Description
The Samuel J. Holmes papers, 1868-1964, include correspondence, manuscript drafts, research files, notes, and biographical
materials documenting the career and family life of Samuel J. Holmes, a professor in the Department of Zoology at the University
of California from 1912-1938.
Background
Samuel Jackson Holmes was born in 1868 to Joseph Holmes and Avis Folger née Taber. In 1890, attracted to the work of Joseph
LeConte, Holmes matriculated at the University of California. Following receipt of his Sc.D. in Zoology in 1893, and his M.Sc.
in Zoology in 1894, Holmes attended the University of Chicago, and earned his Ph.D. there in 1897. Following his doctoral examinations, Holmes taught high school science in San Diego for one year, then spent the next fourteen
years as a member of the faculty at the Departments of Zoology at the University of Michigan (1899-1904) and the University
of Wisconsin (1905-1911). In 1912 Holmes returned to Berkeley to replace his former teacher and mentor, Harry Beal Torrey,
in the Department of Zoology. He became a full professor in the department in 1917. His primary areas of teaching and research
included experimental morphogenesis, genetics, animal behavior, and eugenics. Holmes retired his position at the department
in 1938, but remained very involved in campus life until his death. During the University of California Loyalty Oath Controversy
(1949-1952), Holmes strongly opposed what he perceived as a direct threat to the academic freedom of university faculty. Besides composing a number of technical articles and textbooks, including The Biology of the Frog (1907), The Evolution of Animal Intelligence (1911), Studies in Animal Behavior (1916), and General Biology (1937), he also wrote a biography, Louis Pasteur (1924, 1961), as well as philosophical discourses: Life and Morals (1948), and the unfinished Ethics of Enmity (circa 1964).Holmes married Cecilia Warfield Skinner in 1909. They had five children: Samuel, John, Joseph, Avis and Marion.
Extent
Number of containers: 5 cartons, 3 boxes, 2 oversize Folders, 3 volumes
Linear feet: Approximately 8
Restrictions
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in
writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000.
Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to
include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Availability
Collection is open for research.