Easter Ellen Cupp Papers, 1899-1980

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Summary

Creators:
Cupp, Easter Ellen, 1904-1999
Abstract:
The collection consists of papers and photographs documenting the life and career of marine biologist Easter Ellen Cupp, including her graduate studies and research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Extent:
9.8 Linear feet (8 archives boxes, 1 card file box, 5 oversize boxes)
Language:
Preferred citation:

Easter Ellen Cupp Papers, SMC 0097. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of papers and photographs documenting the life and career of marine biologist Easter Ellen Cupp, including her graduate studies and research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The papers are arranged in six series:

SERIES 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS: Personal documents from Easter Ellen Cupp and her family, including her parents' marriage certicate, Cupp's grades, transcripts and diplomas, and curriculum vitae, accomplishment certificates, and materials from her employment with Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.

SERIES 2) CORRESPONDENCE: Personal and professional correspondence with friends and research collaborators, including letters regarding Cupp's dissertation and some of her publications. Arranged in chronological order.

SERIES 3) STUDENT NOTES: Course notes and laboratory manuals with notes from junior high school to graduate studies, as well as teacher certication courses. Arranged alphabetically.

SERIES 4) RESEARCH MATERIALS: Notes, summaries, data collection, and illustrations by Cupp. Subjects include diatoms, fouling organisms, and plankton hauls; also includes three sets of miscroscope slides and three rock samples.

SERIES 5) WRITINGS: Drafts, typescripts, galley prints, and original drawings and figures for Cupp's dissertation and research articles. Original negatives of figures used in Cupp's dissertation are located in Series 6) PHOTOGRAPHS, subseries E) Research. Arranged chronologically.

SERIES 6) PHOTOGRAPHS: Photographs, negatives, and glass slides documenting personal and professional activities, including some notes. Many of the photographs and all of the negatives were taken by Cupp, though some images of the Scripps campus and personnel were taken by Harry Erickson (the "Flying Photographer") and Eugene LaFond, and have been credited where appropriate. A selection of photographs from the collection have been digitized, and can be viewed through links in the container list.

Arranged in five subseries: A) Animal and Objects, B) People, C) Places, D) Ships and E) Research.

Biographical / historical:

Marine biologist Easter Ellen Cupp (1904-1999) was born in Neola, Iowa. Her family moved to Whittier, California in 1910. Cupp attended Whittier College (A.B. 1926) and earned a master's degree in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1928. In 1934, Cupp became the first woman in North America to receive a PhD in oceanography when she was awarded her doctorate from the University of California for research on plankton completed at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Cupp remained at Scripps and worked initially as an associate oceanographer, then instructor, from 1934-1939, but departed in 1940 when a faculty position proved elusive. During this period she completed work on her book, Marine Plankton Diatoms of the West Coast of North America, published in 1943. Cupp became an assistant biologist for the Naval Biological Laboratory from 1940-1943; when that assignment ended, she taught English and science at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in San Diego until her retirement in 1967. She passed away in San Diego at the age of 95.

Acquisition information:
Acquired, 1999 and 2003
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

SIO ARCHIVES COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.

Preferred citation:

Easter Ellen Cupp Papers, SMC 0097. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Location of this collection:
9500 Gilman Drive, Dept. 0175
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175, US
Contact:
(858) 534-2533
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Website