- Research.
Ecology -- Study and teaching.
Form and Genre Terms:
Field notes
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Box 1 |
Alpha files/other files
|
||
Box 2 |
Files
|
||
Box 3 |
Files
|
||
Box 4 |
NSF Proposals, Reports, etc.
|
||
Box 5 |
Photographs
|
||
Box 6 |
Manuscripts
|
||
Box 7 |
Catalinas
|
||
Box 8 |
Brookhaven/Hubbard Brook
|
||
Box 9 |
Brookhaven/Hubbard Brook
|
||
Box 10 |
Smokies
|
||
Box 11 |
Smokies
|
||
Box 12 |
Smokies/Oak Ridge/Siskiyous
|
||
Box 13 |
Mendocino/San Jacinto
|
||
Box 14 |
Nylsvley, South Africa
|
||
Box 15 |
Nylsvley, South Africa
|
||
Box 16 |
Course notebooks
|
||
Box 17 |
Course notebooks
|
||
Box 18 |
Course notebooks
|
||
Box 18 |
Subject notebooks
|
||
Box 19 |
Subject notebooks
|
||
Box 19 |
Calendars/certificates
|
||
Box 20 |
Printouts
|
||
Box 21 |
Unprocessed material
|
||
Box 22 |
Unprocessed material
|
||
CD-1939 |
CD containing a PDF of scans of data from Whittaker's research
|
||
Digital |
The digital preservation copy may be made available on request if a delivery copy is not already online.
|