Marian Elizabeth Hubbard (August 31, 1868 – February 24, 1956) was an American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and associate professor of zoology at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, where she taught for over 40 years.

Early life

Marian Elizabeth Hubbard was born in

McGregor, Iowa McGregor is a city in Clayton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 742 at the time of the 2020 census. McGregor is located on the Mississippi River across from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Pike's Peak State Park is located just south ...

, to parents Rodolphus and Hanna Hubbard, In 1886 she graduated from McGregor school. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

) until 1889 and graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

with a B.S. in 1894.

Professional career

Despite only earning a bachelor's degree, she taught at Wellesley College in Massachusetts for over 40 years, rising to the rank of professor, and retiring as professor emerita in 1937. Hubbard was known as "the flight of the zoology department" due to her

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

approach at Wellesley, and often wrote in the ''Wellesley Alumnae Quarterly'' on scientific matters across campus. She was once a member of the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

, the

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations. The AAUP's stated mission is ...

, and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. Hubbard was also a prominent advocate for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

and advocated among the Wellesley College campus writing articles to the school's president about women scientists and their struggles. Hubbard's research included

heredity Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

in insects,

embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...

of birds, and behavior of salamanders. In 1904, Hubbard researched and co-authored an article on pecten and varying pecten ray length. After her research on pecten, Hubbard encountered an issue when a fire in 1914 at Wellesley College, where her 20 years of research on beetles was destroyed. In 1908, Hubbard published an article in ''

The American Naturalist ''The American Naturalist'' is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society of Naturalists, whose purpose is "to advance and to diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles so as to enhance th ...

'' titled "Some Experiments on the Order of Succession of the Somites in the Chick" that was Mostly inspired by an 1889 article by Julia Platt on the formation of somites during development. To verify past claims, Hubbard surgically damaged somites (using “Miss Peebles’ method”) to determine whether that stopped formation of new somites. The results challenged Platt’s interpretation. She retired from Wellesley College in 1937 and died February 24, 1956.

Works

* Hubbard, Marian E. (1903-12-05)
"''Correlated Protective Devices In Some California Salamanders''"
'. University of California Publications in Zoology''. 1:157–168. * Davenport, C. B.; Hubbard, Marian E. (1904-12)
"Studies in the evolution of Pecten IV. Ray variability in Pecten varius"
''

Journal of Experimental Zoology ''Journal of Experimental Zoology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of zoology established in 1904. In 2003, the journal was split into the ''Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology,'' currently edited by Da ...

''. 1 (4): 607–616. doi: 10.1002/jez.1400010407.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs ...

0022-104X. * Hubbard, Marian E. (1908-07-01)
"Some Experiments on the Order of Succession of the Somites of the Chick"
''

''. 42 (499): 466–472. doi: 10.1086/278956.

References

External links

* American women zoologists 1868 births 1956 deaths Wellesley College faculty Mount Holyoke College alumni University of Chicago alumni 19th-century American zoologists 20th-century American zoologists 19th-century American women scientists 20th-century American women scientists People from McGregor, Iowa American women academics {{US-zoologist-stub Scientists from Iowa