The Center for Steinbeck Studies: Collection Highlights

Figure 1.

An oversized envelope in the vault of the Center for Steinbeck Studies contains a remarkable collection of items pertaining to Ed Ricketts and Pacific Biological Laboratories, the lab he owned first in Pacific Grove, from 1923 until 1928 and then on Oceanview Avenue (Cannery Row) from 1928 until his death in 1948. The envelope is labeled with the following handwritten note:

Material in this envelope is valuable. It concerns the business of "Doc" Ricketts, made famous by John Steinbeck in "The Log from the Sea of Cortez." "Doc" was also mentioned in Steinbeck's novels. From Lester Brubaker

Lester Brubaker, a technician in the biology department at San Jose State University, donated these rare materials to the Center. The collection is truly one of the gems of the Center's holdings.

The collection includes Ricketts's first catalog, issued in 1925. Like the subsequent 1929 catalog, this first one includes photographs and line drawings of many specimens available, along with specific information about size, packaging, and cost. Although the catalog's primary purpose was advertising, it is also the first "handbook" of some of the common local littoral. In 1927 Myrtle E. Johnson and Harry J. Snook published Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast, which is credited as the first text documenting the shore life of the Pacific, but, as Joel W. Hedgpeth notes, "it would omit many animals" (Outer Shores 1: 6). The 1925 Pacific Biological Laboratories Catalog, therefore, may in fact be the earliest publication specifically documenting certain abundant species in the Monterey Bay region. But even more significant is the catalog's brief foreword, Ricketts's earliest known statement about his work as a collector and his views about conservation.

In the first paragraph, Ricketts concisely describes the Monterey Bay, emphasizing the richness of the area and diversity of habitats found there: "One can find almost any combination of rocky coast, sand beach or mud flat within a few miles." He was interested in the topography of the area, particularly in how animals were distributed in the different "shore habitats," as he called them. Simply put, he divided the shore into sections—rocky shores, sandy beaches, sand flats, mud flats, wharf pilings—and studied which animals were found in each, and how they interacted with each other. Ricketts's interest in habitat and ecological holism is here sketched for the first time, if only briefly. His seminal text, Between Pacific Tides, is organized by the same ecological principles. Looking at the environment and animals within it in this manner was unique, as biologists and zoologists of his time and before had focused primarily on taxonomy.

The subsequent paragraphs in the foreword are concerned with retail information and details—discounts, quality, pricing, availability—and Ricketts repeatedly emphasizes Pacific Biological Laboratories' reputation as "unsurpassed for western marine specimens." The foreword also indicates that many rare or unusual specimens may be found and shipped upon request. Ricketts concludes with a warning about the possible effects of over-collecting, his first written statement expressing an awareness about the importance of conservation. "It should be borne in mind," he writes, "(and this applies especially to local marine forms), that we must, above all else, avoid depleting the region by over collecting. One or more formerly rich regions, according to reliable authorities, already afford instances of the ease with which depletion is brought about." Somewhat ironically, the front page of the catalogue includes a photograph of Ricketts lifting a giant sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) from a tidepool—an animal that was plentiful during his lifetime, but has since become much less common due, in part, to over-collecting.

Ricketts's concern with depletion grew as he continued to live and work in Monterey—particularly after he separated from his wife in 1936 and took up permanent residence at the Lab. There he bore firsthand witness to the devastating impact the canning industry had on the sardine and other animals. Throughout the 1940s he studied the effects of many factors on the bay, noting especially how both natural and...