The Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also interviews conducted
by researchers or students on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Frank C. Whitmore, Jr., was interviewed for the Oral History Collection by Cain because of his involvement with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology from its inception
to the late 1930s.
Descriptive Entry:
The Frank C. Whitmore, Jr., Interview was conducted in 1989 by Smithsonian Archives visiting fellow, Joseph A. Cain, as part of a research project on the history of
the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Cain was a graduate student in history of science at the University of Maryland. The interview consists of 2.0 hours of audiotape and
55 pages of transcript. The Frank C. Whitmore, Jr., Interview discusses his education and career as a vertebrate paleontologist, especially his recollections of the founding
of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, reminiscences of colleagues such as Alfred Sherwood Romer and William Berryman Scott, and reflections on the history of the field
of vertebrate paleontology in the United States in the twentieth century.
Historical Note:
Frank C. Whitmore, Jr. (1915-2012), research geologist for the United States Geological Survey (USGS), specialized in the systematics of fossil mammals. Born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on November 17, 1915, he received the A.B. from Amherst College in 1938. He was awarded the M.S. in invertebrate paleontology in 1939 from Pennsylvania State
University. He completed his graduate training in vertebrate paleontology at Harvard University, under Alfred Sherwood Romer, receiving the A.M. in 1941 and Ph.D. in 1942.
In 1939, he married Martha Burling Kremers, and they had four children, Geoffrey Mason, John Kremers, Katherine Burling and Susan Hale Whitmore.
After graduation, Whitmore taught geology at Rhode Island State College from 1942 to 1944. He was appointed a Geologist at the USGS in 1944, but was detailed as a scientific
consultant to the U.S. Army in the Philippines, Japan and Korea from 1945 to 1946. In 1946, he became Chief of the Military Geology Branch of the USGS, a position he held
through 1959. He then transferred to the USGS Paleontology and Stratigraphy located in the Natural History Building (NHB) where he worked as a research geologist on the systematics
of fossil mammals, especially Tertiary Cetacea. His field work focused on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain, Panama, Kentucky and Alaska. He was also appointed a research
associate of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) during his tenure in the museum.
An active member of the paleontological community since the 1930s, Whitmore joined the Geological Society of America (GSA) while a graduate student, serving as vertebrate
paleontology section chair in 1972. He was present at the formative meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in 1938 and remained active in that society, as
well as the Paleontological Society (PS), the Geological Society of Washington, as President in 1970, and the Paleontological Society of Washington, as President in 1950.
Folder 1 Fahrney, E. C. - Fairchild, Herman Leroy. Correspondents include: David Grandison Fairchild (1897-1898); Herman Leroy Fairchild of the Geological Society of America (1891-1899).
Collection Creator::
Smithsonian Institution. Assistant Secretary in charge of the United States National Museum Search this
Container:
Box 38 of 154
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
Inquiries related to specimens should be directed to the appropriate museum registrar.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 189, Smithsonian Institution, Assistant Secretary in charge of the United States National Museum, Correspondence and Memoranda
Cooper, G. Arthur (Gustav Arthur), 1902-2000, interviewee Search this
Extent:
6 audiotapes (Reference copies). 10 digital .mp3 files (Reference copies).
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Transcripts
Date:
1984
Introduction:
The Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also interviews conducted
by researchers or students on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Cooper was interviewed for the Oral History Collection because of his long and distinguished scholarly and administrative career at the Institution spanning more than half
a century.
Descriptive Entry:
Cooper was interviewed by Pamela M. Henson on three occasions in January of 1984. The interviews cover his childhood interest in natural history
collections, his education, and his career as a curator of invertebrate paleobiology in the NMNH, notably his research, field work, care of the paleontological collection,
administration, and reminiscences of colleagues such as Edwin Kirk, Charles E. Resser, Charles Schuchert, Edward O. Ulrich, Aldred Scott Warthin and Alexander Wetmore. For
additional videotaped oral history interviews of Cooper, see Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9530, Smithsonian Institution Paleobiology Videohistory Interviews.
Historical Note:
Gustav Arthur Cooper (1902-2000), was a invertebrate paleobiologist in the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), specializing in the taxonomy
and stratigraphy of Paleozoic brachiopods. He began collecting natural history specimens and minerals during his youth in New York. He received the B.S. degree from Colgate
University in 1924 with a major in chemistry and the M.S. degree in 1926. He continued graduate work at Yale University with Drs. Carl O. Dunbar and Charles Schuchert, and
was awarded the Ph.D. in 1929 for his thesis on the stratigraphy of the Hamilton formation. Under Schuchert's direction, he began research on fossil brachiopods, his life's
work. While at Yale, he served as an Assistant Curator (1928-1929) and Research Associate (1929-1930) in the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology of the Peabody Museum
of Natural History.
In 1930, Cooper was appointed Assistant Curator in the Division of Stratigraphic Paleontology of the United States National Museum (USNM). In 1941, he advanced to Associate
Curator and in 1944 to Curator of the Division of Invertebrate Paleontology. He assumed the Head Curatorship of the Department of Geology in 1957, and oversaw its division
into separate departments of Paleobiology and Mineral Sciences in 1963. He continued as Chairman of the Department of Paleobiology until he was appointed Senior Paleobiologist
in 1967. After his retirement from federal service in 1974, he continued his research as Paleobiologist Emeritus.
Cooper was known for his research on the taxonomy and stratigraphy of Paleozoic brachiopods. His major monographs include Ozarkian and Canadian Brachiopoda (1938
with E. O. Ulrich), Chazyan and Related Brachiopods (1956), Morphology, Classification, and Life Habits of Productoids (Brachiopoda) (1960 with Helen M. Muir-Wood),
and Permian Brachiopods of West Texas, vols. 1-6 (1969-1977 with Richard E. Grant). He conducted field work in the United States, Canada, or Mexico virtually every
year of his career at the USNM, significantly increasing both the range and depth of the national collections. Under his guidance, an acid-etching laboratory was established
for work with silicified fossils, notably Permian brachiopods from the Glass Mountains in Texas. He also developed his own photographic laboratory, producing over fifty thousand
images from the collections.
As an administrator, Cooper presided over a ten-fold increase in the paleobiology curatorial staff, from two in 1944 to twenty in 1967. He was the driving force behind
the split of the Department of Geology into two separate departments in 1963. He also planned and supervised the move into the new wings of the Natural History Building (NHB)
in 1963-1965.
Among the many honors bestowed upon him are the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America in 1983, the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal of the National Academy of Sciences
in 1979, the Paleontological Society Medal in 1964, and the Mary Clark Thompson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1958.
Discusses his views concerning the profession and science of paleobiology, and his administrative career, c. 1930-1967, especially: his assessment of the field of paleobiology; establishment of a paleobiology subgroup within the Geological Society of A...
Collection Creator::
Cooper, G. Arthur (Gustav Arthur), 1902-2000, interviewee Search this
Container:
Interviews
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9524, G. Arthur Cooper Oral History Interviews
Keen, A. Myra (Angeline Myra), 1905-1986, interviewee Search this
Extent:
1 audiotape (Reference copy).
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Transcripts
Audiotapes
Date:
1983
Introduction:
The Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also interviews conducted
by researchers or student on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
The Keen interview was donated to the Oral History Collection because of her long career and many contributions to the field of American malacology.
Descriptive Entry:
Keen was interviewed by Eugene V. Coan, malacologist and former student of Keen's, because of her long career and many contributions to the field of American malacology.
The interview includes her reminiscences about her education, research interests, fieldwork, colleagues, and students. The interview complements the A. Myra Keen papers, also
located in the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Historical Note:
Angeline Myra Keen (1905-1986), an invertebrate paleontologist and malacologist, was an international expert on the systematics of marine mollusks. She influenced her
profession as a researcher and fieldworker, teacher and advisor, curator and exhibitor, author and public speaker. Her work was of interest both to academic scholars and to
shell collectors.
Raised in Colorado, Keen became an amateur naturalist and photographer in her teens, and pursued her research interests in birds and insects at Colorado College, graduating
with an A.B. in 1930. She earned an M.A. in psychology from Stanford University the following year, and then a doctorate in psychology from the University of California at
Berkeley. Finding herself with no employment prospects, graduating in the depression year of 1934, she volunteered to help identify shells in the Stanford geology department's
collection. This was the beginning of Keen's serious study of shells and her thirty-eight year association with Stanford. She had some coursework in biology, geology, and
statistics, but was self-taught in malacology.
In 1936 Keen was appointed Curator of paleontology in the department of geology, and began teaching there during the Second World War. She was appointed Assistant Professor
of paleontology in 1954 and Curator of malacology in 1957. Despite her stature, Keen waited until 1960 for appointment as a tenured Associate Professor and until 1965 for
a full professorship, becoming one of three women professors in the sciences at Stanford. Upon her retirement in 1970, she was made Professor of Paleontology Emeritus and
Curator of Malacology Emeritus, and taught two more years.
Keen's research focused on molluscan systematics, but ranged widely within the field to include recent marine mollusk fauna of the Panamic Province and marine molluscan
Cenozoic paleontology, neontology, and zoogeography of western North America. Keen was particularly interested in bivalve systematics and nomenclature. She spent many years
adding to, cataloging, and systematically arranging the Cenozoic mollusk collection at Stanford. She also wrote fourteen books and sixty-four papers in the field of malacology.
Keen was the primary teacher of students in malacology at Stanford, advising advanced degree candidates in geology and biology. She also taught courses in advanced paleontology,
biological oceanography, and curatorial methods.
Keen's professional honors included Phi Beta Kappa, a 1964 Guggenheim Fellowship, and appointment as Fellow of the Geological Society of America and as fellow of the Paleontological
Society. She received the Fellows Medal from the California Academy of Sciences in 1979, becoming the first woman to do so. She served as President of both the American Malacological
Union and the Western Society for Malacology, and chaired the Committee on Nomenclature of the Society of Systematic Zoology.
This accession consists of records documenting the organization of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in 1934 and its activities through the late 1960s. Included
are constitutions, by-laws, and correspondence of founders; files of SVP officers; materials documenting SVP annual meetings; files of SVP committees; copies of the SVP News
Bulletin; records documenting SVP relations with the American Geological Institute and the Geological Society of America; membership records; and fiscal records.
![view Discusses his views concerning the profession and science of paleobiology, and his administrative career, c. 1930-1967, especially: his assessment of the field of paleobiology; establishment of a paleobiology subgroup within the Geological Society of A... digital asset: G. Arthur Cooper (left), and Carl Owen Dunbar shake hands as they stand beside a painting of Cooper by Robert Ades, 1965. [Image no. 59075-A]](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/electronicresource.gif "G. Arthur Cooper (left), and Carl Owen Dunbar shake hands as they stand beside a painting of Cooper by Robert Ades, 1965. [Image no. 59075-A]")
![View Discusses his views concerning the profession and science of paleobiology, and his administrative career, c. 1930-1967, especially: his assessment of the field of paleobiology; establishment of a paleobiology subgroup within the Geological Society of A... digital asset: G. Arthur Cooper (left), and Carl Owen Dunbar shake hands as they stand beside a painting of Cooper by Robert Ades, 1965. [Image no. 59075-A]](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=120&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/electronicresource.gif "G. Arthur Cooper (left), and Carl Owen Dunbar shake hands as they stand beside a painting of Cooper by Robert Ades, 1965. [Image no. 59075-A]")
