Call Number:

C0488

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

11 boxes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Charles F. W. McClure Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1891-1929 (bulk) and 1852-1947 (inclusive)

Creator:

McClure, Charles F. W. (Charles Freeman Williams) (1865-1955)

Form:

Diaries., Correspondence, Lantern slides, and Illustrations, scientific (images).

Abstract:

Charles F. W. McClure (Princeton Class of 1888) was a professor in the Princeton University Department of Biology. His papers consist of letters from numerous biologists and anatomists. Also included are some of McClure's writings, research and teaching files, diaries, and photographs.

Charles F.W. McClure (1865-1955) was a comparative anatomist and embryologist. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1865, McClure attended Princeton University and received his B.A. in 1888. He continued his studies at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, as well as in Europe at universities in Berlin, Kiel, and Wurzburg. In 1891, he returned to Princeton as an instructor of biology, later becoming assistant professor, professor of comparative anatomy, and professor emeritus. He authored numerous papers on the anatomy and development of the vascular system in vertebrates, among other subjects. McClure died in 1955.

The collection contains approximately 1200 letters sent to Dr. Charles F. W. McClure (Princeton Class of 1888), a professor in the Princeton University Biology Department, by numerous biologists and anatomists from the international academic community. A sizable portion of the correspondence is between McClure and his close associates, including his former instructor Henry Fairfield Osborn (whom McClure would later succeed at Princeton) and his frequent collaborator, George Sumner Huntington, professor of anatomy at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

McClure studied a wide variety of animal specimens, both living and dead. During his time at Princeton, he built a comparative anatomical collection using specimens from a number of sources including zoos, circuses, and animal dealers. Correspondence with early 20th-century animal dealers such as William Bartels and J.S. Edwards documents this practice.

Also included in the collection are some of McClure's writings, speeches, and lecture notes, research and teaching files, diaries, and photographs. Some items of note include a diary McClure kept while at Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888; a diary of a trip to Greenland in 1899 as part of the Peary Relief Expedition; and a set of negatives and lantern slides of photographs from botanist David Fairchild from his research and travels as part of the Allison V. Armour Expeditions of 1925-1927. Geography and plant life from Europe, North and West Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia are documented in these photographs.

In addition, there is an essay, "The Monastery," in which McClure describes the living arrangements of various groups of faculty (himself included) at Princeton from the 1880s until 1937. There are also drafts of a speech, "The Early Life of Charles F.W. McClure", which chronicles McClure's childhood in Massachusetts, his time as a sheepherder in Texas, his decisions to attend Princeton and to study biology, and the course of his career.