Mayor, Alfred Goldsborough, 1868-1922

Alfred G. Mayor was born in Frederick County, Maryland in 1868, the son of Alfred M. Mayor, noted physicist. At his father's wishes, he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1889. After graduation, he became an assistant in physics, first at Clark University and then at the University of Kansas. But his real love was natural history and so after three years he entered Harvard to pursue his doctorate. He became associated with Alpheus Hyatt II and Alexander Agassiz, serving as Agassiz's assistant. He was also given charge of the collection of radiates in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, a post he held for eight years. He accompanied Agassiz on several expeditions to tropical seas, gaining first-hand experience. Through his friendship with Alpheus Hyatt the noted paleontologist, he met the professor's daughter, Harriet Hyatt, whom he married in 1900.

That same year Dr. Mayor became chief curator of the Brooklyn Institute and four years later rose to the post of director of marine zoology studies for the Carnegie Institution. He became most interested in marine biology and soon established an experimental station off Key West, Florida on an inlet called Dry Tortugas. Here he spent much time in his later years studying the area with a group of assistants. He also led expeditions to the coral reefs of Samoa, Fiji and other South Pacific islands.

His scientific papers include works on the evolution of snails, the coloration of insects, the nature of the nervous impulse and the formation and rate of growth of coral reefs.

He developed tuberculosis, and finally succumbed in 1922. He was survived by his wife and four children, Alpheus Hyatt Mayor, Katharine Mayor Cook Townsend, Brantz Mayor, and Barbara Mayor Money.

From the guide to the Alfred Goldsborough Mayor Papers, 1878-1926, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)