New York Zoological Society. Department of Tropical Research. General records

The origins of the Department of Tropical Research (DTR) can be traced to the earliest expeditions of William Beebe (1877-1962) when he served as first Curator of Birds for the Bronx Zoo. Among these field expeditions were visits to Nova Scotia in 1900, Mexico from 1903 to 1904, Trinidad in 1908, British Guiana in 1909, and the Pheasant Expedition in Asia from December 1909 through May 1911. In 1914 the old winter house for eagles in the Bronx Zoo was made available to Beebe for laboratory research and storage of his field equipment.

In 1916 and 1918 the New York Zoological Society operated tropical research stations in the Bartica District of British Guiana with staff researchers and artists all working under Beebe as Director. After the First World War, a new station was opened at Kartabo, British Guiana. The research staff visited Kartabo annually between 1919 and 1924, except in those years when occupied elsewhere.

In 1923 Beebe was named Director of Scientific Research for the newly named Department of Tropical Research. In that year the DTR commenced its oceanographic work. Over the next seventeen years, expeditions were undertaken in the West Indies, Sargasso Sea, Hudson Gorge, Bermuda, and the Eastern Pacific, from San Diego, California to the Galapagos Archipelago. In Bermuda between 1928 and 1940, the DTR conducted intensive ecological investigations within well defined areas of deep sea and shore zones, and undertook what were then record-breaking explorations in the depth of the sea with the submersible diving bell, the bathysphere.

Later, the attention of the DTR returned to terrestrial expeditions, with jungle and forest research conducted at the Caripito Station, 1942, and Rancho Grande Station, 1945-1948, both in Venezuela. In 1950 William Beebe donated a field station named Simla, in the Arima Valley of Trinidad, to the New York Zoological Society. Upon his retirement in 1952, Beebe became Director Emeritus, and Jocelyn Crane assumed the administrative responsibilities for DTR, a position she held through 1966. After Beebe’s death, the Simla Station was renamed the William Beebe Tropical Research Station by the Board of Trustees of the New York Zoological Society. From 1965 through 1971, the Station was administered through the Institute for Research in Animal Behavior. In 1974, the property was donated to the Asa Wright Nature Center of the Florida Audubon Society.

More than 100 persons participated in the expeditions and explorations of the DTR. John Tee-Van served as Assistant in Tropical Research, 1917-1924, General Assistant from 1925 through 1930, and General Associate from 1931 until 1941, when he was appointed Executive Secretary of the New York Zoological Park and Aquarium. Gloria Hollister held the position of Research Associate from 1928 through 1941. Jocelyn Crane began as Research Zoologist in 1930, went on to be Assistant Director in 1952, Directing Curator in 1962, Director from 1963 through 1965, and administrator of the William Beebe Tropical Research Station in 1966. Other participants in the scientific work of the DTR included Alfred Emerson, William J. and Marie Fish, Henry Fleming, William K. Gregory, G. Inness Hartley, Paul G. Howes, William H. Merriam, and David W. Snow.

The research interests of the DTR included ecology, biotic zones, the life histories of species, systematics, and behavior of lower invertebrates, crustaceans, insects and spiders, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The activities of the research staff included the discovery and description of more than 800 species new to science, especially among insects, mollusks, and fishes; cataloging and preserving specimens for systematics collections; scientific and popular publications, lectures, and exhibits based upon explorations; and the collection of live specimens for the New York Zoological Park.