Image

Two Leaders, One Boat

Two of WHOI’s original and most storied leaders teamed up to pull the Insitution’s pioneering original vessel Atlantis away from a Woods Hole dock. WHOI’s first director, Henry Bigelow, (at the stern of Risk) led the Institution for ten years beginning in 1930, and later became known as “the father of American oceanography.” Columbus Iselin, (at the helm), was Bigelow’s student at Harvard. Iselin came to WHOI to captain Atlantis until 1940, when he succeeded Bigelow as the Institution’s director. He later lead WHOI through the turbulent war years before stepping down in 1950.(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)