Doris Mable Cochran

Doris Mable Cochran measuring a turtle shell

Doris Mable Cochran (* 18th May 1898 in North Girard , Pennsylvania ; † 22. May 1968 in Hyattsville , Maryland ) was an American Herpetologin that for many years as curator of the American Natural Collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC working was.

Live and act

Cochran grew up in Washington, DC after her father got a government job. During her studies at George Washington University , where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1920 and a Master of Science in 1921 , she worked for the United States Department of War and as an assistant in the herpetology department at the United States National Museum . As an employee of the curator Leonhard Hess Stejneger , she was responsible for the administration of the herpetological collections. In 1927 she became assistant curator and in 1942 freelance curator. In 1933 she graduated with a thesis on the muscular system of the blue crab at the University of Maryland for Ph.D. In 1956 she became the first female curator at the Smithsonian Institution and held that position until her retirement in May 1968.

Cochran studied art at Corcoran Art School, where she developed into a talented animal illustrator. Not only did she make drawings for her own books, but also for the works of some of her colleagues.

Cochran's research focus was the herpetofauna of the West Indies and South America , especially Brazil and Colombia . Between 1922 and 1968 she published 90 scientific articles in which she described 6 new genera, including Niceforonia , Wetmorena , Darlingtonia and Crossodactylodes, as well as over 100 taxa of frogs. For the military, she also wrote notebooks for recognizing poisonous reptiles. She described her twenty years of research in the West Indies in her work The Herpetology of Hispaniola in 1941 . In 1961 her best-known book " Living Amphibians of the World " was published, which was translated into six languages ​​and published in Germany in 1970 under the title " Knaurs Tierreich in Farben - Amphibien " by the Droemer Knaur publishing house .

Taxa named after Cochran

The genera and species named after Doris Mable Cochran include Cochranella (1951 by Edward Harrison Taylor ), Aplastodiscus cochranae (1952 by Robert Mertens ), Aristelliger cochranae (1931 by Chapman Grant ), Eleutherodactylus cochranae (1932 by Chapman Grant) and Nymphargus cochranae ( Chapman Grant) 1961 by Coleman Jett Goin ).

Works (selection)

• 1930: Cold-blooded vertebrates (Smithsonian institution, New York)
• 1934: Herpetological collections from the West Indies, made by Dr. Paul Bartsch under the Walter Rathbone Bacon scholarship, 1928-1930 (Smithsonian institution, New York).
• 1935: The skeletal musculature of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun (Smithsonian institution, New York).
• 1941: The Herpetology of Hispaniola (US Govt. Print. Off., Washington).
• 1954: Frogs of Southeastern Brazil (Smithsonian Institution, Washington).
• 1961: Living Amphibians of the World (Doubleday, Garden City, NY). (Knaur's animal kingdom in colors - amphibians. German adaptation by Heinz Wermuth. Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf. Munich / Zurich, 1970.)
• 1961: Type specimens of reptiles and amphibians in the US National Museum (Washington).
• 1970: Frogs of Colombia (Smithsonian Institution, Washington).
• 1970: The New Field Guide of Reptiles and Amphibians; more than 200 photographs and diagrams (Putman, New York). (with Coleman J. Goin, 1911–1986)

literature

• Adler, Kraig: Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Society for the study of amphibians and reptiles . 1989. Volume 5. Ithaca, New York, ISBN 0-916984-19-2
• Coleman Jett Goin: Doris Mable Cochran, May 18, 1898-May 22, 1968 (obituary) In: Copeia , Vol. 1968, No. 3 (Aug. 31, 1968), American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists: pp. 661-662

Web links

• Artists at Work: Creativity at the Smithsonian
• Smithsonian Institution Archives: Record Unit 7151 Doris Mable Cochran Papers, circa 1891-1968