SIA RU007226, Society of Systematic Zoology (U.S.), Records, 1947-1975

Summary

These records include membership files, administrative files, reports, fiscal records, records related to the "Journal of Systematic Zoology " and copies of other SSZ publications, records related to the annual meetings, the Pacific Section of SSZ records, files on scientific societies, and the records of the Summer Institute in Systematics.

Subject

• Wharton, George W
• Schmitt, Waldo L (Waldo Lasalle) 1887-1977
• Romer, Alfred Sherwood 1894-1973
• Muesebeck, Carl F. W (Carl Frederick William) 1894-
• Park, Orlando 1901-1969
• Blackwelder, Richard E
• Smith, Hobart M (Hobart Muir) 1912-2013
• Summer Institute in Systematics
• American Association for the Advancement of Science

Notes

• The Society of Systematic Zoology (SSZ) was organized at the Chicago meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1947. Prior to the meeting, Waldo LaSalle Schmitt and George W. Wharton, Jr., had polled taxonomists about the founding of a systematics society; and the result was an organizational meeting on December 29, 1947. The first annual meeting of the SSZ was held in Washington in September 1948. Schmitt became its first president and Wharton its first secretary-treasurer. The government of the Society was vested in a council, with officers elected from nominees named by the Council. Original Council members were Alfred S. Romer, Carl Frederick William Muesebeck, Orlando Park, and Richard Eliot Blackwelder. A president and president-elect were elected to one-year terms.
• A News Letter for the SSZ was first published in 1949 under the direction of Hobart Muir Smith, Chairman of the Publications Committee. In 1952 the Journal of Systematic Zoology was founded under the auspices of Richard Eliot Blackwelder. It gradually supplanted the News Letter which was discontinued in 1964. The quarterly Journal was considered the most important project of the SSZ; it was devoted to theoretical and philosophical considerations in systematics rather than the naming of new taxa.
• Other projects of the Society have included the continuing publication of List of Books on Zoology and a Directory of Zoological Taxonomists, 1961.
• Description in control file.

Organization

(1) Membership file, 1947-1974, alphabetic; (2) cancelled memberships, circa 1951-1971; (3) administrative files, 1952-1974, alphabetic; (4) reports, 1948-1969, chronologic; (5) fiscal records, 1948-1974, alphabetic; (6) records related to the publication and distribution of the Journal of Systematic Zoology, 1960-1975, alphabetic; (7) News Letter and pamphlets, 1949-1965, chronologic; (8) meetings of the SSZ, 1947-1971, chronologic; (9) SSZ Pacific Section records, 1951-1973, chronologic; (10) scientific societies, 1956-1975, alphabetic; (11) Summer Institute in Systematics, 1965-1970, chronologic

Repository Loc.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520

Date

• 1947
• 1947-1975

Topic

• Professional associations
• Animals
• Biology

Form/Genre

• Manuscripts
• Collection descriptions
• Classification

Local number

SIA RU007226

Physical description

26 cu. ft. (11 record storage boxes) (30 document boxes)

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