An in-depth look at ESA's early membership: Continuity, contrasts, and surprises

Background/Question/Methods

Looking back at the inception of ESA, we reviewed the first (1917) list of members, which offers an unusual amount of detail about who they were and what research interests they pursued. Data on individuals and their institutions, geographic areas of interest, primary research subjects, and even the tools and techniques they used are recorded. By analyzing this information with the benefit of hindsight, we were able to construct several different views of the original membership. We assessed how ESA’s membership has changed over the intervening decades by comparing this to later ESA membership surveys. Published ESA records substitute for tools we might use today, such as personal interviews of ecologists. We used these records to investigate characteristics and patterns of the founding cohort.

Results/Conclusions

For its time, ESA’s early membership provides a surprisingly diverse look at the early days of ecology in North America and reveals interesting facets of the ecological community of 1916-17. For example, at least 21 women were among the 300 members listed. Thirty members gave only their initials and not a given name, a common way for a woman to avoid the perception of discrimination in publications. Many of the most important ecological names of the 20th century are represented, including John Weaver, Frederic Clements, Forrest Shreve, Edgar Transeau, Arthur Vestal, Henry Cowles, and Victor Shelford, ESA cofounder and first president. Several of these founders became much better known in specializations not now considered a part of ecology. Henry Allen Gleason, later better known as a taxonomist, is one, and William Beebe, the ornithologist and deep-sea explorer is another. Roscoe Pound, a practicing lawyer in Lincoln, NE, was soon to become Dean of the Harvard Law School. The US Forest Service, then a new agency, employed 14 members; several more were high-school teachers. Students, professors, academics, and applied practitioners appeared without distinction in the list. Interest in ecology seemed to be the primary criterion, and research extended from protozoa to bog plants, from Alaska to Algeria. The range of geography, disciplines, ages, and specializations suggests that the new professional organization filled a real need. Although many specialized disciplines have since emerged as separate societies, comparison with later membership shows that today ESA still appears to offer “something for everyone.”