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Mary J. Rathbun

Mary J. Rathbun is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary J. Rathbun rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Jane Rathbun (June 11, 1860 – April 4, 1943) was an American zoologist who specialized in crustaceans. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution from 1884 until her death.

Mary J. Rathbun — main illustration
Mary J. Rathbun — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Mary J. Rathbun belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Mary J. Rathbun to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Mary J. Rathbun from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mary Jane Rathbun (June 11, 1860 – April 4, 1943) was an American zoologist who specialized in crustaceans. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution from 1884 until her death. She described more than a thousand new species and subspecies and many higher taxa.

Biography Mary Jane Rathbun was born on June 11, 1860, in Buffalo, New York, the youngest of five children of Charles Rathbun and Jane Furey. Her mother died when she was only one year old, and Mary was therefore "thrown on her own resources." She was educated in Buffalo, graduating in 1878, but never attended college.

Rathbun was 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) tall, and was noted for having a dry sense of humor.Rathbun first saw the ocean in 1881 when she accompanied her brother, Richard Rathbun, to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He was employed as a scientific assistant to Addison Emery Verrill, alongside Verrill's chief assistant, the carcinologist Sidney Irving Smith. Rathbun helped label, sort and record Smith's specimens, and worked on crustaceans ever since. For three years, Rathbun worked on a voluntary basis for her brother, before being granted a clerkship by Spencer Fullerton Baird at the Smithsonian Institution. After 28 years of working at the museum, Rathbun was promoted to assistant curator in charge of the Division of Crustacea. In 1915, after her retirement, the Smithsonian Institution designated Rathbun an "Honorary Research Associate", and in 1916 she was granted an honorary master's degree by the University of Pittsburgh. She qualified for a Ph.D. at George Washington University in 1917. Rathbun was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the Wild Flower Preservation Society. Rathbun died in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1943, at the age of 82, from complications associated with a broken hip.

Publications Rathbun's first publication was co-written with James Everard Benedict and concerned the genus Panopeus; it was published in 1891. She officially retired on December 31, 1914, but did not stop working until her death. Her largest work was Les crabes d'eau douce ('Freshwater Crabs'), which was originally intended as a single publication, but was eventually published in three volumes between 1904 and 1906. She wrote or cowrote 166 papers in total, including descriptions of 1147 new species and subspecies, 63 new genera, one subfamily, 3 families and a superfamily, as well as other nomenclatural novelties. The taxa first described by Rathbun include important commercial species such as the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus, and the tanner crab, Chionoecetes bairdi.

Taxa A number of taxa have been named in honor of Mary J. Rathbun:

See also Timeline of women in science

References

External links

Mary Jane Rathbun Papers, 1886-1938 and undated from the Smithsonian Institution Archives Fenner A. Chace, Jr. "A Brief History of the Invertebrate Zoology Department". Smithsonian Institution. Bionomia profile, showing specimens collected and/or identified by Rathbone, and the science enabled Works by or about Mary J. Rathbun at the Internet Archive

Illustrations

Mary J. Rathbun illustration
Mary J. Rathbun: Rathbun at work
Rathbun at work

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary J. Rathbun

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary J. Rathbun claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary J. Rathbun before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary J. Rathbun ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary J. Rathbun

In research
Mary J. Rathbun appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Mary J. Rathbun in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Mary J. Rathbun is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1860 births, 1943 deaths, 19th-century American non-fiction writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Mary J. Rathbun outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Mary J. Rathbun in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Mary J. Rathbun means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Mary J. Rathbun out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary J. Rathbun in simple terms?

Mary Jane Rathbun (June 11, 1860 – April 4, 1943) was an American zoologist who specialized in crustaceans. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution from 1884 until her death.

Why does Mary J. Rathbun matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mary J. Rathbun?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary J. Rathbun.

Tags

  • 1860 births
  • 1943 deaths
  • 19th-century American non-fiction writers
  • 19th-century American women biologists
  • 19th-century American women non-fiction writers
  • 19th-century American women scientists
  • 19th-century American zoologists
  • 20th-century American non-fiction writers
  • 20th-century American women biologists
  • 20th-century American women non-fiction writers
  • 20th-century American zoologists
  • American carcinologists

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