Wheeler, William Morton
WHEELER, WILLIAM MORTON
(b. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 19 March 1865; d. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 19 April 1937), entomology.
Because of his misbehavior in public school, Wheeler’s parents, Julius Morton and Caroline Anderson Wheeler, sent him to the Engelmann German Academy in Milwaukee, which was noted for its server discipline. He continued at the attached German-American Normal College, where he haunted the small museum until he knew every specimen. He graduated in 1884. A chance visit by H. A. Ward, of Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York, with specimens for the museum led to an offer to Wheeler to work for Ward in 1884. In the year Wheeler worked at the establishment he began his lifelong friendship with Carl Akeley.
In 1885 Wheeler returned to Milwaukee to teach German and physiology in the Milwaukee High School, of which George W. Peckham was principal. The biology courses of the school were unusually advanced for the day, and Peckham’s own principal interest was arachnids and social insects. When E. P. Allis founded the Lake Laboratory not far from the Milwaukee High School, Wheeler met the inspiring C. O. Whitman. From William Patten, also at the Lake Laboratory, Wheeler acquired an interest in the embryology of insects and began work on a detailed study of the development of the cockroach. From 1887 to 1890 Wheeler was custodian of the Milwaukee Public Museum and absorbed embryology on his own. In 1890 he accepted a fellowship at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, to study under Whitman. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1892, Wheeler studied for a year in Europe and then followed Whitman to the University of Chicago as instructor in embryology; he advanced to assistant professor in 1897.
Until this time Wheeler had emphasized embryology and morphology but also had shown considerable interest in insects; he had published on all of these fields. When he became professor of zoology at the University of Texas in 1899, he concentrated on entomology, although he always retained a strong interest in broad aspects of biology. In 1903 he become curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where in addition to his research he designed the spectacular Hall of the Biology of Invertebrates. The appeal of an academic life drew him to his final position: professor of economic entomology at the Bussey Institution of Harvard University, at Forest Hills, Massachusetts. He preferred the title professor of entomology, to which he had it changed in 1926, and he retired in 1934. As dean of the faculty from 1915 to 1929, Wheeler led the Bussey Institution to a position of excellence in biological research. In 1931 he moved with the institution to its new quarters in the biological laboratories in Cambridge. Wheeler was president of the Entomological Society of America in 1908, and in addition was a member of many academies and the recipient of several honorary degrees.
In his early career Wheeler joined the trend of biology to morphology and embryonic development, beginning with his classic report on the cockroach (1889) and continuing with his brief entry in 1893 into marine biology at Naples, where he studied Myzostoma. About the turn of the twentieth century he began to concentrate on ants, and went on to become the foremost expert on ants in particular and social insects in general. “Ants interest me” was his simple explanation. As ecology became specialized, Wheeler contributed to it in his analyses of the structure within ant colonies and the relationships of the colonies to their environment; but he did not consider himself an ecologist. His own change of title at Bussey showed his preference for research for its own sake. He was not a participant in the many projects to control insects in agriculture. With singleminded attention to his research, Wheeler devoted himself to the collection, classification, structure, distribution, habits, and social life of ants. His collected specimens are chiefly at the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard).
Outside his immediate research Wheeler wrote also on broader aspects of biology. He considered the animal society essentially an organism from which development could evolve. A firm believer in organic evolution, he nevertheless insisted that Lamarckism had never been disproved, thus incurring the wrath of Neo-Darwinists. He extended his knowledge of social insects to discussions of man as a social animal. Fascinating in conversation and facile in writing, Wheeler attracted good students and co-workers and inspired many of the next generation of entomologists.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Original Works. Wheeler’s complete list of almost 500 publications is in Parker’s memoir (see below). Although some of the publications are reviews and other descriptive articles are short, the total list is an impressive record. A summary of his studies appeared as Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior, Columbia University Biological Series, IX (New York, 1910). In addition to many taxonomic papers, Wheeler’s most valuable books are: Social Life Among the Insects (New York, 1923); The Social Insects, Their Origin and Evolution (New York, 1928); Emergent Evolution and the Development of Societies (New York, 1928); and Foibles of Insects and Men(New York, 1928).
II. Secondary Literature. A fine memorial to Wheeler was written by George Howard Parker, in Biographical Memoris. National Academy of Sciences, 19 (1938), 201–241, which includes his youth, accomplishments, and a complete bibliography. Some autobiographical material is in Wheeler’s paper. “Carl Akeley’s Early Work and Environment,” in Natural History, 27 (1927), 133–141, part of which is included in Parker. Wheeler’s place in entomology is summarized in E.O. Essig, A History of Entomology(New York, 1931; repr., 1965); and in Herbert Osborn, Fragments of Entomological History, pt. 1 (Columbus, Ohio, 1937), pt. 2 (1946).
Elizabeth Noble Shor