Mary Isabel McCracken

Mary Isabel McCracken was born on December 27, 1865 in Oakland, California to John Harvey McCracken and Mary “Bridget” Dolan McCracken. Her father was born in Ohio in 1828, moved to California in 1852, and worked as a carpenter. Her mother was born in Ireland in 1835, immigrated to the United States in 1852, and worked in the home. John and Bridget were married in Alameda in 1862 and owned a farm in Brooklyn Township, which is now East Oakland. They had seven children; Isabel had an older sister, three younger sisters, and two younger brothers. All seven of the McCracken children lived well into adulthood. Catherine was a census enumerator, Emma was a schoolteacher, Augusta was a math teacher in the Oakland public schools, John was the manager of a lumberyard, and William was a dentist, a representative of District 4 on the Oakland city council for sixteen years, and the 38th mayor of Oakland, from 1933 to 1941.

Isabel McCracken taught in Oakland's public schools for a decade before enrolling in Stanford University at age 34. She was interested in natural history, particularly in entomology. She became an instructor of bionomics during her senior year in 1903, after the departure of the previous instructor, and received her A.B. Degree in 1904. She received her M.A. in 1905 and Ph.D. in 1908. As a graduate student, Dr. McCracken began field observation and laboratory experiments on the genetics of beetles and published several papers based on these investigations. She also conducted field observation on numerous birds in the Sierra Nevada.

After serving as Assistant Professor in Entomology at Stanford University, Dr. McCracken was Professor of Zoology at the same university until her retirement. She took one year of sabbatical from her teaching in 1913-1914, when she studied at the University of Paris. Throughout her career, she studied many different types of insects, including silkworms, aphids, mosquitoes, and bees. She retired in 1931 having obtained Professor Emeritus status. After her retirement, she continued her research on heredity using silkworms in the laboratory maintained for her at Stanford. Additionally, Dr. McCracken was a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences from 1931 through 1945 and worked with the birds and insects in the collections of the Academy, particularly the wild bee collection.

During her time at Stanford, Dr. McCracken was a member of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae in Oakland, the Entomological Society of America, the Palo Alto-Stanford Belgian Relief Committee, and the Stanford Armenian Relief Committee. After the war, she was the secretary for the Jordan Club, which was a club for graduate students in biology at Stanford. She became a member of the California Academy of Sciences in 1915 and was named a Fellow in 1929. She became involved with the Cooper Ornithological Club in the 1930s, and helped to establish its Stanford chapter in 1933.

Dr. McCracken spent some of her spare time volunteering in the Stanford Convalescent Home. She was one of the organizers of the Palo Alto Junior Museum, which opened in 1934 and still exists today. She also assisted both students and colleagues by opening her home and garden for their research and studies in entomology. She developed arthritis later in her life, which curtailed her professional work in 1945. She never married, and she lived with Augusta, her unmarried younger sister, until Augusta’s death in 1953. According to Dr. McCracken’s obituary in the Stanford Daily, she “spent the last decade of her life enjoying her home, her books, her garden, her family, and her many friends.” Dr. Mary Isabel McCracken died in her home on the Stanford University campus on October 29, 1955 at the age of 89.

1870 U.S. Census, Brooklyn Township, Alameda County, California, population schedule, p.543, dwelling 404, family 408, John McCracken.

1880 U.S. Census, Oakland, Alameda County, California, population schedule, p.18, ED 19, dwelling 160, family 165, J.H. McCracken.

Erect Relief Fund Booths on Campus. To Discontinues Stanfard Branch of the Red Cross. (1919, January 16). San Jose Mercury News, XCVI (16), p. [4]. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

Jordan Club Again Organized Stanford. (1921, January 11). San Jose Mercury News, C (11), p. 10. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/nw920bm1704

Mary Isabel McCracken papers, California Academy of Sciences.

Miller, L., & Emlen Jr, J. T. Minutes of Cooper Club Meetings. CLUB, M. O. C.

Quarterly Record of Gifts, Appointments, Retirements and Deaths. (1903). The American Naturalist, 37(444), 893–895.

The Stanford Daily Archives. (1955, November 1).

Scientific Notes and News. (1903). Science, 18(464), 669–672.

[William McCracken Letters and Photographs, 1933-1949], Oakland Public Library (Calif.) Oakland History Room

Amelia Bond is an undergraduate student at Smith College on a Praxis Internship in the Library.