Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Nicholas E. Collias papers
- Dates:
- 1933-2008
- Creators:
- Collias, Nicholas E. (Nicholas Elias)
- Abstract:
- Nicholas E. Collias was an internationally renowned zoology educator and ornithologist. Collias worked on his long term research program concerning the development of social behavior in birds with his wife, Elsie C. Collias. The collection consists of materials related to his academic work as a student and professor, field studies, and involvement in professional organizations. Materials include field notes, research article manuscripts, correspondence, thesis drafts, teaching files, publications and records from scientific organizations.
- Extent:
- 13.5 Linear Feet (9 cartons)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Nicholas E. Collias papers (Biomed Manuscript Collection Number 432). UCLA Library Special Collections, History and Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of materials related to Nicholas E. Collias' work as a zoology educator, field biologist and published author of scientific research articles. Collias worked on his long term research program concerning the development of social behavior in birds with his wife, Elsie C. Collias. Their research is best known for its investigations of social hierarchies such as pecking order, vocal communications and external constructions, notably nests. The collection consists of field notes, manuscripts of research articles, correspondence, academic work related to his undergraduate and graduate degrees, teaching materials and records of professional involvement as a founding member of the Animal Behavior Society. The collection also contains publications issued by the United States Army Air Forces that Collias annotated during his service with the Army as a medical research physiologist.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Nicholas Elias Collias, an internationally renowned zoology educator and ornithologist, was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois on July 29, 1914.
After the completion of his secondary education at private and public high schools in Illinois, Collias entered the University of Chicago, majored in zoology and earned his B.S. degree in 1937. Following graduation, he was hired as a research technician by Professor W.C. Allee, an ecologist on the faculty, to study pecking order in chickens. This job led to several fellowships and inspired his doctoral dissertation. Collias earned his Ph.D. degree in zoology in 1942.
Soon after the completion of his doctoral degree, Collias was drafted into the U.S. Army, and served three and a half years. He finished his Army career as a medical research physiologist at the Aeromedical Research Station at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.
After his discharge from the Army, he became a zoology instructor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he began his long term research program on the social behavior of birds. While at Wisconsin, Collias met Elsie Cole who became his life and scientific research partner. Most professional colleagues and acquaintances knew them as Nick and Elsie. They married on December 21, 1948.
Their research dealt with bird behavior including social hierarchies such as pecking order, vocal communications and external constructions, notably nests. Much of their field research and experiments focused on weaverbirds and junglefowl. Nick and Elsie published numerous research articles, co-authored two books on nest building and were founding members of the Animal Behavior Society.
In 1953 they joined the biology faculty at Illinois College in Jacksonville where they remained until 1958 when Nick accepted a position with UCLA's Department of Zoology. Collias worked at UCLA for 27 years until his retirement in 1985 as professor emeritus.
Nick and Elsie received the Elliott Coues Award for bird behavior research from the American Ornithologists Union in 1980 and the Margaret Morse Nice Medal for lifetime contributions to ornithology from the Wilson Ornithological Union in 1997. Elsie Collias died on December 17, 2006. Nick Collias died on April 28, 2010 at home in Van Nuys, California.
- Acquisition information:
- The collection was donated from the creator's daughter, Karen Collias Whilden, in 2010.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Kelly Besser with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser. Most materials are in their original folders and retain their original folder titles and organization.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Field notes, 1950-2005
- Manuscripts and publications, 1950-2008
- Correspondence, 1933-2004
- Teaching and research materials, circa 1946-2004
- B.S. and Ph.D. notes, papers and thesis drafts, 1930-1948
- Professional organization records, 1958-2007
- United States Army Air Forces publications, 1943-1945
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-08-05 14:58:32 -0700 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Nicholas E. Collias papers (Biomed Manuscript Collection Number 432). UCLA Library Special Collections, History and Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library.
- Location of this collection:
-
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library12-077 Center for Health Sciences, Box 951798Los Angeles, CA 90095-1798, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-6940