Scope and Content Note
The papers of Waldo Lee McAtee (1883-1962) span the years 1803-1963, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1900-1960. The collection covers the full extent of McAtee's professional career at the Bureau of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture and its successor agency the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior. He was noted especially for his research on the food habits of birds. Series within the collection include Correspondence , Research and Writings File , Handwriting Collection , and Miscellany .
The Correspondence File includes letters exchanged with numerous professional colleagues in various scientific fields and reflects McAtee's wide-ranging interests in ornithology, entomology, botany, and conservation. Prominent and frequent correspondents include Arthur Mangun Banta, F. E. L. Beal, Donald Beaty Bloch, Lee L. Buchanan, Frank M. Chapman, Josiah Henry Combs, A. K. Fisher, Ira Noel Gabrielson, Ernest G. Holt, J. Douglas Hood, Alfred C. Kinsey, Hoyes Lloyd, Harry Malleis, H. L. Mencken, John Russell Malloch, Edward Alexander Preble, Henry W. Shoemaker, Herbert L. Stoddard, John K. Terres, Joseph Snford Wade, Florence Warnick, and Casey A. Wood. The file also contains correspondence with family members including McAtee's wife, Fannie E. McAtee, his brother, Morris McAtee, and his son, Robert B. McAtee.
The Research and Writings File contains McAtee's notes and background resources for his professional writings. Drafts and printed copies of his writings are rarely present since McAtee donated a large collection of his writings to the Rare Book Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The files reflect the intersection of McAtee's major studies in ornithology, entomology, and botany. His focus on the feeding habits of birds sparked his studies and writings on insects and plants, and he served as curator of Hemiptera at the Smithsonian Institution for twenty-seven years.
Among the highlights of the Research and Writings File is a large group of material related to his observations of wildlife, insects, and flora in and around the District of Columbia which he used for his book, A Sketch of the Natural History of the District of Columbia. Also notable is a large group of notes and background material pertaining to evolution as well as to an unpublished manuscript titled "A Critique of Darwin." After thirty years of study in the food habits of birds and other topics, McAtee became convinced that Darwin's theory of natural selection was flawed. In an application to a publisher in 1947, McAtee wrote "Average, not fittest or superlative, individuals survive, so the process provides no motor for evolution; the moving force must be sought elsewhere than in the 'struggle for existence.'" Other significant files relate to McAtee's biographical notes on prominent scientists, a large collection of field trip notes, and a manuscript and notes for his privately published A Review of the Nearctic Viburnum.
In the 1940s McAtee collected handwriting samples of ornithologists, botanists, mammalogists, entomologists and other groups. His collection consists of fragments of correspondence, receipts, notes, envelopes, and other sources for examples of handwriting.
The Miscellany series includes records of the Bureau of Biological Survey containing correspondence, field reports, office memoranda, and a report on the early years of the bureau. Also included is a group of miscellaneous avocational writings by McAtee consisting of poetry, prose, reviews, and other works which, in many instances, were privately printed by McAtee. Calendars, diaries, memorabilia, a scrapbook, wills, and printed matter are also contained in the Miscellany .