Search

Professor of zoology at the University of Michigan, scientist for the Rockefeller Foundation, and scientific writer for both professional and popular publications. Correspondence, journals, manuscripts of writings, and class materials, including papers detailing his work with the United Fruit Company in Central America, 1928-1931, his later activities with the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, especially his interest in mosquito research and malaria control programs during the 1930's and 1940's, and his demographic studies of the people of the Ifalik Atoll in the South Pacific in 1953; and photographs.

The Bates papers cover the period 1913-1974 and include material relating to all phases of his career, including his research in Guatemala and Honduras with the United Fruit Company, his studies of mosquito biology and malaria control programs during the 1930's and 1940's in Albania, Egypt, Colombia, and elsewhere and his later investigations into problems of demography and human ecology. The collection includes correspondence, personal and scientific journals, miscellaneous entomological notes, manuscripts of many of his books, articles, and book reviews, copies of the scripts of his television appearances, and University of Michigan class notes. The collections also includes personal photographs and photographs relating to his scientific research.

The collection has been arranged into six series: Correspondence; University of Michigan; Journals, diaries, research; Writings; Notes/miscellaneous personal; and Photographs.

Detroit, Michigan industrialist and director of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory of University of Michigan (located on Lake Angelus near Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan.). Correspondence concerning astronomy, particularly celestial photography, and the development of the McMath Observatory, financial records, plans for telescope equipment, and printed materials.

The Robert R. McMath papers consist primarily of correspondence concerning astronomy, particularly celestial photography, and the development of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory of the University of Michigan, financial records, plans for telescope equipment, and printed materials. Correspondents include some leading astronomers of the day but the bulk is with his collaborators in construction and operation of the Observatory and with the Heber D. Curtis, chair of the University of Michigan Astronomy Department and university president Alexander Ruthven. Writings include articles by McMath about the equipment and operation of the observatory and reports on specific astronomical observations made there. The papers have been arranged into the following series: Biographical; Correspondence; Miscellaneous; Organizational Affiliations; Writings; McMath-Hulbert Observatory, Lake Angelus; and Research and topical files.