Ichthyology Department Records

Collection

Identifier: ANSP-Coll-0704

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection documents the activities of the Ichthyology Department primarily from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s. The collection includes annual reports, written histories about the department and its operation, specimen collection lists, and notes on various fish collections; financial records related to endowments and general and special funds supporting the work of the department, and curatorial grant proposals and reports for National Science Foundation (NSF) funded projects; field journals for collecting expeditions in various localities including the Bahamas, Columbia, and Venezuela; Eugenia Böhlke’s research of Muraenidae or moray eels and the publication of part 9 of Fishes of the Western North America (1989); correspondence and manuscript pages related to research and publication of the first (1968) and second (1993) editions of Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters authored by James E. Böhlke and Charles C. G. Chaplin; and extensive illustrations including pencil and ink drawings and watercolors of neotropical fishes and eels used in publications.

Dates

1849-2000
Majority of material found within 1957-1995

Creator

Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Department of Ichthyology (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Ichthyology Department Records are the physical property of the Library and Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Materials in this collection may be governed by copyright. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining approval from them.

Biographical / Historical

Ichthyology or the study of fish, has been a part of research at the Academy of Natural Sciences since it was established in 1812. The ichthyology specimen collection is taxonomically diverse, but it's especially strong in eels, characiforms, and catfish. Its geographic strengths include freshwater species of North and South America and marine species of the Bahamas, Western Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Extent

18 linear feet (20 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in 6 series as follows:

Series 1: Administrative and general records, 1849-1995

Series 2: Funds and grant files, 1957-1995

Series 3: Expeditions and fieldwork, 1941-1997

Series 4: Eugenia B. Böhlke papers, 1960-2000

Series 5: Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters records, 1956-1998

Series 6: Illustrations, 1953-1981

Physical Location

Contact the Library and Archives in advance of your visit, so that materials may be relocated to the reading room for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Transferred from the Ichthyology Department to the Library and Archives between 1963 and 2015.

Accruals

Additions to this collection are expected. For information on material that may have been added to the collection since the last update to this finding aid, please contact the Library and Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Existence and Location of Copies

The bulk of the field notes in series 3 have been digitized. Please contact the Library and Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University for more information.

Related Materials

Henry Fowler Papers, Coll 31, Library and Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Film Collection, Coll 1012, Library and Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Steven P. Gigliotti Painting of Acanthemblemaria chaplini, 2016-004, Library and Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

ANSP Ichthyology Collection

Processing Information

Portions of this collection were processed and described after 1963. In 2021, Library and Archives staff integrated and arranged subsequent accessions of records transferred between 1982 and 2015. Processing completed and finding aid prepared in April 2024 by Jessica M. Lydon, Brooke Dolan Archivist, with assistance from volunteer, Kathleen Klee. The level of description varies by series at the folder level or box level.

Previous collections integrated and described as part of Coll 704

ANSP Collections -- Fish – Papers, Coll 704
Ichthyology Department records, Coll 705
James Erwin Böhlke Papers Relating to "Fishes of the Bahamas (1968)" by Böhlke and Charles C.G. Chaplin, Coll 822