Ida May Mellen (1877–1970) was an American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

and

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. She worked at the

New York Aquarium The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896, and moved ...

from 1916 to 1929. She was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Mary Davis and Andrew Jackson Mellen in 1877. After graduating from the Lockwood Academy in Brooklyn, Mellen attended Browne’s Business School, 76 Court Street, Brooklyn, from which she graduated in 1900. She spent several years as a law reporter in New York while she also studied at the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

at Woods Hole (1908–1910). She joined the New York Aquarium in 1916 as secretary to Aquarium Director Charles H. Townsend, and later became involved in the scientific work of the Aquarium. Within a short time, she was writing articles for the ''Bulletin of the

New York Zoological Society New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

,'' which operated the Aquarium. Her first article, “Some Babies of the Sea,” appeared in the ''Bulletin'' in March 1917. She frequently contributed to the ''Bulletin'' and published several books, including ''Fishes in the Home'' (1927). In 1929, she left the New York Aquarium. The reason for her departure is unclear. But over the years, she continued her own research and writing on a variety of topics, not just fish, and she published both fiction and nonfiction. She adopted the pseudonyms George Otis and Esmeralda de Mar for some of her work. Mellen died in 1970. The fish

platyhelminth The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegment ...

parasite '' Neobenedenia melleni'' of aquarium fish was named in her honor.Folia Parasitologica 51: 109–122, 2004
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Selected publications

* ''Fishes in the Home'' (1927) * ''The Young Folks' Book of Fishes'' (1927) * ''Roof Gardening'' (1929) *''1001 Answers to Questions about Aquarium Fishes'' (1935) * ''The Science and Mystery of the Cat'' (1940) * ''Twenty Little Fishes'' (1942) * ''The Natural History of the Pig'' (1952)

References

* ''Annual Report of the New York Zoological Society'' 1916 (Jan. 1917).
Guide to the Ida M. Mellen Papers
Manuscripts & Archives Division, New York Public Library. Retrieved 20 Jan. 2012. *
Little Known Brooklyn Residents: Dr. Ida Mellen
" Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklynology blog. 8 June 2010. Retrieved 20 Jan. 2012. * Mellen, Ida M. "Some Babies of the Sea," ''Zoological Society Bulletin'' 20.2 (Mar. 1917): 1463-65. * ''Zoological Society Bulletin'' 19.6 (Nov. 1916): 1425. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellen, Ida 1877 births 1970 deaths American marine biologists American women scientists Ichthyologists American ichthyologists Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century American scientists Women ichthyologists Women marine biologists 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century American women scientists