Oceanographic research at Harvard has it roots from when Louis Agassiz, who, in cooperation with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, began the first deep water dredging for biological specimens and bottom samples on this side of the Atlantic. Agassiz’ interest in the study of marine organisms was also evident in his establishment of the Anderson School of Natural History at Penikese Island at the mouth of Buzzards Bay in 1873. Agassiz died later that year, but it is noteworthy that the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole traces its history to this Agassiz initiative.

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