Items in this collection do not circulate and may be used in-house only.
Requests for permission to quote from the John Black Johnston papers should be arranged with the University of Minnesota Archives head.
John Black Johnston papers, University of Minnesota Archives.
The collection contains published articles and manuscripts written by
John Johnston. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters from C.
Judson Herrick, editor of the
John Black Johnston was born in Belle Center, Ohio on October 3, 1868.
He earned his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1893
and 1899, respectively. Before coming to the University of Minnesota, Professor
Johnston was an instructor in biology at the University of Michigan (1893-1899)
and head of zoology at the University of West Virginia (1899-1907). From
1904-1905, Professor Johnston took a sabbatical from the University of West
Virginia to study at the Naples Zoological Station. His time in Italy led to
the publication of the influential book
In 1907, Professor Johnston joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota as assistant professor of anatomy of the nervous system. He became assistant professor of comparative anatomy in 1908 and professor in 1909. In 1914, he was appointed Dean of the College of Science, Literature and the Arts (now the College of Liberal Arts). His greatest influence as Dean was to lay the foundation for college admission standards by studying the correlation between success in high school and performance on college aptitude exams with success in college. He also instituted freshman orientation and honors courses. He remained Dean until his retirement in 1937, at the age of 69.
Professor Johnston was a member of various professional organizations,
including Sigma Xi, American Society of Naturalists, American Society of
Zoologists, American Eugenics Society, American Association of Anatomists,
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chairman
of the Committee on Educational Testing of the American Council on Education.
In addition, he was an associate editor for the
Guy Stanton Ford papers
August Charles Krey papers
Henry Francis Nachtrieb papers
University of Minnesota. College of Science, Literature and the Arts papers
University of Minnesota. Department of Botany papers
University of Minnesota. Department of Political Science papers
University of Minnesota. Department of Psychology papers
University of Minnesota. Student Counseling Bureau papers
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.