3.36 cu. ft. (2 record storage boxes) (2 document boxes) (1 5x8 box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Black-and-white photographs
Place:
Plummers Island (Md.)
Date:
circa 1939-1957 and undated
Introduction:
This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Descriptive Entry:
The papers of Louis W. Hutchins document his work on marine fouling and his study of marine bryozoa, and consist of correspondence, manuscripts and reprints, field
notes, and research data.
Historical Note:
Louis W. Hutchins (1916-1957) was born in Washington, D.C. He was educated at Yale University, B.A., 1937 and Ph.D., 1941. Hutchins worked as a laboratory assistant
at Yale from 1937 to 1938. During 1941 and 1942, he studied at Ohio State University as the recipient of the Mary S. Muellhaupt Scholarship. In 1942, he joined the staff of
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as an Assistant Marine Biologist. He was promoted to Associate Marine Biologist in 1943 and Marine Biologist in 1947. From 1949 to
1952, Hutchins served as Director of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. In October 1957, Hutchins was drowned while on a field trip to Plummers Island in the Potomac
River.
Hutchins' primary zoological interests were the studies of marine bryozoa and marine fouling. From 1943 to 1947, Hutchins served as Chief Biologist on a survey, sponsored
by the United States Navy, to study the effect of marine fouling on buoys in the coastal waters of the United States. In 1945, he was engaged by the Lynn Gas and Electric
Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, to investigate the fouling problem caused by mussels in their intake water tunnel. Hutchins also participated in the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution's expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 1948.
