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JENKINS, MARIE M. PAPERS. SC# 5001
CARRIER LIBRARY, JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY
HARRISONBURG, VA 22807
Compiled by Marie Green, April 1989

SCOPE & CONTENT.
This collection consists of 5 Hollinger boxes, containing mostly 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.

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 1950's and early 1960's 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 1970's, Dr. Jenkins raised and sold planarians for laboratory use. In the late 1970's, 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 1960's 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Something about the author, v. 7. Detroit: Gale Research, 1975.
Robertson, Gary, "Just a worm, but it's her worm," Richmond Times-Dispatch, Section D, April 16, 1978.

PROVENANCE.
Dr. Jenkins donated these papers to the Library in September, 1987.

ORGANIZATION.
The order imposed by the creator was maintained.
1. Correspondence, records, & publications.
2. Planarian Research.

Jenkins, Marie M. Papers. Carrier Library SC# 5001

Box 1 SERIES 1: Correspondence, records, & pubs.1951-1979.

Folder 1 JMU correspondence, 1959-1963.
Folder 2 JMU correspondence, 1964-1975.
Folder 3 JMU official records, 1963-1971.
Folder 4 NIH & other grants, corresp. & records, 1957-1975.
Folder 5 VA Acad. of Sciences corres. & records, 1963-1970.
Folder 6 Book correspondence, 1972-1979.
Folder 7 Planarian correspondence, 1969-1974.
Folder 8 Publications, 1951-1975.

SERIES 2: Planarian research, 1963-1974

Folders 9-16 I series.

BOX 2 SERIES 2, Planarian research, con't.
Folders 1-7 I series.
Folders 8-13 II series.

BOX 3 SERIES 2, Planarian research, con't.
Folder 1 III series.
Folders 2-10 IV series.
Folders 11-14 V series.
Folders 15-17 VI series.

BOX 4 SERIES 2, Planarian research, con't. Folder 1 VII series.

Folder 2 VIII-IX series.
Folder 3 X series.
Folder 4 A series.
Folder 5 F5 series.
Folders 6-10 B series.
Folders 11-47 Misc. series, mostly crosses.
Folder 48 Aging.
Folder 49 Body fission, sexual, 1971.
Folder 50 Data, 1973.
Folder 51 Latitude & planarians, 1970.
Folder 52 Phosphohexose.
Folder 53 Pooled deviation.
Folder 54 Regeneration/aging - cocoons, 1969-74.
Folder 55 Tables - fission, sexual, 1971.

BOX 5 SERIES 2, Planarian research, con't.

Folders 1-2 D series.
Folder 3 F3 series.
Folder 4-6 W series.
Folder 7 Z series.
Folder 8 Moon phase.
Folder 9 Texas.
3 notebooks
Worm Runner's Digest, 6 issues, 1959-1964.