{"id":134,"date":"2024-07-02T15:06:53","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T15:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/?page_id=134"},"modified":"2024-09-09T16:05:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T16:05:57","slug":"beyondmhc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/beyondmhc\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Beyond Mount Holyoke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a student and teacher at Mount Holyoke, Cornelia Clapp had studied William Smellie\u2019s Philosophy of Natural History<\/em>, but her summer at the Anderson School of Natural History on the island of Penikese in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts was the first time she really learned to study nature itself. Decades later, she described the experience as \u201can opening of doors,\u201d the moment when she entered the biological world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sketch<\/a>
Sketch of Penikese from a letter home, July 9th 1874<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In her first letter home that summer, Clapp included this \u201crough sketch\u201d along with her enthusiastic account of her experience so far. She marked her work table in the laboratory, the lecture room where the \u201creal, genuine old German drawing teacher\u201d gave her an impromptu lesson on scientific illustration, and the rocky shore where she went to watch the glow of the jellyfish that she had only read about before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clapp \u201cbecame a fish woman\u201d on her first summer tramp with David Starr Jordan, an ichthyologist she knew from Penikese, and his party in 1878. She\u00a0had spent a few summers collecting specimens when Jordan decided he would take a party of students and friends on a collecting trip on foot across the American South.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flyer<\/a>
Flyer for 1884 summer tramp through the Adirondacks<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For most of the next decade, Clapp spent her summers in this party of \u201ctramps,\u201d traveling on foot across different regions of the U.S. and Europe to observe and collect animal specimens. While she helped Jordan coordinate most of these tramps, this was one of the few trips where she was formally listed as an assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
When Clapp was a young teacher, she wore her hair and skirts short to keep them out of the way during dissections and collecting trips. Cornelia Clapp, circa 1870s-1880s.<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clapp was ready for the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, before the lab was ready for her: when she arrived, it was still under construction! Soon after, though, the tables were all built and the work of the first summer could begin.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Woods Hole investigators, 1893<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clapp, now nearly 15 years into her whole-hearted embrace of zoological inquiry, received the very first research problem assigned at Woods Hole: she was going to study the toadfish and try to understand its lateral line. When this photograph was taken in 1893, she was still working steadily on the toadfish and its senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a lateral line? Clapp and her contemporaries weren\u2019t sure. By 1888, when Clapp started her research, most scientists agreed that the lateral lines of fish sensed something<\/em>, but most of them assumed that they helped the main sense organs detect either sound or touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tan<\/a>
Ph.D. dissertation reprint, 1899 (originally 1896)<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From her close observations, however, Clapp disagreed, suggesting that the lateral line was actually its own specialized sensory system \u2013 and she was correct! In the mid-20th century, scientists confirmed that fish have a specific \u201clateral line sense\u201d for movement and pressure that is distinct from the other senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clapp earned her second Ph.D. in 1896, making her the first American woman to hold two doctorates in the same subject area, and the only woman to do so in the 19th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cornelia<\/a>
Clapp in University of Chicago robes, 1896<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She earned her first Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1889. She did so based on an examination and the work of her first summer at Woods Hole. Likely wanting a more dedicated research degree, she elected to take a leave from Mount Holyoke to study the toadfish full-time for a Ph.D at the University of Chicago from 1893 to 1896.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Diagram<\/a>
\u201cCross section of Toad Fish\u201d in student zoology notebook c. 1909, Ethel Breitenstein (Robinson), class of 1911<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is,\u201d Clapp\u2019s doctoral thesis began, \u201csomething singularly grotesque in the appearance of the toadfish.\u201d Despite her harsh assessment of its appearance, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone appreciating the toadfish more than Clapp. In countless minds, she was forever tied to the creature she studied. For decades, Opsanus tau<\/em> was known at Woods Hole as \u201cDr. Clapp\u2019s fish,\u201d and it was best known at Mount Holyoke for its starring role under the microscope in her histology class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Glass<\/a>
Slides of toadfish cross-sections, 1900, Margaret Ball, class of 1900<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clapp always referred to her fish as either \u201cthe toadfish\u201d or Batrachus tau<\/em>, but there are close to a hundred different species of toadfish, and Batrachus tau <\/em>is no longer considered a valid species name. Luckily, her descriptions clearly indicate that the species she studied was the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau<\/em>, which is common near Woods Hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the summer of \u201991,\u201d Clapp explained at a talk in 1893, \u201cthe fascinations of embryology held me captive.\u201d Then later she began studying how the lateral line developed in relation to the rest of the individual toadfish embryo, and she quickly learned that her subject was especially well suited to this line of study: its eggs were large, transparent, and fixed in place, which made observing each embryo\u2019s development easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Personal<\/a>
Handwritten draft of \u201cSome Points in the Development of the Toad-Fish,\u201d circa 1891<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This paper, which was printed in the Journal of Morphology<\/em> later that year, was the first of her two scientific publications, both discussing the toadfish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the 1910s, Clapp was one of the only figures at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) who had attended since that first summer in 1888. She was a continuous presence for nearly 50 years, and she carried the spirit of the \u201cOld Guard\u201d at the MBL with her commitment to collaboration, education, and genuine wonder for generations of Woods Hole scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Photo of Marine Biological Laboratory trustees, 1934<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After 23 years as a pillar of the MBL, Clapp was elected to the Board of Trustees. She was the only woman to be granted this level of recognition and influence at Woods Hole from her appointment in 1910 until well after her death in 1934, and she used her unique position to ensure that the laboratory remained open to women when many scientific institutions did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Map of Mt Holyoke at Woods Hole, 1909<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clapp initiated an ongoing connection between Woods Hole and Mount Holyoke. Every name on this map refers to an MHC student, faculty member, or alumna who went to Woods Hole either to teach, to take classes, or to conduct research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Pine Knots fireplace, complete with the ceramic toadfish in its mantle, was a housewarming gift from Clapp’s friends at Woods Hole. Photo of fireplace at Pine Knot, circa 1920.<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
Pine Knot exterior, n.d.<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Three<\/a>
Sisters Harriet (left), Cornelia (center), and Mary (left) Clapp outside of Pine Knot, 1928<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 1917, the year after she retired from Mount Holyoke, Clapp built herself a permanent home in Woods Hole, which she named Pine Knot. Every summer until she passed, she stayed there, invited guests, and hosted whoever she could for gatherings and stays ranging from a weekend to a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Cornelia Clapp and her nephew Roger Clapp, with Pine Knot in the background, August 1918<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In an obituary, Clapp\u2019s friend Louise Baird Wallace wrote of her, \u201cone needed an overcoat less in passing her house;\u201d her cottage among the trees was a source of warmth for anyone who came by, and Clapp made sure that many people did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Three<\/a>
Cornelia, Mary, and Harriet Clapp at home in Mount Dora, Florida, n.d.<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Two<\/a>
Cornelia Clapp and Charlotte Fitch in an orange grove in Mount Dora, Florida, January 1919<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

After she retired, Clapp lived with her sisters Harriet, x-class of 1876, and Mary, x-class of 1880, in Mount Dora, Florida for most of the year, delighting in the much milder winters than they were used to in New England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacy >><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a student and teacher at Mount Holyoke, Cornelia Clapp had studied William Smellie\u2019s Philosophy of Natural History, but her summer at the Anderson School of Natural History on the island of Penikese in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts was the first time she really learned to study nature itself. Decades later, she described the experience as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-nosidebar.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-134","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/clapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}