Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the James Madison University Special Collections Library to use this collection.

Use Restrictions

The copyright interests in this collection have been transferred to the James Madison University Special Collection Library. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library Reference Desk (library-special@jmu.edu).

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], [box #, folder #], Marie M. Jenkins Papers, 1959-1979, SC 0180, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

Acquisition Information

Dr. Jenkins donated these papers to the library in September 1987.

Processing Information

In order to streamline the process of applying collection numbers, Special Collections staff completed a large-scale renumbering campaign in 2017-2018. This collection was previously cataloged as SC 5001.

Bio/Historical Note

Marie Magdalen Jenkins was born September 26, 1906 in Eldorado, Illinois. After attending Phillips University, she taught in elementary and secondary schools in Oklahoma until 1942. At that time she took vows as Sister Mary Scholastica in the Benedictine Order. She completed her Master's degree at Catholic University in 1951, and taught or worked in Catholic schools until 1957, when she left the Order and entered the University of Oklahoma. In the late 1950s and early 1960s she taught zoology there while completing her Ph.D. Dr. Jenkins came to the Biology Department of Madison College (now James Madison University) in 1962, and retired from there in 1975.

For thirty years before she retired, Dr. Jenkins conducted original research on planarians (flatworms), particularly the relationship between aging and reproduction. She discovered that, contrary to previous thought, planarians do not live forever, and she gained an international reputation as an expert on the animals. For several years in the early 1970s, Dr. Jenkins raised and sold planarians for laboratory use. In the late 1970s, an Italian researcher named a new planarian species after her (Dugesia jenkinsae), after identifying it among specimens she had sent him.

Although she had been contributing to the professional science literature, starting in the late 1960s Dr. Jenkins began to pursue seriously a lifelong interest in writing for a broader audience. In 1969 her first science book for children, Moon jelly swims through the sea, was published, followed by: Animals without parents (1970; The Curious mollusks (1972); Embryos and how they develop (1975); Kangaroos, opossums and other marsupials (1975); Goats, sheep and how they live (1978); and Deer, moose, elk and their family (1979). Several of these were listed in Bowker's second edition of Best books for children, in 1981. All are available in Special Collections.

Scope and Content

This collection consists mostly of Dr. Jenkins' research notes on planarians during the years 1963-1974. A few folders contain records and correspondence relating to her teaching and research at James Madison University and other professional activities from 1959 to 1979.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in two series: 1. Correspondence, records, & publications. 2. Planarian Research. The order imposed by the creator was maintained.

Index Terms

Subjects:

• Dugesia dorotocephala -- Metabolism
• Dugesia dorotocephala -- Physiology
• Dugesia dorotocephala -- Reproduction
• Dugesia dorotocephala -- Research
• Invertebrates -- Research
• Physiology, Comparative
• Planaria -- Research
• Planaria as laboratory animals
• Regeneration (Biology)

Genre and Form Terms:

• Letters (correspondence)