Record Unit 9583

Interview 1: March 15, 1988

Discusses his childhood in Sturgis, Michigan; education; early employment at MSC; fieldwork; publications; experiences during the Great Depression; interest in taxonomy; career at USDA; creation and development of the Code, including: Childhood interest in insects; education at KSC and Kalamazoo College; how he was hired by MSC as Instructor in Entomology; reminiscences about professors at Kalamazoo College, Frances Diebold and William H. Prager; the career success of Kalamazoo graduate, Gilbert Otto, subsequent attention paid to Kalamazoo College graduates, and benefit to Sabrosky's career; progression of his career into entomology, in spite of his academic background; experiences working under Reginald Henry Painter (Professor at KSC) and summer fieldwork in Arizona, focusing on flies; fieldwork, while at MSC, on cherry fruit flies in Southwest Michigan; emergence trapping done at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, with gypsy moth in 1980s; attendance of International Congress of Entomology in Berlin in 1938; first visit to NMNH; early practices of Smithsonian, including identification and handling of its entomology collection and catalog; his work on Chloropidae with Painter; reminiscences about Ray Hudson, head of the Department of Economic Entomology at MSC, and first lecture given as instructor; coursework he taught and faculty of MSC Entomology Department; visits to Europe prior to World War II, collections viewed in Europe, and experiences in areas under influence of Adolf Hitler; visits to British Museum of Natural History to use collections and John Smart; collections used and deposit of his own types at Smithsonian; his time in the reserve corps of officers of Public Health Service, stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, and Manning, South Carolina; Carl F. W. Muesebeck at USDA and the process of being hired as Entomologist at the USDA; details of the USDA department, office location, structure, staff members, departmental support, Agricultural library and staffing; effect of budget crisis in USDA department in 1946-1947; working under John L. Keddy, John Graf, and Edward Chapin; changes over the years in materials sent to and processed by department; involvement in Entomological Society of Washington; his residences in Washington, D.C.; Robert Evans Snodgrass and Anatomy of the Honeybee; review process for publications in department by the in-house manuscript committee; developing interest in international nomenclature; development of the Code and roles of Norman Rudolf Stoll, Richard Blackwelder, and William I. Follett in its creation; and changes made to the Code at the Paris Congress of Zoology, 1953.

Transcript, pp. 1-89, of audiotape recording, 2.0 hours.

Audio Recordings of Interviews: Total Recording Time: 2.0 hours

Interview 2: March 25, 1988

Covers USDA and NMNH staff; the formulation and evolution of the first and second Code; growth of the Diptera collections of Smithsonian and USDA; and involvement in the ESA, including: Reminiscences about Roland Wilbur Brown and the book he wrote on paleontology; Serge Mamet, Francis Hemming, and Al Ruffin; the ICZN, the Code and Paris, France, meeting of 1948; reactions of Richard Eliot Blackwelder, J. Chester Bradley, and Sabrosky published in Science, to changes in the Code; Zoology Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1953 and resulting publication of Copenhagen Decisions on Zoological Nomenclature; Chester Bradley and preparation of the "Bradley draft" of the Code with J. Douglas Hood; demonstration of issues with the Code, citing example of naming species by Brigadier W. H. Evans; discussion of Richard V. Melville as secretary of the ICZN; story of Article 23B on Fifty-year Rule at the Copenhagen Congress; recollections of interactions of Ernst Mayr and Bob Usinger; discussions on the second Code, the individuals on the committee, and similarities of the French and English Code; discussion of and members of the Society of Systematic Zoology including Blackwelder's participation; purchase of Stanley S. W. Bromley collection by USDA; work on role of flies as possible vector for polio; work in Cairo, Egypt, studying fly infestation and effects of treatments, residual sprays, and the possibility of developing resistance, and species Musca he found; discussion of Muesebeck's retirement; proposition of and failure to create National Institute of Systematics; changes in location of USDA staff across Washington, D.C., area; discussion of the growth of the Diptera collection over the years, with specific collections named; purchase and shipment of the Nikolai I. Baranov Collection from Pakistan; and reminiscences about Museum Registrar, Helena M. Weiss.

Transcript, pp. 1-80, of audiotape recording, 2.0 hours

Audio Recordings of Interviews: Total Recording Time: 2.0 hours

Interview 3: March 28, 1988

Discusses USDA and Entomology department at NMNH; reminiscences about colleagues; work with the ESA and other professional organizations; including: Tenure as President of the ESA;

Transcript, pp. 1-36, of audiotape recording, 1.0 hour.

Audio Recordings of Interviews: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour