Mary Louise Rathburn

By Patrick Kavanagh
History of Women in Forest Lawn Lawn Cemetery

Section 4, Lot 16
Date of Death. 4/4/1943
(Zoologist - Biologist)

Born in Buffalo, New York on June 11, 1860, Ms. Rathburn was nationallyknown as a marine zoologist specializing in crustaceans for 53 years at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Fossils she found in her father's stone quarry fascinated her.

At the age of 21 she helped her brother, who worked for the U.S. FishCommission, to sort and study the great and varied collections of marine animalsthat the commission's survey ship brought into the research center in Woods Hole, MA. Ms. Rathburn's keen interest in marine biology got her a job at the National Museum in Washington organizing and collecting their marinespecimens. Later she transferred to the Smithsonian Institution's Division ofMarine Invertebrates where she remained until her retirement 53 years later. Her studies and research papers made her one of the preeminent marine zoologists in the world.


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