Smithsonian Institution Archives

Finding Aids to Personal Papers and
Special Collections in the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Record Unit 7103
Herbert Spencer Barber Papers,
1903-1950

By Richard H. Lytle and Leslie E. Sagle

Introduction

Historical Note

Descriptive Entry

Series Descriptions

  Series 1. NOTEBOOKS, 1903-1918, 12 VOLUMES.

  Series 2. OUTGOING CORRESPONDENCE, 1904-1909, 1 BOUND VOLUME WITH PARTIAL INDEX.

  Series 3. CORRESPONDENCE, 1906-CIRCA 1939.

  Series 4. CORRESPONDENCE, CIRCA 1938-1950.

  Series 5. NOTES AND PAPERS.

  Series 6. ADD ACQUISITION, ACCESSION 89-014.


INTRODUCTION

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.


HISTORICAL NOTE

Herbert Spencer Barber (1882-1950) was associated with entomology in the United States National Museum from 1898 until his death in 1950. A man with little formal education, he was appointed as assistant preparator of insects in 1898, and until 1902 worked directly for Eugene Amandus Schwarz. From 1902-1904 he was employed by the United States Department of Agriculture, part of which time he spent studying cotton insects in the southern states. From 1904 to 1908 he was back in the museum with Schwarz. From 1908 until his death in 1950 he was a specialist on beetles in the Division of Insect Identification in the Agriculture Department. During these years he worked mostly in the museum, in association with Schwarz until the latter1s death in 1928. Barber collected insects in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala, and he was an internationally recognized authority on chrysomelid bruchid and lampyrid beetles. He had wide knowledge extending beyond his own specialties, the coleoptera, and even the field of entomology.


DESCRIPTIVE ENTRY

These papers concern mostly his professional work as an entomologist and administration of the work of the Department of Agriculture and the National Museum. His field notebooks include information on his trips to California (1903), Texas (1904 and 1918), Guatemala (1906), and Arizona (1914), and lists of photographs of specimens taken during the trips. In a series of outgoing correspondence, 1904-1909, family and other personal correspondence predominates, but in later correspondence, professional and museum matters assume priority. Some letters to and from Schwarz are included, probably a result of close association. This latter correspondence is concerned with Museum and Agriculture business, including acquisition of specimens, arrangements for study at the Museum, internal administration, acquisition and loan of specimens, and answers to questions and requests for determinations; a substantial proportion of the correspondence consists of professional communication between Barber and other entomologists concerning questions of taxonomy and biology of insects.

Prominent correspondents are listed in the description of each series, followed by folder lists. Some Barber material remains in the Department of Entomology, notably random nomenclature and taxonomic notes on various genera of Chrysomelidae (.75 cubic foot) and card files of collecting and research work at Plummer's Island.


SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES 1.
NOTEBOOKS, 1903-1918, 12 VOLUMES.

These notebooks include field notebooks or diaries of field trips. Barber kept detailed diaries of his trips, which reveal his methods of collecting and much about his personality. Most of the trips were collecting expeditions, although he also records information about conversations with colleagues and research in literature and study of collections. These notebooks contain some information about specimens sent to the National Museum. Additional notebooks contain information about Barber's publications and the numerous photographs he took on trips.

Box 1 of 14

Box 2 of 14

SERIES 2.
OUTGOING CORRESPONDENCE, 1904-1909, 1 BOUND VOLUME WITH PARTIAL INDEX.

Box 2 of 14

SERIES 3.
CORRESPONDENCE, 1906-CIRCA 1939.

This series, 1906-circa 1939, and the following series, through 1950, comprise the major professional correspondence of Herbert Barber. It is primarily concerned with Museum business, including acquisition and loan of specimens, arrangements for study at the Museum, internal administration, and answer of questions and requests for determinations; but a substantial proportion of the correspondence consists of professional communications between Barber and other entomologists concerning questions of the taxonomy and biology of insects, including drafts of articles, mostly Barber's, and exchanges of correspondence about publications. Correspondents for whom there is correspondence of substantial interest include: John Merton Aldrich (especially regarding trip to Guatemala); Gilbert J. Arrow; Kenneth G. Blair; Frank E. Blaisdell; J. R. de la Torre Bueno; Francisco Campos R; Frank Hurlburt Chittenden; Kenneth W. Cooper; Charles Dury; George Paul Englehardt; Henry Clinton Fall; Howard B. Hinton; Walther Horn; Charles William Leng; Frank Alexander McDermott; Andrew J. Mutchler; Frank J. Psota; John D. Sherman; Joseph Mason Valentine. The correspondence is international, including especially Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Japan, and Spain. Administration is the primary topic in folders of Leland Ossian Howard, Harold Morrison, and Sievert Allen Rohwer. Correspondence exists with many institutions, but it is especially extensive with the American Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum (see John R. Bowman), the Deutsches Entomologisches Institut (see Walther Horn), and Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle (see R. Jeannel). Barber wrote an article on an unrecorded journey of Thomas Say in Mexico, on which he had correspondence with Philip P. Calvert (also see Thomas Say).

Numerous letters to or from Eugene Amandus Schwarz are included in these two series, notably in the file for Raymond C. Shannon. Probably this was the inevitable result of the the thirty-years' association betweem Barber and Schwarz.

The two series of correspondence, divided about 1939, apparently were retained by Schwarz, although they may have resulted from later arrangement.

Box 2 of 14

Box 3 of 14

Box 4 of 14

Box 5 of 14

Box 6 of 14

Box 7 of 14

Box 8 of 14

Box 10 of 14

Box 11 of 14

SERIES 4.
CORRESPONDENCE, CIRCA 1938-1950.

(See description for Series 3).

Box 11 of 14

Box 12 of 14

Box 13 of 14

SERIES 5.
NOTES AND PAPERS.

Box 13 of 14

Box 14 of 14

SERIES 6.
ADD ACQUISITION, ACCESSION 89-014.

Box 14 of 14


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Revised: March 20, 2007