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

Record Unit 7154

St. John, Orestes Hawley

Orestes Hawley St. John Papers, circa 1825-1892

Repository:Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C. Contact us at osiaref@si.edu.
Creator:St. John, Orestes Hawley
Title:Orestes Hawley St. John Papers
Dates:circa 1825-1892
Quantity:2 cu. ft. (4 document boxes)
Collection:Record Unit 7154
Language of Materials:English
Summary:

These papers relate to Paleozoic fossil fish and include abstracted articles, specimen notes and notebooks, and original notes for publications of the Illinois Geological Survey.

Historical Note

Orestes Hawley St. John (1841-1921) was a geologist whose main scientific interest was fossil fishes of the Paleozoic Era. St. John aided Amos Henry Worthen in the early Geological Survey of Illinois on an intermittent basis from the 1860s until circa 1883. In addition to his work with the Illinois Survey, St. John served as principal geological assistant to Charles Abiathar White in the Second Geological Survey of Iowa from 1862 to 1868. In 1873, St. John made an extensive visit to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he studied and helped arrange the paleontological collections.

St. John also accompanied Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden's 1877-1878 survey of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. In 1878 St. John led the party which surveyed the Wind River Mountains, portions of the Gros Ventre Range, the Wyoming Range, and the Snake River Valley.

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Descriptive Entry

These papers relate to Paleozoic fossil fish and include abstracted articles, specimen notes and notebooks, and original notes for publications of the Illinois Geological Survey.

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Preferred Citation

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7154, Orestes Hawley St. John Papers

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Container List

Series 1

EXTRACTED ARTICLES ON FOSSIL FISHES, CIRCA 1825-1884. ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY.

Box 1

Folder 1 Articles on fossil fishes, circa 1825-1884

Box 1 of 4

Folder 2 Articles on Carboniferous fossil fishes, circa 1856-1873

Box 1 of 4

Folder 3 Notices extracted from "Geol. Magazine," 1864-1867

Box 1 of 4

Folder 4 Selachians: Extracts from Richard Owen's Odontography, circa 1867

Box 1 of 4

Folder 5 List of Publications on Devonian and Carboniferous fossils, circa 1857-1863

Box 1 of 4

Folder 6 Bibliography on fossil fishes, undated

Box 1 of 4

Series 2

SPECIMEN NOTES, 1870-1882. ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY BY GENERIC NAME.

Box 1

Folders 7-9 A-L

Box 1 of 4

Box 2

Folders 1-5 M-Z

Box 2 of 4

Series 3

NOTES AND NOTEBOOKS ON FOSSIL FISHES, 1868-1882 AND UNDATED. ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY WITH UNDATED FIRST.

Box 2

Folder 6 Notebook - Revision of Carboniferous Selachians: Cladodonts, undated

Box 2 of 4

Folder 7 Notebook - Cladodonts and Myliodonts, undated

Box 2 of 4

Folder 8 Notes - Cochliodont groups and forms, mostly from Missouri, Iowa, and England, undated

Box 2 of 4

Folder 9 Notebooks - Cochliodont natural groups and specific forms, undated

Box 2 of 4

Folder 10 Notebook - Petaldonts, undated

Box 2 of 4

Folder 11 Notes - Localities of fish remains, upper coal-measure, Iowa, circa 1867-1868; Cedar Creek, Illinois Upper Burlington fish-bed horizon by Frank Springer and St. John

Box 2 of 4

Folder 12 Notes - Illinois Geological Survey, List of fishes, Coal no. 5, Danville, Illinois, circa 1870

Box 2 of 4

Folder 13 Notebook - Specimen drawings and descriptions, mostly from Iowa, circa 1872-1881

Box 2 of 4

Box 3

Folder 1 Notes - Lower Carboniferous (St. Louis) fishes from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Contributed by Prof. E. A. Strong, December 1881.

Box 3 of 4

Folder 2 Notes - Genera, mostly from Illinois and New York, 1882

Box 3 of 4

Series 4

ORIGINAL NOTES FOR PUBLICATIONS OF ILLINOIS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1881-1883. ARRANGED BY PUBLICATION.

Box 3

Folder 3 Vol. VI, List of fossil fishes described, circa 1881-1882

Box 3 of 4

Folder 4 Vol. VII, Title and Introduction; Systematic and chronological list; Description of Plates; List of fishes from Vol. VII prepared for new edition of Catalogue of American Paleozoic Fossils, 1882-1883

Box 3 of 4

Folder 5 Vol. VII, Cochliodonts: Chitonodus, Cochliodus, Deltodus, 1882-1883

Box 3 of 4

Folder 6 Vol. VII, Cochliodonts: Deltoptychius, Orthopleurodus, Pocilodus, 1882-1883

Box 3 of 4

Folder 7 Vol. VII, Cochliodonts: Sandalous, Stenopterodus, Tomodus, Vaticinodus, 1882-1883

Box 3 of 4

Folder 8 Vol. VII, Copodus and Deltodopsis, 1882-1883

Box 3 of 4

Folder 9 Vol. VII, Ichthyodorulitus, 1882-1883

Box 3 of 4

Box 4

Folder 1 Vol. VII, Psammodus, 1882-1883

Box 4 of 4

Folder 2 Vol. VII, Psephodus, Tocnidus, Xystrodus, 1882-1883

Box 4 of 4

Folder 3 Vol. VII, Errata (supplementary), 1883

Box 4 of 4

Series 5

MISCELLANY, CIRCA 1860-1892, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY.

Box 4

Folder 4 Etymological derivations, mostly from Greek, undated

Box 4 of 4

Folder 5 Drawings - Specimens from Illinois, New Mexico, Kansas, England, Iowa, circa 1860-1882

Box 4 of 4

Folder 6 Notes on equivalence of Devonian Strata, Cedar Valley, Iowa, 1862

Box 4 of 4

Folder 7 Drawings, Maps, Diagrams - Specimens and locations, circa 1864-1889

Box 4 of 4

Folder 8 Report on the Ecomical Geology along the line of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, by St. John, 1871 (report to C. E. Perkins, General Superintendent)

Box 4 of 4

Folder 9 Notes on the Methods to be pursued in arranging the Museum of Comparative Zoology Collections, 1873

Box 4 of 4

Folder 10 Report on the Devonian and Carboniferous Paleontological Collections, by St. John, 1873 (report to Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Box 4 of 4

Folder 11 Notes on Frank H. Bradley's Section of Coal-Measure Strata, Danville, Illinois; Notes on the Bone-bed locality, 1882

Box 4 of 4

Folder 12 Miscellaneous notes, circa 1864-1883

Box 4 of 4
a) Classification of fossil fishes chart, undated
b) Notes: Jean Louis Agassiz on glaciers; Agassiz on homology; Directions for preparing and preserving skins and skeletons of animals
c) Visit to James Shaw's garden, St. Louis, in company with L.A. Fuller, July 1882
d) Remarks on the Ancient Auriferous Gravels of the Rio Grande Valley, July 1880
e) Notes from "Depths of the Sea," undated
f) Tables of Synchronous Formations and Geological Localities, undated
g) Contents of Box "B" - 105-110 species from Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, 1873
h) Notes - "Saltness of the Sea," 1881; "Relative depth of the Ocean," 1881
i)[Index to] Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden's 1876 Report
j) The Auk Publications Committee - correspondence between John Hall Sage and Charles F. Batchelder with enclosure from Jonathan Dwight, Jr., circa 1892
k) Phrases of authors, circa 1872-1883
l) Press notices - Advertisements of mechanisms, instruments, etc., undated; Kansas geology, 1882-1883; Kansas Geological Survey Bill, 1883
m) Unidentified material, undated

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