Reference Request
Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Record Unit 202
United States National Museum. Section of Corals
Annual Reports, 1931-1962
Historical Note
The United States National Museum's collection of corals was originally entrusted to the care of the Department of Marine Invertebrates. Of particular importance in that collection were the corals collected by the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. In 1914, Marine Invertebrates was merged with the Division of Mollusks to form a single Division of Marine Invertebrates. In 1921, the Division of Mollusks was reestablished and the coral and helminthological collections were turned over to it.
Descriptive Entry
The Curator of the Division of Mollusks, Paul Bartsch, began to refer to a Section of Corals in his annual reports although there was never a curator for the Section. This practice continued, with the reports in this record unit forming a separate section of the Division of Mollusks annual report, until the coral collection was transferred to the Division of Marine Invertebrates about 1962.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following access terms. These are links to collections with related topics, persons or places.
Name
- Bartsch, Paul, 1871-1960
- United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842)
- United States National Museum. Department of Marine Invertebrates
- United States National Museum. Division of Mollusks
Subject
Physical Characteristics of Materials in the Collection
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 202, United States National Museum, Section of Corals, Annual Reports