We live in a discouraging world. How many kids dream of goals like paleontology and never can because of socioeconomic factors? It’s especially hard with the racial segregation based on socioeconomic barriers that still exists in the United States. It’s hard enough to get a paleontology career as it is thanks to the money and time and lack of positions and pay. Our society doesn’t reward science that doesn’t provide more money for other people. It’s especially hard for racial minorities-job barriers and discrimination have always been a major barrier to life goals.
So it’s nice to find some hope somewhere, and to find heroes. An unsung hero in all senses of the word was Louis Rayfield Purnell. He was the son of a railcar painter in Maryland, but managed to make it to the Smithsonian. How? A little bit a luck, but with a lot of perseverance, talent, ingenuity, and a wide skill set.
His first love was airplanes. He moved around in his childhood to Delaware and New Jersey, and with it he watched airfields. It was the Great Depression, and as a black kid he had little chance of flying a plane, but he did it anyway. He was inspired by the celebrated pilot Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, an outspoken international showman from Trinidad known for his stunt flying and parachuting. This was the days of an explosion of interest in pilots as the veterans of the First World War began to pass on their knowledge and skill.
Working his way through high school and college, Purnell managed to find an opportunity with the new CPTP, a civilian pilot program erected in response to the increasing militarization in Europe. With an opening in Lincoln University Pennsylvania, a rare opportunity for African Americans to learn piloting skill emerged. He got his license just in time for the war; like most patriotic Americans he applied to use his skills, in this case in the Tuskegee institute in Alabama. It was one of the most rigorous and restrictive programs you could apply for, but Purnell made it. During the war he served in the 99th Flying Training Squadron and 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group as a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot, flying 88 Escort missions over North Africa, Italy and France and winning the Distinguished Flying Cross, the rank of captain, and the Air Medal.
After the war, he suffered the eternal curse of veterans, especially African American ones: trying to find employment. After getting married, he decided to move to DC. With an interest and expertise at studying people, Purnell decided to try psychology and proved especially skilled at speech therapy, getting a degree in Howard University in DC while working at many places the: Quartermaster General, U.S. Book Exchange, the Identification Section of Air Force Casualties, the Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art;. For graduate work, he went to George Washington University.
That’s when Purnell found a new passion and fascination; marine cephalopods. Nautiloids and ammonites with their natural beauty and exquisite preservation drew his interest. The keen-eyed Purnell got a degree in geology as well and joined many field expeditions for the NMNH in 1961. It looked like he was headed for invertebrate paleontology at the Smithsonian after he published the Catalog of the Type Specimens of Invertebrate Fossils. Having a black man in their midst polarized the Smithsonian scientists; many of them were appalled and wanted him out, threatened by his talent and potential. Others were happy to find a colleague who not only matched their enthusiasm but also proved to be skillful in identifying and cataloguing specimens. For years he found himself both supported and hated, many encouraging him to push forward while many pushed him back
Unfortunately, the barrier of prejudice proved too strong. He simply couldn’t get a promotion thanks to the racism of the board. In 1967 he tried out for NASM, knowing his experience and love of aircraft and piloting would be an asset. Once again racism kept him out. However, there was one department that had a lot of positions open and was eager to get veteran pilots into the staff: the Astronautics Department. It was growing and popular and he was as excited as anyone else in the new frontier with new museum specimens being added as NASA kept going forward.
His experience at the Smithsonian, Library and Gallery, as well as his interest in how people think, made him skilled at organizing and displaying exhibits and made Purnell second in command to curator Frederick C. Durant. Durant shared Purnell’s love of aircraft and had the same enthusiasm for new aviation and space technology.
In 1972 he became assistant curator for the NASM, working for 13 years collecting, preserving, organizing, and presenting its collection. He believed in education and cultivation of the interests of the public. Sadly the interviews never asked him if he ever visited the nearby NMNH to see his beloved ammonites; it’s possible he was just too busy with his new job. Retiring in 1985, he kept active as a consultant and lecturer until his death of cancer in 2001.
The Smithsonian interviewed him in the 1994, and they still have transcripts and files of his own words https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217746?back=/collections/search%3Fquery%3Dpurnell%26page%3D1%26perpage%3D10%26sort%3Drelevancy%26view%3Dlist
Louis Purnell is a hero by all standards; he didn’t fight just German and Italian fighter pilots, but racism, prejudice, and long long odds to do his best at what he believed in and what he excelled at. His connection to paleontology is tangential, but a reminder of the barrier of prejudice. I wish he had lived long enough to see an African American curator of the NMNH, but I think he’d approve of someone going ahead and breaking that barrier. It might even be someone reading this article.
We need heroes in this time as much as we have ever needed them, and I think Louis Purnell fits the bill.
https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/louis-purnell-airman-and-curator
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/14/us/louis-rayfield-purnell-sr-81-airman-and-museum-curator.html
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