Gladwyn Kingsley Noble (1894 - 1940)

Born 20 Sep 1894 in Yonkers, New York

Ancestors

Husband of Ruth Elizabeth (Crosby) Noble — married 13 Aug 1921 in NYC, NY

Descendants

Died 9 Dec 1940 at age 46 in Englewood, New Jersey

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Biography

Gladwyn Noble Ph.D., a Harvard graduate and noted biologist, was a noted American museum curator and explorer.

GLADWYN KINGSLEY NOBLE (ELIZABETH4 ADAMS, HENRY CLAY3, WILLIAM2, WILLIAM1) was born September 20, 1894 in Yonkers, New York, and died December 09, 1940 in Englewood, New Jersey. He married RUTH ELIZABETH CROSBY, daughter of ALBERT HUTCHINGS CROSBY, on August 13, 1921 in New York City. She was born March 15, 1897 in Hartford, Connecticut, and died March 27, 1988.

Noble, son of the noted publisher Gilbert Clifford Noble, had developed a fascination for studying the life histories of reptiles and birds while an undergraduate at Harvard. He soon became a noted American museum curator and explorer.

Noble was born in 1894 in Yonkers, New York. He graduated with an A.B. cum laude at Harvard University, and received his A.M. degree under Thomas Barbour in 1918. While completing his undergraduate work, he participated in many expeditions to Guadeloupe, as well as one to the Leeward Islands, in 1914; one to Newfoundland, where he studied wild life in the summer of 1915; and, one to the jungles of Peru in 1916, when he served as the expedition’s zoologist. During the latter part of World War I, he served as an Ensign in the U.S Naval Reserve, and was attached to the Bureau of Codes in Washington. He then resumed his studies and obtained a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1922. His dissertation, "The Phylogeny of the Salientia," reflected his lifelong interest in herpetology and systematics. Through William K. Gregory, who was his graduate adviser and the Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology and Curator of the Department of Comparative Anatomy at the American Museum of Natural History, Noble also developed a keen appreciation of functional morphology and microscopical anatomy in analyzing phylogenetic relationships.

Gladwyn married Ruth Elizabeth Crosby in August 1921 in New York City. Ruth was the daughter of Albert Hutchings Crosby, President of the New England Laundry Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

The close ties between Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History led to Noble's appointment as Curator of the Department of Herpetology at the Museum in 1922. But Noble was not content with a career devoted entirely to systematics and natural history, feeling that the forefront of biology lay in the experimental disciplines of neurology, physiology, and endocrinology. A series of offers from Columbia University and the Medical School at Cornell University put Noble in a bargaining position: as a condition of remaining at the museum, Noble demanded half of the fifth and sixth floors of the African Wing, then under construction, for a laboratory of experimental biology. He also requested an annual budget increase of $10,000, to $27,000. In addition, the Department of Herpetology was to become the Department of Herpetology and Experimental Biology, with half of Noble's time to be given to experimental biology research .

The museum acquiesced to Noble's demands, and in May 1934, the City of New York completed his Laboratory of Experimental Biology at a cost of $79,820. It occupied the entire sixth floor and the roof of the African Wing and included, among other things, an aquarium room, three greenhouses, an animal house, a histology laboratory, and a physiology laboratory. But, because of the financial constraints caused by the Depression, the Museum could not maintain its previous level of support. To compensate for the loss of his research and clerical staff, Noble managed to secure help from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). By 1934, seventeen WPA recruits were working in his laboratory. By 1937, this number had escalated to sixty-five. These workers were not only involved in the preparation of exhibits and the maintenance of the aquarium rooms and laboratories, a number also worked as research assistants. In addition, Noble had a staff of at least seven people responsible for translating biological articles from foreign journals, analyzing literature dealing with the morphology, physiology, and habits of reptiles, and collecting literature on the courtship and sexual behavior of animals.

Gladwyn Noble was a member of the American Society of Zoologists, American Society of Naturalists, American Association of Anatomists, American Philosophical Society, New York Academy of Science, Zoological Society of London, the Galton Society, Sigma Xi and the Explorers Club of New York City.

Children of GLADWYN NOBLE and RUTH CROSBY are: 48. i. GLADWYN KINGSLEY NOBLE. b. November 10, 1923, d. July 20, 1994 Aspen, Colorado ii. ALAN CROSBY NOBLE, b. September 05, 1926, d. October 7, 1992 in Englewood, New Jersey. (No Children

Sources

• Ann Noble Records