Ada Watterson Yerkes

Ada Watterson Yerkes
Born
Ada Watterson

(1873-11-06)November 6, 1873
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedOctober 16, 1963(1963-10-16) (aged 89)
New Haven, Connecticut
OccupationBiologist
SpouseRobert Yerkes
Children2, including Roberta Yerkes Blanshard
RelativesBrand Blanshard (son-in-law)

Ada Watterson Yerkes (November 6, 1873 – October 16, 1963) was an American biologist. Although she was trained as a botanist, she is best known for her work in primatology, with her husband, psychologist Robert Yerkes.

Early life and education

Watterson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Robert Frank Watterson and Carrie Theresa Norton Watterson. Her ancestors were among the early white settlers in the Western Reserve section of Ohio.[1] Her father was an American Civil War veteran who died in 1879. She graduated from Barnard College in 1898,[2][3] and earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1900.[4] She took a summer course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.[5]

Career

Watterson taught biology at Barnard College from 1899 to 1902, and tutored biology students at Teachers College, Columbia University from 1902 to 1905.[1] Watterson married Robert Yerkes in 1905. Their partnership was both professional and personal; "from 1905, my professional biography is no longer mine alone," he wrote in 1929.[6] She conducted and published her own research after marriage,[7][8][9] and worked with her husband on several major projects, especially their co-authored book, The Great Apes: A Study of Anthropoid Life (1929).[10] In the 1930s she planned the landscaping at the Yale Laboratory of Primate Biology in Florida.[11]

Publications

  • "The Effect of Chemical Irritation on the Respiration of Fungi" (1904)[12]
  • "Modifiability of behavior in Hydroides dianthus V" (1906)[13]
  • "Mind in Plants" (1914)[7]
  • "Comparison of the behavior of stock and inbred albino rats" (1916)[8]
  • "Individuality, Temperament, and Genius in Animals" (1917, with Robert M. Yerkes)[14]
  • The Great Apes: A Study of Anthropoid Life (1929, with Robert M. Yerkes)[10]
  • "Experiments with an Infant Chimpanzee" (1935)[9]
  • "Nature and conditions of avoidance (fear) response in chimpanzee" (1936, with Robert M. Yerkes)[15]
  • Family Matters (1941, a history of her family)[1]

Personal life

She and Robert Yerkes had two children, Roberta and David.[16] Her husband died in 1956,[17] and she died in 1963, at the age of 89, in New Haven, Connecticut.[18][19] The Ada Watterson Yerkes Family Papers are in the collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society.[1] The Robert M. Yerkes and Ada Watterson Yerkes Papers are at the Whitney Library of the New Haven Museum and Historical Society.[20] Robert Yerkes' papers at Yale University also contain her diaries and other relevant materials.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Finding aid for the Ada Watterson Yerkes Family Papers". OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  2. ^ Barnard College, Mortarboard (1898 yearbook).
  3. ^ "'Morningside' and 'Mandalay'". The Plain Dealer. 1901-03-10. p. 13. Retrieved 2026-01-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Leonard, John William; Leonard, John W.; American Commonwealth Company (1914). Woman's who's who of America: a biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. New York: American Commonwealth Co. p. 911.
  5. ^ "Ghostly habitues of the store-house loft". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. October 24, 2014. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  6. ^ "Autobiography of Robert Mearns Yerkes". Classics in the History of Psychology. 1930. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  7. ^ a b Yerkes, Ada Watterson (1914-11-01). "Mind in Plants". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  8. ^ a b Yerkes, Ada W. (July 1916). "Comparison of the behavior of stock and inbred albino rats". Journal of Animal Behavior. 6 (4): 267–296. doi:10.1037/h0075927. ISSN 0095-9928.
  9. ^ a b Yerkes, Ada W. (March 1935). "Experiments with an Infant Chimpanzee". The Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology. 46 (1): 171–181. doi:10.1080/08856559.1935.10533149. ISSN 0885-6559.
  10. ^ a b Yerkes, Robert Mearns; Yerkes, Ada Watterson (1929). The great apes: A study of anthropoid life. ASC - York University Libraries. New Haven : Yale university press ; London : H. Milford : Oxford university press.
  11. ^ Dewsbury, Donald A. (2006). Monkey Farm: A History of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology, Orange Park, Florida, 1930-1965. Bucknell University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8387-5593-8.
  12. ^ Yerkes, Ada Watterson. The Effect of Chemical Irritation on the Respiration of Fungi. Department of Botany of Columbia University, 1904.
  13. ^ Yerkes, Ada Watterson (1906). "Modifiability of behavior in Hydroides dianthus V". Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 16 (6): 441–449. doi:10.1002/cne.920160604. ISSN 1550-7149.
  14. ^ Yerkes, Robert M. and Ada W. Yerkes. "Individuality, Temperament, and Genius in Animals" Natural History (April 1917).
  15. ^ Yerkes, Robert M.; Yerkes, Ada W. (February 1936). "Nature and conditions of avoidance (fear) response in chimpanzee". Journal of Comparative Psychology. 21 (1): 53–66. doi:10.1037/h0058825. ISSN 0093-4127.
  16. ^ Dewsbury, Donald (1996). "Robert M. Yerkes: A Psychobiologist With a Plan". Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology. doi:10.4324/9781410602756-7. Archived from the original on 2025-05-06.
  17. ^ "R.M. Yerkes Dies, Psychologist, 79; Professor Emeritus at Yale Drafted Testing Program for Army in World War I". The New York Times. February 5, 1956. p. 86. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  18. ^ "Mrs. Ada Watterson Yerkes". The Ann Arbor News. 1963-10-17. p. 32. Retrieved 2026-01-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Yale Chapel Rites Set for Mrs. Yerkes". The Florida Times-Union. 1963-10-18. p. 30. Retrieved 2026-01-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Robert M. Yerkes and Ada Watterson Yerkes Papers". New Haven Museum, Catalog of Manuscript Collections. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  21. ^ Robert Mearns Yerkes Papers (MS 569). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
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