It's the end of February, a.k.a Black History Month. I wanted to take a brief moment to discuss the career of a man who, honestly, helped to reinvigorate my passion for prehistory. Long story short, late 2021-2023 were very challenging years for me and I kind of lost some of my passion for paleontology. However, in late 2023, I found strength in the story of Louis Purnell Jr. Now that I'm moving on with my life, and I regained my passion for paleontology, I wanted to write this post to discuss Mr. Purnell's career at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Louis R. Purnell Jr. as Curator of the National Air and Space Museum (1980s) (The Smithsonian Institution Archives):
According to the
Smithsonian Institution Archives, "Louis R. Purnell Jr. was born in 1920" in "Maryland's Eastern Shore," (
Smithsonian Institution Archives, African American Groundbreakers at the Smithsonian: Challenges and Achievements, Louis R. Purnell: The Education of Louis R. Purnell, para. 1). After serving as a pilot, and lieutenant in the Tuskegee Airmen, in World War 2 (Into the Air), Purnell got a BS in Psychology at
Lincoln University (Into the Air, para. 1; An Insatiable Curiosity, para. 2). In order to make some money for his family, he worked at the Post Office. Looking for some excitement though, he went through a number of different jobs until he landed at the
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in 1961. He became a "museum specialist in the Division of Invertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany," (An Insatiable Curiosity, para. 1-2). He went on several expeditions to collect specimens, and studied the nautiloid collection in the
Smithsonian (An Insatiable Curiosity, para. 5-6). This is where Purnell gets into trouble. He noticed that some specimens were missing, and eventually found them. He was going to "write a new catalog based on his research." However, his colleagues said that he was crazy because he didn't have an education in Geology. Purnell took some "classes at
George Washington University to learn how to identify the nautiloids and cephalopods that were in the
Smithsonian's collections." He published his catalogue in 1968, and the
Smithsonian Institution Archives said that it's "still in use today," (para. 6). It's also stated that Purnell "taught himself Geology and paleontology," (Louis R. Purnell, para. 1). The journey to finishing his catalogue was a rough one, due to "the collections manager" trying to stop him. This was due to, once again, Purnell not having a degree in Geology. Even when his catalogue was finished, most of the credit went to his supervisors in the Forward section of the work. These supervisors were the same people who tried to thwart him from publishing his catalogue! Purnell was also promised that he would get a promotion after he published his catalogue. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. Luckily, Purnell never let this experience subdue his "intellectual ambition" (An Insatiable Curiosity, para. 7).
Purnell had success at the National Air and Space Museum (The National Air and Space Museum), but I wanted to focus on Purnell's experience at the Natural History Museum. I've had a similar experience to Purnell back in 2022-2023. Purnell had a strong will to never give up. He said that "he learned to 'roll with the punches' and 'overlook - not forgive, but overlook - [the] prejudice' he faced," (The National Air and Space Museum, para. 8). You have to get around any barrier (para. 9). Racial barriers were very large during Purnell's time with the Smithsonian (The National Air and Space Museum, para. 1, and 8-9). Nowadays, it's gender and political barriers in the sciences in general. Paleontology has been hit by this as well, and I went through it firsthand. I don't know about racial prejudice in paleontology, but I doubt that it doesn't exist presently in the science. Racism, in general, never goes away. However, no matter who you are, you have to keep going if you want to succeed. That's something that I had to remind myself of.
I hope that Purnell's story inspires you, like it did for me. I'll also leave the link to Purnell's catalogue for you to read if you're interested.
Links:
Smithsonian Institution Archives. African American Groundbreakers at the Smithsonian: Challenges and Achievements. Louis R. Purnell:
https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/African-Americans/louis-purnell
-Purnell's Nautiloid catalgoue:
https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/10174/USNMB_2621968_unit.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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