University of Washington, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences records, 1896-1980

The College of Fisheries at the University of Washington was formally established on April 2, 1919 at the urging of prominent members of the fisheries community and the United States Bureau of Fisheries. The program was the first in the nation offering training in fisheries-related subjects. The University of Washington was an ideal location for such a college because of its close proximity to the fishing communities of the Pacific.

John Nathan Cobb became the College’s first Director in 1919. The College offered courses in fisheries, ichthyology, fundamentals of canning, fishery products and cannery management. During its first year 13 students were enrolled in the program. By the end of Cobb’s tenure in 1930, the school had over 100 students; a testament to the need and desire for training in fisheries during the early part of the 20th century.

Housing for the College consisted of four wooden buildings located at the south end of campus near lake Union and the Montlake Cut on NE Pacific Street. These four buildings housed classrooms, an ichthyology laboratory, hatchery ponds and a cannery and salting facility. By 1928, the College facilities were no longer adequate to meet the needs of the program as it continued to grow.

Around 1928, the College of Fisheries submitted a report, along with a letter from the President of the University of Washington, Matthew Lyle Spencer, to the General Education Board requesting financial support to aid in construction of a new fisheries building. It is unclear if the GED responded to this request.

It is interesting to note that after President Spencer presented this report to the education board in 1928, he proceeded to close down the College of Fisheries. With only one faculty member left, Leonard Peter Schultz, Spencer created the Department of Fisheries, located within the College of Science, to allow remaining students to complete their degrees (it would later return to the title College of Fisheries, but not until after several additional departmental changes and restructurings).

William F. Thompson, who was appointed director after Cobb’s death in 1930, continued to lobby for new facilities beginning in the late 1930s. It wasn’t until 1950 that the College of Fisheries moved into their new facilities, the Fisheries Center. In 1999 the fisheries department, now known as the School of Aquatic and Fishery Science, moved to their new facilities in the Fisheries Sciences building.