Roberta Yerkes Blanshard
Roberta Yerkes Blanshard | |
|---|---|
Roberta Yerkes (later Blanshard), from the 1929 yearbook of Bryn Mawr College | |
| Born | Roberta Watterson Yerkes September 19, 1907 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | December 9, 2001 (age 94) Hamden, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation | Editor |
| Spouse | Brand Blanshard |
| Parent | Robert M. Yerkes |
| Relatives | Paul Blanshard (brother-in-law) |
Roberta Watterson Yerkes Blanshard (September 19, 1907 – December 9, 2001) was an American editor.
Early life and education
Yerkes was born in , the daughter of Robert Mearns Yerkes and Ada Watterson Yerkes. Her father was a psychologist, and her mother was a biologist; both studied primates.[1] Her younger brother David Norton Yerkes was a noted architect.[2] Both Yerkes children remembered living with chimpanzees, their father's research subjects, as household pets.[3] She also traveled in Europe and Africa with her father, in his work to study chimpanzees.[1][4] She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1929.[5]
Career
Blanshard worked in the editorial department of Yale University Press from 1929 to 1959.[6] She was one of the editors who rejected the manuscript of her father's autobiography, saying later that it "did not seem to us to present a balanced account" of his life and work.[7]
Blanshard was close to her neighbor, former Radcliffe College president Ada Comstock Notestein; they were in a study club together, and Yerkes helped Notestein manage her affairs in widowhood.[8] Yerkes and her brother attended the dedication of the Yerkes Primate Research Center at Emory University in 1965.[3]
Publications
- Alexandra Tolstoy, I Worked for the Soviets (1934, edited and co-translated by Yerkes)[9]
- "Home Life with Chimpanzees: Part 2" (1977)[10]
Personal life
Yerkes married philosopher and retired Yale professor Brand Blanshard, in 1969, as his second wife. Her husband died in 1987,[11][12] and she died in 2001, at the age of 94, in Hamden, Connecticut. Her papers are in the archives at Yale University Library, as are the papers of her husband and her father.[13]
References
- ^ a b Dewsbury, Donald A. (2006). Monkey Farm: A History of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology, Orange Park, Florida, 1930-1965. Bucknell University Press. pp. 31, 69. ISBN 978-0-8387-5593-8.
- ^ "David N. Yerkes, architect". The Washington Post. 2011-11-07. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2021-02-02. Retrieved 2025-09-16.
- ^ a b Thomas, Diane (1965-10-28). "300 Apes 'Dedicate' New Home". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ ""C#0004 Wendy"". First 100 Chimps, Wesleyan University. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
- ^ Bryn Mawr College. Senior Class (1929). Bryn Mawr College Yearbook. Class of 1929. Special Collections Bryn Mawr College Library. Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College.
- ^ Basbanes, Nicholas A. (2008-01-01). A World of Letters: Yale University Press, 1908-2008. Yale University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-300-14272-3.
- ^ Haraway, Donna J. (2013-01-11). Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. Routledge. pp. 388, note 6. ISBN 978-1-136-60814-8.
- ^ Eastman, Doris (1978-05-28). "New Zealander turned American invited to queen's garden party". The Forum. p. 26. Retrieved 2025-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Nazaroff, Alexander (September 30, 1934). "Countess Tolstoy's Long Ordeal in Soviet Russia". The New York Times. pp. 42, 57. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-09-16.
- ^ Blanshard, Roberta Yerkes. "Home Life with Chimpanzees: Part 2." In Progress in Ape Research, pp. 7-13. Academic Press, 1977.
- ^ Anderson, Susan Heller (1987-11-21). "Brand Blanshard Is Dead at 95; Teacher and Writer of Philosophy". The New York Times. p. 34. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2024-04-27. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
- ^ "Brand Blanshard". The San Francisco Examiner. 1987-11-20. p. 35. Retrieved 2025-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Roberta Yerkes Blanshard papers Archived 2024-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, Archives at Yale.
External links
- "Ghostly Habitues of the Store-House Loft" Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives (October 24, 2014).