Yerkes National Primate Research Center

The Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center is named for Dr. Robert M. Yerkes, whose early studies of chimpanzees and other apes during the 1920s persuaded Yale University, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation fund the establishment of the Yale Laboratories for Primate Biology. The laboratories opened in 1930 in Orange Park, Florida. In 1941, Dr. Yerkes retired and Yale renamed the institute the Yerkes Laboratory of Primate Biology in honor of his scientific leadership and contributions to science. Following Dr. Yerkes' death in 1956, Yale officials decided that geographical separation of the university and the Orange Park labs was not conducive to the development and conduct of collaborative research and education programs for Yale faculty and students. Emory University agreed to assume administrative responsibility for ownership of the Orange Park labs. In 1960, the U.S. Congress enacted the National Institutes of Health's Regional Primate Research Centers Program to provide the scientific community with the specialized resources needed for primate research. NIH funding enabled the transfer of the laboratories to the Emory campus in 1965.