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Physical description:
Number of Images: 1; Color: Color; Size: 5w x 7.25h; Type of Image: Document; Medium: Paper
Type:
Paper
Document
Place:
Marshall Islands
Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands)
Date:
April 22, 1946
Category:
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes:
Dr. Leonard Peter Schultz,Ichthyologist and Field Naturalist, served as National Museum of Natural History's assistant curator of fishes from 1936 to 1938, when he was named curator-in-charge of the Divisions of Fishes, a position he held until 1965. The Crossroads Operation was an expedition to Bikini and the northern Marshall Islands in 1946 under the auspices of the Department of the Navy. Schultz was in charge of the biological investigation of the reef fishes in the area. His investigations centered on the relative abundance of fauna before and after the atom bomb tests. Specimens were collected for the purpose of comparison and to make possible a study of anatomical variations among the various island fish populations.
Schultz records that he "worked like a beaver" in order to get his fish specimens from Bikini packed to be shipped to the United States on the U.S.S. Sumner so that they would "get to Washington by June 1 when [he] may be able to get back and work on them." After detailing some of the specifics of this shipment, he turns to more personal matters, taking note of the letters that he received and posted.
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7222, Box 23, Folder: 1
