Alfred C. Redfield papers

Dr. Alfred C. Redfield (1890 - 1983) was born in Philadelphia into a distinguished family. His great-grandfather, William C. Redfield, a meteorologist and geologist as well as the first president of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, discovered the whirlwind character of hurricanes. John Howard Redfield, Alfred Redfield's grandfather, was a botanist, while his father, Robert Stuart Redfield was one of the earliest photographers of birds to capture his subjects in natural settings with natural attitudes. Dr. Redfield received his Ph. D. in Zoology from Harvard University in 1917, and joined the faculty of Harvard as Assistant Professor of Physiology in 1921. He retired from the University as Professor Emeritus in 1956, but remained scientifically active through the 1970s.

Dr. Redfield was one of the eight original appointees to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientific staff in 1930. While Redfield's early work had been spent on the chemistry of blood circulation, including studies of blood physiology comparing mammalian hemoglobin with hemocyanin (the "blue blood" of horseshoe crabs), his later studies at WHOI were more broadly based. He studied circulation in the Gulf of Maine; tidal phenomena in narrow embayments and the circulation and flushing of harbors; the use of deuterium as a tracer in fresh and salt water; and the biology, chemistry, and physics of salt marshes. In 1942, he was a primary contributor to the U. S. Navy's investigations into the prevention of marine fouling of ship bottoms.

Alfred Redfield was the recipient of the Agassiz Medal in 1956 and the Walker Prize in Natural History in 1973. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Oslo (1956), Lehigh University (1956), the University of Alaska (1965), and Memorial University of Newfoundland (1968).

Redfield held memberships in numerous professional associations, including the American Physiological Society, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (president in 1956), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as an Associate Director and Trustee of WHOI, and as a Trustee for the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (also serving as president from 1962 - 1965) and the Marine Biological Associations of the United Kingdom and of India.

Dr. Redfield was very involved with issues concerning Cape Cod. He spoke against the storage of radioactive waste at Otis Air Force Base and for the preservation of local salt marshes. Redfield assisted in the establishment of the Town Forest in Falmouth, and served on the Board of the Woods Hole Library.