Mary Isabel McCracken (1866 – 29 October 1955) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

, researcher and teacher.

Career

McCracken was born in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, California in 1866. She began her teaching career at Oakland’s public schools. After a decade of teaching and at the age of 34 she enrolled at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. McCracken continued at Stanford University completing her A.B. degree in 1904, her M.A. in 1905, and her Ph.D. in 1908. While at Stanford she started her university teaching career during her senior year when she was employed as an assistant in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

and entomology. While at Stanford McCracken also began to undertake field trips and laboratory research on the genetics of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s. She published several papers founded on the results she obtained from these investigations. She also engaged in research on a wide range of other insects including mosquitoes,

silkworms The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

, aphids, and

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

s, and was first to describe non-Mendelian inheritance as "purely maternal". McCracken also conducted field observation on numerous birds in the Sierra Nevada. Over the years she climbed the academic ladder to obtain the position of Professor of

Zoology 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 ...

. The only period she took as a sabbatical from her teaching was during 1913-14. During her sabbatical McCracken travelled to Europe where she studied at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

, returning at the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She retired in 1931 having obtained

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

status. After her retirement from Stanford she held the position of Research Associate at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

from 1931 through 1942. McCracken worked in the bird and insect collections of the academy. She was a member of the

Entomological Society of America The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...

, elected 21 August 1907. She was also a member of the California Academy of Sciences from 1915 and was named a Fellow in 1929.

Death

McCracken died on October 29, 1955, in her home on the Stanford campus.

Selected publications

* ''California Gall-making Cynipidae: With Descriptions of New Species'' by Mary Isabel McCracken, Dorothy Barnes Egbert Stanford University Press, 1922
''The animals and man: an elementary textbook of zoology and human physiology'' by Vernon Lyman Kellogg, Mary Isabel McCracken H. Holt and company, 1911
* ''Occurrence of a Sport in Melasoma (Lina) Scripta and Its Behavior in Heredity'' by Mary Isabel McCracken Leland Stanford junior university, 1907

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCracken, Mary Isabel American entomologists 1866 births 1955 deaths Women entomologists Women zoologists Schoolteachers from California American women educators Stanford University alumni Stanford University faculty Scientists from Oakland, California 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American zoologists