William Rainey Harper

William Rainey Harper, the founding president of the University of Chicago, recruited Charles Otis Whitman to build the biology departments at the University. Whitman not only built a notable department quickly by raiding his former institution and others for faculty, but, as its first director, also brought along control of the MBL. The MBL was soon to become the most important biological research and education institution in the United States.

Harper
Photograph of William Rainey Harper

The Photographic Archive:http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/. Special Collections Research Center. The University of Chicago Library. Identifier: apf7-00345