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Mildred Stratton Wilson papers

Guide to the Mildred Stratton Wilson papers
1925-1987

Collection number: HMC-0417.
Creator: Wilson, Mildred Stratton.
Title: Mildred Stratton Wilson papers.
Dates: 1925-1987.
Volume of collection: 3.5 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Collection materials are in English.
Collection summary: Copepoda research materials of the first Alaskan to receive an National Science Foundation grant.

Biographical note:
Mildred Stratton was born to Clark and Ella (Bock) Stratton in Seaside, Oregon, on April 25, 1909. She graduated from Marysville High School in Marysville, Washington, in 1925, and then began her studies at Western Washington Teachers College in Bellingham, Washington, where she remained until 1927. She taught elementary school and junior high school in the Marysville school system from 1927 to 1934. Mildred Stratton married Charles Sawyer Wilson in San Anselmo, California on June 25, 1934. She attended the University of California Berkeley and received her A.B. in 1938. She remained at Berkeley as a research assistant in invertebrate zoology until 1940. The first of her many professional papers appeared in 1941. In 1944, she became an assistant curator in the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Marine Invertebrates. In 1946, she was appointed as a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution, a connection she retained for her entire career. Mildred S. Wilson moved to Alaska in 1948 and became a biology consultant to the Arctic Health Research Center of the U.S. Public Health Service. She became an Associate in Marine Science at the University of Alaska in 1968 with the Institute of Marine Science. The focus of her research was on copepoda; her laboratory was in her home in Spenard, Alaska. She received several notable grants and fellowships in the course of her career and was the first Alaskan to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship (1955) and also the first Alaskan to receive a National Science Foundation grant (1955). Mildred S. Wilson died in 1973.

Collection description:
The collection contains the papers of Mildred Stratton Wilson. Included are correspondence, writings and publications, drawings, photographs, and education records.

Arrangement: The collection is divided into the following series:

Series 1: Personal papers; 1950-1981
Series 2: Photographs; undated, 1954-1973
Series 3: Education records; 1925-1938
Series 4: Employment and grant-related records; 1944-1977
Series 5: Professional correspondence; 1938-1979
Series 6: Writings, speeches, and drawings; undated, 1938-1975

Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.

Rights note: Published materials or materials authored by individuals other than Mildred Stratton will be subject to copyright not held by the Archives.

Preferred citation: Mildred Stratton Wilson, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Separated materials: Some published materials from the collection are held in the Rare Books collection.

Related materials: The Archives also holds the papers of her husband, Charles S. Wilson, HMC-0416.

Acquisition note: The collection was given to the Archives, and a deed of gift signed, by Peter W. Hill, Wilson’s grandson, in 1994. Additional materials were acquired from the Environment and Natural Resources Institute (ENRI) at the University of Alaska Anchorage in 1996.

Processing information: This collection was arranged and described by Michele Wellck in 1996. The collection guide was reformatted to meet current standards by Arlene Schmuland in 2016. Published materials were removed from the collection.

Container list:
Series 1: Personal papers; 1950-1981. 0.2 cubic feet.

Box/Folder Description Dates
1/1-3 Biographies undated, 1974
1/4 Will 1969
4/1 Charcoal drawing of Mildred Wilson undated
1/5 Employment records: federal employment application, social security card, University of Alaska identification cards undated, 1970, 1972
1/6 Charles Wilson correspondence with Smithsonian Institution regarding Mildred Wilson 1976, 1981
1/7 Personal medical information and correspondence 1952-1973
1/8 Potholders: embroidered and appliqued with images of copepods undated

Series 2: Photographs; undated, 1954-1973. 0.05 cubic feet.

Box/Folder Description Dates
1/9 Family photographs: Clark Stratton (father), Ella Stratton Fisher (mother), Mildred as a child and an adult, and unidentified undated, 1939-1973
1/10 Professional work-related photographs, including Otto Pesta, Sergei Sergeivich Smirnov, B. Bary, Vagn Hansen, A. Fleminger, V. Jaschnov, K.A. Brodsky, E. Borutzky, F.D. Por, N. Della Croce, A. Brian, Dave Damkaer, Waldo Schmitt 1966-1967

Series 3: Education records; 1925-1938. 0.3 cubic feet.

Box/Folder Description Dates
1/11 Quil Ceda yearbook, Marysville High School (Mildred Stratton was the Editor-in-Chief) 1925
1/12-23 College class notes, papers, and exams: anthropology, botany, and zoology 1936-1938
1/24 Phi Beta Kappa initiate ceremony program 1937

Series 4: Employment and grant-related records; 1944-1977. 0.35 cubic feet.

Box/Folder Description Dates
1/25 Arctic Health Research Center library correspondence 1958-1963
3/1 Copepod sample, Findley Lake 1972
1/26 Microscope notes and correspondence 1965-1973
1/27 Grant correspondence and financial reports 1955-1968
1/28 Financial notes 1971
1/29 Institute of Marine Sciencefinancial and employment records 1968-1972
1/30 Library notes, correspondence undated, 1965
3/2 Colleague address cards, possibly for reprint exchanges undated
3/3 Library rubber stamp undated
1/31 Smithsonian correspondence and progress report regarding NSF grant and employment 1954-1964
1/32 Smithsonian memo regarding eligibility for employment 1944
1/33 Smithsonian proposal to Federal Water Pollution Control Administration 1969
1/34 Work-related notes 1971-1972

Series 5: Professional correspondence; 1938-1979. 0.2 cubic feet.

Box/Folder Description Dates
1/35 Letters regarding the lending of copepod samples 1952-1975
1/36 Letters regarding sending and receiving article reprints 1953-1976
1/37 Correspondence with Anchorage Daily times regarding article 1961
1/38 Dr. Vincenz Brehm 1950-1967
1/39 Dr. Alessandro Brian 1946-1947
1/40 Dr. John L. Brooks 1968, 1974
1/41 Dr. David M. Damkaer 1962-1975
1/42 International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission 1963-1964
1/43 Letters of sympathy after Mildred Wilson’s death 1974
1/44 Dr. S.F. Light, Dept. of Zoology, U.C. Berkeley 1938-1947
1/45 Sandra Roberts 1965-1969
1/46 Incoming correspondence about research 1946-1979

Series 6: Writings, speeches, and drawings; undated, 1938-1975. 2.4 cubic feet.

Box/Folder Description Dates
1/47-2/9 Ward & Whipple’s fresh-water biology chapters on calanoida and harpacticoida: announcements, galley proofs, drafts, and drawings 1954-1958
2/10 “The Euryhaline copepod genus Eurytemora in fresh and brackish waters of the Cape Thompson region, Chukchi Sea, Alaska” by Mildred Stratton Wilson and Jerry C. Tash: drafts, proofs, and correspondence 1964-1966
2/11 “The life cycles of fresh-water calanoid copepods in Arctic Alaska, with description of a new species of Eurytemora” by Mildred Stratton Wilson and Jerry C. Tash: drafts and notes 1961
2/11 Myocheres old notes and manuscript attempts undated
2/13 “The international nature of science” speech, “United Nations Workshop” luncheon, Anchorage League of Women Voters: speech, program, newsletter 1957 March 30
2/14 Article abstracts undated, 1950
2/15 Original drawings of figures I and J from “North American harpacticoid copepods 7. A new species of Stenhelia…” from Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Vol. 78 1965
4/2 Original drawings of figures 1-29 from “Two new species of the cyclopod copepod genus Pterinopsyllus from the Gulf of Mexico” from Bulletin of Marine Science, Volume 23 Number 3 1973
2/16 Pseudocyclops notes and figures 1958-1959
2/17 “Shoshone decimnovemus” drawings undated
2/18 “Skistodiaptomus” drawings undated
2/19 “Lepto. Ant.” drawings undated
4/3 “Onyehodiaptomus” drawings undated
2/20 Light diaptimid drawings, Hesperadiaptomus undated
2/21 Tyrelli group drawings undated
2/22 Ridgewaya, Canuella drawings undated
2/23 D. Sarsi drawings undated
2/24 D. Glacialis, D. Sarsi, D. Trybomi drawings undated
2/25 Eury arctica drawings undated
2/26-27, 4/4 Drawings and notes undated
2/28 Data tables undated

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