Two of the first Biology labs at Rice are pictured. The first image is likely Huxley’s early biology lab, temporarily in the Mechanical Laboratory until the Physics Building was built. His lab assistant, Joseph Davies, can be seen in the background.

Once relocated to the Physics Building (Herzstein Hall), the biology labs were located on the west side, likely in the basement. The teaching lab, in the second picture, held a large capacity of 50 students and was equipped with “microscopes of the most modern type.”

Two of the first Biology labs at Rice are pictured. The first image is likely Huxley’s early biology lab, temporarily in the Mechanical Laboratory until the Physics Building was built. His lab assistant, Joseph Davies, can be seen in the background.

Once relocated to the Physics Building (Herzstein Hall), the biology labs were located on the west side, likely in the basement. The teaching lab, in the second picture, held a large capacity of 50 students and was equipped with “microscopes of the most modern type.”

During the 1915-1916 school year, Huxley taught Biology 100 (“General Biology”). The description of the course in General Announcements is as follows:

This course will include a general study of the origin and conditions of living matter; the differences between animals and plants; the fundamentals of morphology and physiology as illustrated by selected animal types; the development of the individual and the race; together with a brief introduction to such biological ideas as of are of general interest. The course is planned to meet the needs not only of those who intend to continue the study of biology, but also of those who wish to specialize in other branches, but yet are desirous of getting some general knowledge about the subject. It is a prescribed subject for those who wish to enter a medical college later, and it is thought that it will prove valuable to those intending to study theology, philosophy, psychology, economic, or agriculture.

Pictured are George C. Wheeler’s notes on genetics from Huxley’s class. Considering how new the field of genetics was, it is notable to see how extensively it was covered in an introductory-level class.

In addition to lectures, Huxley also felt that experience was an important part of learning; hence, he brought his classes on many field trips. These field trips held dual purposes as they taught the students how to engage with nature and enabled them to collect specimens to study in the lab. The following accounts mention a particularly memorable field trip where he caught a copperhead snake:

Took his biology classes on field trips, one day got a copperhead in his butterfly net. Has to figure out how to keep the snake from wiggling out before he got back to the Lab—so took off his red necktie & tied it around the net so snake couldn’t get out. 

- Camille Waggaman Brown (Class of 1918)

Today we are going on to take a field trip” Dr. Julian Huxley beamed at us as he made the announcement. It was evident that he thought we would be overjoyed by his words, but we did not cheer. We were not suitably clothed, or shod; for field-tripping. We did not know where we were going, or what we would  be required to do. Enthusiasm refused to bubble. Dr. Huxley led off, a fresh new butterfly net perched jauntily on his shoulder like a rifle. As we trotted behind him, we whispered about that net. Of course, he was new to Texas, where butterflies did not hover in December. He would learn, experience is a good teacher, even for PhD’s.

Across Main Street, a nicely gravelled road [...] street-car stops; girls first, boys following. Then we turned right and walked beside a barbed-wire fence until we reached a big, wooden gate.

Paying no attention to a large sign “Posted,” Dr. Huxley nimbly climbed over the gate, balancing the butterfly-net with no trouble at all. Then he turned and called to us: “Come on over the gate.”

- Mary Stratford Torrens (Class of 1918) 

Huxley also greatly influenced many of his students at Rice, such as George C. Wheeler of the class of 1918. Huxley served as Wheeler’s faculty advisor in the biology department and described him as the “[f]irst honors student we shall have had.” As such, Wheeler credits his continuing study of biology to Huxley, writing the following: 

I was fortunate enough to have such an association with Julian Huxley, for he was a true naturalist. It was his influence that really put me into biology. Near the end of my sophomore year my professor of German urged me to major in German. I went to Huxley for advice. I told him I liked languages, but I preferred biology. He said, “I think you will do well in biology.”

Huxley was correct in this assumption as Wheeler became a professor at Syracuse University and the University of North Dakota, where he became head of the Biology department. Therefore, despite Huxley’s short time at Rice, his impact and legacy extended far beyond the campus as he helped inspire the first generation of Biology graduates to pursue a career studying the natural world.

Finlay Simmons was another one of Huxley’s students whom Huxley himself recruited to Rice. As avid fellow ornithologists, Huxley and Simmons went on many adventures to go bird watching. There are many accounts of these excursions by Finlay in the Houston Post’s children’s column, such as his story “A Sunday Afternoon in March,” where he recounts meeting first Huxley at afternoon tea and their birdwatching trip in which they encountered many species of birds on the Brays Bayou. 

In his autobiography Memories, Huxley reflects on his time at Rice, highlighting his adventure to Louisiana with Simmons, whom he calls a “first-class ornithologist.” Traveling to the McIlhenny bird sanctuary on Avery Island in his Ford, the two packed the automobile with “camping equipment, binoculars, and a clumsy but efficient quarter plate camera” to observe the thousands of herons and egrets that migrate there. Huxley claimed that this trip was one of the most exciting and valuable experiences at Rice, and as long after these adventures, he used the photographs taken on this trip in a paper on bird behavior.

During his time at Rice, Huxley was a member of the Rice Institute Biological Society, where he oversaw many field trips that the Society hosted in addition to biology class field trips. 

Other notable people in the Society were George Wheeler and Finlay Simmons (Secretary-Treasurer), pictured to the right and left of Huxley, respectively. In the middle row, third, from the left, Adele Waggaman, Camille Waggaman’s sister and the club’s Vice President, is pictured. "In the bottom row, Joseph Davies is pictured on the left, along with Herman J. Muller, second from the right."

Click here for to learn more about Huxley's time at Rice.