OOS 42-1
How a new society found its bearings: Membership demographics and interests during the Ecological Society of America's early years
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) was formed in 1915 with the express intent of bringing those interested in ecology together in ways not possible in other scientific societies of the time. Membership was (and continues to be) open to anyone interested in ecology, without regard to academic degrees, employment status, or specific interests in the general area of ecology and environment. The initial cohort listed in the 1917 ESA Handbook included not only many familiar names in ESA history, but also a dry goods merchant, a university English professor, a library cataloguer, lab and field technicians, and high school teachers. Among professional scientists, there were eugenicists, medical doctors, climatologists, geographers, and taxonomists as well as plant and animal ecologists.
As a foundation for the presentations that follow in this session, we further characterized the initial members, and then examined changes reflected in subsequent membership directories. Initial membership required a leap of faith from those joining that the new Society would perform as promised, but increasingly, new recruits would be joining a known entity. The Society remained open to all, but who among the initial cohort chose to remain, and how did new members in turn change the Society's membership characteristics?
Results/Conclusions
The initial cohort of 307 members strongly reflected the personal connections of and recruitment by the Society's founders, as documented in archival correspondence and online records. There was significant turnover between 1917 and the next complete membership list (1923), for example, with 226 of the 307 initial members remaining and an additional 444 joining. Applied ecologists, often in government employ, represented ca. 30% of the initial membership and were responsible for much of the geographic dispersion away from academic centers in both the 1917 and 1923 lists, with some academic members also shifting to applied ecological problems as a response to national needs during WWI. Some well-known ecologists (e.g., ESA President Paul B. Sears) were absent in the early lists, reflecting individual career priorities rather than lack of personal connections or interest, but later omissions (e.g., Rachel Carson) might reflect a changing understanding of the nature of the Society itself, within or beyond ESA. While remaining open to all, the membership has not included or served all disciplines or individuals we now may see as important in the history of U.S. ecology, or, indeed, to its future. The remainder of this Organized Session will continue to explore these themes.