The sponsor, Alexander, was obviously financially powerful. She had to be pleased with the project in order to ensure it would continue to receive funding. Grinnell, the scientist, was the highest scientific authority, having the final say about the quality of the data as well as its ultimate significance for scientific theory. The collectors and trappers were powerful in that, without them, the necessary store of data would not be collected. And the UC administrators were powerful in the sense of providing the entire project a sense of institutional value/social significance. They also offered a certain level of assurance that their work would be preserved and utilized well into the future.
