Glover Morrill Allen

Background

Glover Morrill Allen was born on February 8, 1879 in Walpole, New Hampshire, United States. He was the second of three children and only son of Nathaniel Glover Allen by his second wife, Harriet Ann Schouler. Both parents were natives of Massachusetts. The father, himself the son of a minister, was a graduate of Harvard and the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in New York City. Already sixty-eight when his son was born, he died ten years later. On his mother's side, Allen was descended from James Scouler, a calico printer who emigrated from Scotland in 1815; both his grandfather, William Schouler, journalist and public official, and an uncle, James Schouler, lawyer and historian, were prominent figures in Massachusetts.

Education

Allen spent much time observing the wildlife there and in the White Mountains, especially near Intervale, New Hampshire, where his uncle James Schouler had a summer place. His ability as a naturalist was early apparent. The first of a number of accounts he wrote of local birds was published when he was only eleven, and while he was still in the Newton high school he prepared a well-documented collection of specimens of local mammals. In 1901 Allen graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, where, in addition to the usual languages, he had learned Russian and in his spare time taught himself Danish.

Continuing his studies, he received a Ph. D. in biology at Harvard in 1904 (with a thesis on "The Heredity of Coat Color in Mice") and went on to postdoctoral studies in forestry at the university and at the Harvard Engineering Camp on Squam Lake, New Hampshire.

Career

In 1901 Allen was appointed secretary and librarian of the Boston Society of Natural History.

In September 1907 he applied successfully to Samuel Henshaw, director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, for a part-time job there. By inclination both naturalist and scholar, Allen divided his time over the next two decades between his posts at Harvard and the Boston Society of Natural History. At the museum he had virtual charge, from 1907, of the mammal collections, although it was not until 1925 that he was formally appointed curator. For more than twenty years he took care of the department almost single-handed. As librarian of the Boston Society of Natural History, a post which he held until 1928, Allen regularly contributed perceptive reviews of current papers on birds and mammals. His competence in both fields is well attested by the fact that in 1936, at the height of his career as a mammalogist, he was made editor of the Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union. His scientific writings were "models of directness, clarity, and accuracy".

In 1924 Allen was appointed lecturer in zoology at Harvard. He gave two half-courses yearly on the natural history of birds and mammals, becoming an associate professor of zoology in 1928; he was appointed professor in 1938. Although classroom instruction held little interest for him, his great store of knowledge and his patience exerted a lasting influence on individual students at a time when the study of mammalogy was expanding in the United States.

Allen had a retentive memory which, coupled with remarkably accurate powers of observation and a precise ear, contributed much to his abilities both as a field naturalist and as a taxonomist. He made collecting trips to the Bahamas (1903), Labrador (1906), East Africa (1909), the British West Indies (1910), again to various parts of Africa (1912, 1926), Brazil (1929), and Australia (1931). These trips were usually not undertaken to further specific research projects, but the observations and material collected stimulated future work. Thus his A Checklist of African Mammals (1939) grew out of earlier regional studies in the Sudan, East Africa, and Liberia. His The Whalebone Whales of New England (1916), though it originated in field observations, not only provides a very thorough description of the morphological characteristics and known behavior of the species but also gives a carefully documented list of sightings and strandings. His publications also include papers dealing with genetics, fossil mammals, and comparative anatomy.

Although shy and somewhat retiring, Allen took an active part in a number of professional organizations.

He died in Cambridge of a coronary attack at the age of sixty-three and was buried there in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Achievements

• Allen contributed much to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and made the mammal collections the most representative and usefully organized of any in the world, largely because their orderly arrangement was an expression of his careful taxonomic judgment. As a librarian of the Boston Society of Natural History, Allen's knowledge of the literature and the ease with which he read many European languages enabled him to contribute much to the research of others. Because of these abilities, together with his precise command of English, his editorial work for the society set a high standard for the publications under his care. Of his most important works, The Mammals of China and Mongolia is noteworthy both for the excellence of the systematic treatment and for the careful historical account of studies of the area. His Bats (1939) remains the most detailed, accurate, and thoroughly readable general account available.

Works

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  • Dogs of the American Aborigines (1920)

    (Allen Glover Morrill (1879-1942) was a collector, curator...)

  • Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Western Hemisphere, With the Marine Species of All the Oceans

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Animal figures in the Maya codices

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Monographs On the Natural History of New England: The Whalebone Whales of New England

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • A List Of The Birds Of New Hampshire

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Solenodon Paradoxus (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Solenodon Paradoxus The brief history of th...)

  • A New Mylodon (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from A New Mylodon Type Well preserved skull and...)

  • Notes On Bahama Bats (1905)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Bats: Biology, Behavior and Folklore

    (From earliest times bats have excited curiosity and wonde...)

Membership

Allen was a member of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, a charter member (1919) of the American Society of Mammalogists. In 1921 he was made a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union.

Personality

Allen was known for his modest nature, kindly presence, diplomacy, and accessibility to all who wished his advice or help. Although not given to “hearty camaraderie, ” as one of his friends put it, when encouraged he would greatly entertain listeners with whimsical and humorous tales of his travels, often enhancing his accounts with appropriate quotes drawn from his vast knowledge of literature.

Connections

Allen was married on June 26, 1911, to Sarah Moody Cushing of Newburyport, Massachussets; their only child was Elizabeth Cushing.

Father:

Nathaniel Glover Allen

Mother:

Harriet Ann (Schouler) Allen

Spouse:

Sarah Moody (Cushing) Allen

Daughter:

Elizabeth Cushing Allen

References

• Walter Allen of Newbury, 1640, and Some of His Descendants: With a Few Notes on the Allen Family in General (Classic Reprint)