The Henry Chandler Cowles photograph collection is comprised primarily of glass lantern slides from Cowles's ecology trips covering the years 1898 to 1936 with the majority being unmarked or falling between the years 1900-1912. Captions affixed to the plates are noted when available along with any numbering. Some of the handwriting is difficult to make out as are the Latin names of the plants but every attempt at correct spelling has been made. The collection is divided into seven series: Michigan Photographs, Colorado Photographs, Illinois Photographs, Indiana Photographs, Wisconsin Photographs, Miscellaneous Photographs, and Indiana Transparencies. Each state has subseries of General -- which indicates a many single location photographs -- and subseries of cities for which a group of photographs exists.
Henry Chandler Cowles came to the University of Chicago as a graduate student in 1895 to study under John M. Coulter a noted botanist at the newly formed university. Cowles's Ph.D. thesis entitled "The Ecological Relations of the Vegetation on the Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan" completed in 1898 detailed Cowles's theory on plant evolution in relation to geographic situation. That is, the closer one moves inland the more advanced along the evolutionary chain the plant species become.[1] Cowles based his thesis on observations made along Lake Michigan in Dune Park, Indiana. His thesis was published in Botanical Gazette in 1899 and its popularity led to Cowles becoming known as the first professional ecologist.[2] Cowles published The Physiographic Ecology of Chicago and Vicinity; A Study of the Origin, Development, and Classification of Plant Societies (1901) two years later that furthered his theory of plant succession and constant state of evolution.
Cowles began teaching at the University of Chicago in 1897 and initiated field trips with his classes in order to study ecological sites. The earliest trips were to Dune Park, Indiana the same location Cowles used in his thesis. Later excursions took place in Michigan, Indiana, Alaska, Colorado, and Maine, among others. The most common classes to include field excursions were Cowles's Elementary Ecology (Botany 3, Botany 203), Field Ecology (Botany 36, Botany 336) and Physiographic Ecology (Botany 34, Botany 234, Botany 334).[3]
Beginning in September 1898 with a trip to North Manitou Island, Cowles's field ecology classes made several trips to Michigan that continued sporadically through about 1923.[4] Cowles and associates including George D. Fuller and W.J. Cribs photographed the plants, dunes, forests, plants, trees, and students on these trips. These photographs illustrate interesting ecological and environmental elements in their original settings and over time. Cowles became chair of the department in 1925 and retired from the university in 1934. He passed away in 1939.
The University of Chicago Special Collections (http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/) holds many of the originals photographs. An effort has been made by the Library of Congress's American Memory project to digitize many of Cowles's photographs. see: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/ecology/index.html.
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Notes:
- "Ecology and the American Environment" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/ecology/aepsp4.html
- ibid.
- ibid.
- "Chronology of Field Trips 1898-1934" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/ecology/aepchron5.html
