WHOI Office of the Director records, (Henry Bryant Bigelow)

Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879 - 1967) became the first Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1930 and held that position until 1939. In 1927, while Bigelow was Associate Professor of Zoology at Harvard University and Curator of Oceanography at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, he was asked to prepare a report for the Committee on Oceanography of the National Academy of Science,

"setting forth whether the United States was contributing as broadly as was desirable to the study of the oceans, and if not, what should be done to improve the situation. (Bigelow) spent about a year in the preparation of the report..." ₁

The report was published in 1931 under his name as a book entitled Oceanography; Its Scope, Problems and Economic Importance. It led to the establishment of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, incorporated on January 6, 1930, with a grant from the Rockefeller Institute of $2 million plus $50,000 per year for ten years. The grant also provided additional financial benefits to oceanography and marine biology through gifts to the Scripps Institution, the University of Washington and the Bermuda Biological Station. In 1935, the original grant of $50,000 was replaced by an additional endowment of $1 million.

According to the deed of the gift, the first board of trustees was to consist of the then [13 member] Committee on Oceanography of the National Academy of Sciences. The first move, obviously, in the organization of the Institution, was to select a director. The trustees’ first choice was Dr. H. U. Sverdrup, but he declined, and the position was ’wished’ on [Bigelow]. The tasks that faced me were, a) to acquire a site for the Institution in Woods Hole, b) to plan and erect a laboratory building, and c) to plan and build a vessel for oceanographic research." ₂

Originally, the Marine Biological Laboratory planned to donate the land for the building, but due to stipulations in the deed, the Carnegie Foundation finally purchased the land for the Institution for $27,000.

Bigelow faced a real challenge in accomplishing the selection of a staff for the new Institution as there was very little in the way of talent pool in the emerging field.

A primary objective was to give impetus to oceanographic studies in the universities, and there was the ‘developing viewpoint’ to be fostered. He chose the bolder course of recruiting from the universities a new generation of chemists, meteorologists, physiologists, bacteriologists - whoever could be persuaded that scope for their skills could be found in studies at sea. The practice grew that each should make at least one short voyage at sea each season. ₃

Among Bigelow’s early staff appointments were Alfred Redfield and George Clark from Harvard University; Norris Rakestraw, a chemist from Brown; Carl G. Rossby, an MIT meteorologist; Albert Parr, a Yale oceanographer and licensed seaman; Selman Waksman, a prominent soil microbiologist; and Floyd Soule of the International Ice Patrol. With this staff came students, including Mary Sears, a student of Bigelow, and Columbus Iselin, a former student of Bigelow; Bostwick Ketchum, a student of Redfield; Athelstan Spilhaus and Raymond Montgomery, students of Rossby; and others. This core of professionals would continue in long-term association with the Institution. By the summer of 1931 the Institution was in active operation when its first research vessel Atlantis , designed by Professor George Owen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and commanded by Captain Iselin, arrived in Woods Hole from Copenhagen. This was a fulfillment of one of the primary objectives of the founders:

From the time when the prospects of the new Institution were discussed in earnest, the trustees have appreciated that one of the most important things that it could do would be to operate a seagoing research ship of moderate size, with convenient living quarters, and equipped to carry on investigation at all depths in the various lines of sea science. No other American marine laboratory, independent of the government is able to do this. ₄

Bigelow’s directorship coincided with his association with Harvard University and he was only in residence in Woods Hole during the summer, (allowing him to have an unbroken record of 55 years service to Harvard). During the first summer of operation in 1930, twenty-nine scientific investigators and assistants worked in the laboratory, which continued as a summer institution until the winter of 1940-41. As an accomplished zoologist and a recognized authority on both coelenterates and fishes, Bigelow continued to conduct significant research in his field during this period and published more than 17 books and papers in collaboration with William C. Schroeder, Columbus Iselin, Mary Sears and others.

During Bigelow’s term as director, the Institution grew in size and scope. The Atlantis was engaged in fieldwork conducted aboard fourteen cruises between 1930-1932. Joint publication of Papers in Physical Oceanography and Meteorology (PPOM) by the Institution and MIT began with the first number in March of 1933, and covered the scientific results of the Nautilus expedition. By 1937, the cooperative field of activities between WHOI and other institutions had greatly expanded. These included a continued joint survey of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico with Yale University’s Bingham Oceanographic Foundation. Other activities included hydrographic investigations for the U. S. Navy; Lehigh University and Dr. Ewing’s use of the Atlantis ; a grant from the Geological Society of America to develop improved submarine seismic instruments; and a joint investigation, with the Bermuda Biological Laboratory, of the variations in the North American drift and Gulf Stream systems. In 1939, the growth of collaborative ventures, both aboard the Atlantis and in the laboratories, had reached a point in which every room in the laboratory was in service.

Upon retiring as director in 1939, Bigelow was elected a member and President of the Board of Trustees. WHOI also founded the Henry Bryant Bigelow Chair in Oceanography in 1958. In 1960, recognizing his great service to the Institution, he was named Founder Chairman of the Board. He was also the first recipient of the Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal, an award established that year in his honor. During his lifetime, Henry Bigelow was honored often for his achievements. Michael Graham wrote about the personality of the man who was so instrumental in organizing the Institution and establishing a model for scientific integrity that has remained to this day: "One had the feeling that he was a man of such excellence and such exceeding pleasantness that not for a moment would one relax in the effort to do one’s very best in order to support him as far as possible." ₅

Henry Bryant Bigelow died on December 11, 1967.