Here are a few physical places you can visit in New Haven that have a connection to the history of the invertebrate zoology division of the Peabody Museum.
1. Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (170 Whitney Ave)
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| YPM in the summer |
It's home base. This Yale Peabody Museum building opened in 1924 to better accommodate the museum's growing collections, which were becoming too large for its original location on the corner of Elm and High Street. It's connected to Kline Geology Laboratory and the Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center, where collections for the majority of the thirteen divisions are housed. The museum will be closed beginning June 2020 for renovations to further expand space for collections, a public lecture hall, and other areas.
2. James Dwight Dana House (24 Hillhouse Ave)
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| 24 Hillhouse Ave today |
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Original architect sketches of Dana House
(Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library) |
James Dana Dwight—"America's Darwin" and Peabody invertebrate zoology-affiliate—used to live in this home on Hillhouse Avenue. The building is registered as a historic home (though it only has a 1.3 star rating on Google). More on the history of this building can be read
here, from the Library of Congress. Read
this article to learn about Dana and his correspondences with Darwin himself.
3. Saybrook College (242 Elm St)
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| Saybrook College on the corner of Elm and High Street |
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| Undated photograph of the first Peabody Museum building on the corner of Elm and High Street |
Saybrook College stands where the first Peabody Museum building stood. In 1866, George Peabody—international financier and uncle of Yale paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh—donated $150,000 to design and build a natural history museum at Yale. The museum opened to the public in 1876. However, the easterly wing was too small to accommodate the quickly growing collections, particularly Marsh's collection of dinosaur bones. The building was torn down in 1916 and the museum relocated to the corner of Whitney Avenue and Sachem Street, where it currently stands.
4. Addison E. Verrill's first home in New Haven (148 College St)
Addison E. Verrill, first zoological curator of the Peabody, moved to New Haven with his family in the spring of 1871 and rented a house at this address. Now it is a large office building. Verrill later moved to 86 Whalley Ave, which became his main place of residence in New Haven.
5. Payne Whitney Gymnasium (70 Tower Pkwy)
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| Payne Whitney Gymnasium |
The Payne in Payne Whitney Gymnasium is the same family that Harry Payne Bingham, founder of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection, which housed many of the IZ collections until the Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center was constructed in the nineties. Click
here for a story that involves IZ and the Payne family name.
6. Katherine J. Bush's home, 1908-1910 (133 Howe St)
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| 133 Howe today |
Katharine J. Bush was the first woman to receive a PhD in zoology at Yale. She worked extensively with Addison E. Verrill and the U.S. Fish Commission in cataloging and describing new species, most notably, polychaetes. She spent most of her life in New Haven. 133 Howe Street was one of the residences she occupied from 1908-1910. Click
here for more on Katharine J. Bush's legacy in Yale Peabody's IZ collections.
7. Addison E. Verrill's longtime residence (86 Whalley Ave)
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| 86 Whalley Ave today |
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General area along Whalley Avenue where Verrill might've lived
(from 1879 map of New Haven) |
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Verrill's address listed in the 1994 Yale Banner LIII edition
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Verrill's long-time residence of New Haven was at 86 Whalley Ave. Though it's no longer standing today, most of his addresses listed in directories were at this address.
With the exception of the Dana House listed as a historic home, most places have changed over the years. Who decides what to physically preserve to make historical connections more visible? We are left with remnants—addresses, photos, maps—and our own imaginations to fill in the stories that emerge in the present.
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