Rand, A. Stanley (Austin Stanley), 1932-2005, interviewee Search this
Extent:
4 audiotapes (Reference copy).
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Transcripts
Place:
Barro Colorado Island (Panama)
Panama
Brazil
Date:
1986, 1989-1990
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.
Austin Stanley Rand was interviewed for the Oral History Collection because of his distinguished scientific career, and long tenure at the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute as both researcher and administrator. Additional interviews of Rand can be found in Record Unit 9580, Barro Colorado Island Group Oral History Interview, and Record
Unit 9553, Conservation of Endangered Species Videohistory Interviews. Additional information about Rand can be found in the Records of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
and the A. Stanley Rand Papers which are also housed in Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Descriptive Entry:
The Austin Stanley Rand Interviews were conducted during three sessions from December 1986 through June 1990. The first interview was in December 1986 by Daryl Jones,
a student at the University of Maryland; the second, in April 1989 by Smithsonian Institution Archives historian, Pamela M. Henson, and Joel Bartholemew Hagen, a Smithsonian
postdoctoral fellow; and the third, in June 1990 by Pamela Henson. They consist of 3.5 hours of audiotape and audio cassette recordings and 81 pages of transcript
The Austin Stanley Rand Interviews discuss his background, education and early interest in zoology; career at STRI; recollections of colleagues and life on Barro Colorado
Island (BCI), including Martin Humphrey Moynihan, Neal Griffith Smith, and Dagmar I. Werner; discussions of his and his colleagues' major research interests; STRI's regional
role; and changes at STRI over the years.
Historical Note:
Austin Stanley Rand (1932-2005), was a herpetologist and Senior Biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). He was born on September 29, 1932,
in Seneca Falls, New York. He received his B.A. in zoology from DePauw University in 1955, served in the U.S. Army from 1955-1957, and received his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard
University in 1961. In 1961 he married Patricia Rand, and they had three children, Hugh, Margaret and Katherine.
Rand began his scientific career in 1950, when he worked three summers as an Assistant in the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago, Illinois. In 1957, he worked as an Assistant in the Division of Mammals at the Field Museum. Upon completing his Ph.D., Rand served as a Research Assistant in
Herpetology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University from 1961-1962, and as a Zoologist for the Secretary of Agriculture in Sa Paulo, Brazil from 1962-1964.
Rand first arrived at STRI in 1964 as a herpetologist. From 1973-1979, Rand also served as Coordinator of the Tropical Program of the Smithsonian's Environmental Sciences
Program, coordinating research projects on marine and terrestrial monitoring. In 1974, Rand was appointed STRI's Assistant Director, with special responsibilities for the
operation of the Barro Colorado Island field station, as well as budget and planning for STRI. In 1979, he was appointed Senior Biologist, a position which he held until his
death. In 1988, he also became responsible for coordinating scientific activities at STRI's facilities in Gamboa, Panama. At STRI, Rand supervised graduate student and postdoctoral
research, and consulted for the Panamanian government as requested.
Rand's research interests were primarily in studies of the behavior and ecology of tropical reptiles and amphibians, particularly social behavior and vocal communication
in lizards (Iguana iguana and Anolis limifrons) and Tungara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus). His major field work included a month or more in Brazil, Costa
Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica, Haiti, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, Santo Domingo, and Venezuela, as well as shorter visits elsewhere. He was a prolific
producer of articles, both alone and as co-author, and both organized and participated in various symposia.
Rand was a member of various professional societies, including the American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Ichthyologists
and Herpetologists, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Association for Tropical Biology, Herpetologist's League, and Animal Behavior Society.
24.25 cu. ft. (48 document boxes) (1 half document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Picture postcards
Clippings
Field notes
Floor plans
Black-and-white photographs
Black-and-white negatives
Black-and-white transparencies
Color photographs
Color transparencies
Lantern slides
Date:
1927-1973 (Papers), 1927-1966 (Records)
Descriptive Entry:
These papers include both personal and professional correspondence and documents relating to Peters' academic and curatorial careers. Also included are files of the
Division of Reptiles and Amphibians maintained by Peters' predecessor, Doris Mable Cochran (1898-1968). Correspondents include Jorge W. Abalos, M. Acosta-Solis, Kraig Kerr
Adler, Villy Aellen, E. Ross Allen, American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Medical Association, American Museum of Natural History, American Society of Icthyologists
and Herpetologists, Steven C. Anderson, Attilio Arillo, Ralph W. Axtell, James P. Bacon, Jr., Gladys C. Banks, Benjamin Harrison Banta, Avelino Barrio, J. C. Battersby, Nina
Battersby, Pauline Becker, William Beebe, Beitrage Zur Neotropischen Fauna, Ronald E. Beltz, Paul A. Benson, Frederick Henry Berry, Bio Instrumentation Advisory Council, Sherman
Chauncey Bishop, Richard Eliot Blackwelder, Frieda Cobb Blanchard, Ellen Gillespie Block, Charles Mitchell Bogert, James Erwin Bohlke, Werner C. A. Bokermann, Donald D. Brand,
Ronald A. Brandon, Bayard Holmes Brattstrom, British Herpetological Society, Donald G. Broadley, L. D. Brongersma, Garnett Ryland Brooks, Jr., John Langdon Brooks, Bryce Cardigan
Brown, Frederick Martin Brown, Brown University, Walter Creighton Brown, Maria Buchinger, W. Leslie Burger, A. C. J. Burgers, Charles Earle Burt, William Henry Burt, Robert
A. Burton, R. Bruce Bury, Fred Ray Cagle, Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Society, Luis F. Capurro, Dennis S. Carlson, Nan V. Carson, Center for Tropical Studies,
University of Michigan, Herman Burleigh Chase, The Chicago Herpetological Society, William M. Clay, Doris Mable Cochran, Nathan Wolf Cohen, Roger Conant, John M. Condit, Congreso
Latinamericano de Zoologia, Joseph F. Copp, Robert Copping, Raymond B. Cowles, David Crane, John Davis, Paul E. P. Deraniyagala, Philip H. Derse, Michael W. Dix, James R.
Dixon, Roberto Donoso-Barrios (Ref.), Armando Dugand, Roy Frederick Dulin, Jr., Ann Dunham, Emmet Reid Dunn, Delbert G. Easton, Richard A. Edgren, Jr., Lloyd C. Emmons, Francis
Cope Evans, Lee C. Finneran, Harvey Irvin Fisher, Henry Sheldon Fitch, Alvin Godfrey Flury, William I. Follett, Keith E. Friedel, John W. Funkhouser, Jose M. Gallardo, Sidney
Roland Galler, Carl Gans, Joseph Francis Gennaro, Jr., Howard Kay Gloyd, Coleman Jett Goin, Stanley W. Gorham, Joseph B. Gorman, Chapman Grant, Arthur Merwin Greenhall, Arnold
B. Grobman, Eugene Raymond Hall, Rogers D. Hamilton, William John Hamilton, Jr., Garry P. Harned, Francis Harper, Ernest William Hartung, Norman Edouard Hartweg, Werner George
Heim, Herpetologists' League, William Atwood Hilton, Richard L. Hoffman, Alphonse Richard Hoge, Theodore Huntington Hubbell, Carl Leavitt Hubbs, Richard G. Hubler, Don Hunsaker
II, Victor H. Hutchinson, Robert F. Inger, Instituto Butantan, Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, International Association For Systematic Zoology, International
Biological Programme, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, International Herpetology Society,
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Hernando de Irmay, David Lee Jameson, Rolf A. Jensen, Junior Herpetological Society, Brahma S. Kaushiva,
Hugh Lawrence Keegan, Laurence Monroe Klauber, Robert Elroy Kuntz, Ernest Albert Lachner, Abdem Ramon Lancini, David A. Langebartel, Carlos M. Larrea, Ronald Lawson, David
S. Lee, Donald L. Lehmann, Roberto Levi-Castillo, Alan E. Leviton, Lizard Ecology Symposium, Long Island Herpetological Society, Richard Biggar Loomis, Francis X. Lueth, Douglas
MacGregor, Thomas J. McIntyre, Rogers McVaugh, Beni Charan Mahendra, M. Maldonado-Koerdell, Guillermo Mann, Romeo John Mansueti, Paul Schultz Martin, Kevin W. Marx, The Maryland
Herpetological Society, Ernst Mayr, Giles W. Mead, John Stephen Mecham, Daniel Merriman, Robert Rush Miller, Eunice Thomas Miner, Francis J. Mitchell, Erna Mohr, John Alexander
Moore, George Sprague Myers, National Geographic Society, Walter Ludwig Necker, Wilfred T. Neill, Morris Graham Netting, New York Herpetological Society, Norman Dennis Newell,
Clifford Raymond Noll, Jr., Kenneth Stafford Norris, The Ohio Herpetological Society, James Arthur Oliver, The Orange County Herpetological Society, Gustavo Orces, Braulio
Orejas-Miranda (Ref.), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Paris), Organization of American States, Lourdes G. Ortega, Juan Jose Parodiz, Georges Pasteur,
Dennis R. Paulson, Raymond Andrew Paynter, Jr., James A. Peters, Philadelphia Herpetological Society, David Pimentel, Richard A. Pimentel, Ivo Poglayen-Neuwall, Friedrich
Polz, Clifford Hillhouse Pope, Primer Congreso Sudamericano de Zoologia, George B. Rabb, A. Stanley Rand, Neil Dwight Richmond, William J. Riemer, Philip C. Ritterbush, Robert
Maar Roecker, Alfred S. Romer, Douglas Anthon Rossman, Barry Rothman, Norma Rothman, Janis A. Roze, Rodolfo Ruibal, Findlay Ewing Russell, Richard W. Russell, Jay M. Savage,
Scandinavian Herpetological Society, Herbert Schifter, Karl Patterson Schmidt, Waldo Lasalle Schmitt, Albert Schwartz, Frederick A. Shannon, Charles E. Shaw, Hurst Hugh Shoemaker,
R. K. Shrivastava, Charles Gald Sibley, Allan J. Sloan, Paul Slud (Ref.), Hobart Muir Smith, Philip W. Smith, Richard Craine Snyder, Society for the Study of Amphibians and
Reptiles, Society for the Study of Evolution, Society of Systematic Zoology, Paul Soderberg, The Southern California Academy of Sciences, Southwestern Herpetologists Society,
James Juan Spillett, Leonhard Stejneger, Othmar Stemmler, Terry B. Stevenson, William H. Stickel, Laurence Cooper Stuart, Bogdan Sturgen, The Systematics Association, Michael
J. Takos, James R. Tamsitt, Wilmer W. Tanner, Aaron M. Taub, Edward H. Taylor, The Tennessee Herpetological Society, E. Titschack, Enrico Tortonese, Robert G. Tuck, Jr., Frederick
Brown Turner, Michael J. Tyler, Emil K. Urban, Thomas Marshall Uzzell, Jose Valencia, Stefan Vancea, Paulo Emilio Vanzolini, Jaime D. Villa, Virginia Herpetological Society,
John Visser, Zdenek Vogel, Harold K. Voris, Helmuth O. Wagner, David Burton Wake, Charles Frederic Walker, Warren Franklin Walker, Jr., Harlan D. Walley, The Washington Biologists'
Field Club, Inc., Robert G. Webb, William Weber (Ref.), John E. Werler, Heinz Wermuth, Yehudah L. Werner, Dawn Xavier Weston, Jr., Kenneth L. Williams, Richard Willnow, James
Walter Wilson, Larry David Wilson, Gaston-Francois de Witte, Allyn L. Wood, Lindsay W. Wood, Albert Hazen Wright (Ref.), John W. Wright, David Zaid, William Zipperer, The
Zoological Society of London, George R. Zug, Richard George Zweifel.
Historical Note:
James A. Peters was born in Durant, Iowa on July 13, 1922. He developed an interest in herpetology as a teenager, which culminated in the acquisition of three academic
degrees from the University of Michigan (B.S., 1948; M.A., 1950; Ph.D., 1952). While at the University of Michigan he served as a research assistant in the Museum of Zoology
(1946-1952) and as a teaching assistant for the Department of Zoology (1952). After receiving his Ph.D., Peters joined the staff of Brown University (1952-1958), advancing
from instructor to assistant professor. During the summer of 1956 he was a research associate at Stanford University. From 1958 to 1959 Peters was a Fulbright Lecturer at
the Universidad Centrale de Ecuador; he was a visiting professor at Southern Illinois University for the summer of 1959 and accepted an associate professorship at San Fernando
Valley State College (SFVSC) in the fall of that year. Peters advanced to full professor at SFVSC, remaining there until February 1964 when he accepted the position of associate
curator in the Division of Reptiles and Amphibians of the United States National Museum. He assumed the title "supervisor and curator" of the Division in FY 1967, a title
he held until FY 1971. He was named curator, Division of Reptiles and Amphibians in FY 1971 and held that position until his death on December 18, 1972.
James A. Peters' professional responsibilities included membership in many scientific societies. He attended his first meeting of the American Society of Icthyologists
and Herpetologists (ASIH) in 1939. He later served on the Board of Governors and various committees. He also served as ASIH secretary (1960-1966); vice-president (1967); and
president (1970). He also held advisory or elected positions with the Society of Systematic Zoology, the Southern California Academy of Sciences, the Society for the Study
of Evolution, and the Biological Society of Washington. Within the Smithsonian Peters continued his professional responsibilities by service on the Zoo Research Advisory Committee
(National Zoological Park), the Planning Committee for Summer Seminar in Systematics, the Steering Committee for the First International Congress of Systematic Zoology, the
International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, the Reptile Group of the Survival Service Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,
the American Alligator Council, and the Rare and Endangered Species Committee of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. In 1965 he inaugurated the Smithsonian Herpetological
Information Services, which distributed informative material deemed useful to herpetologists but unsuitable for publication, e.g., bibliographies, indices, etc.
The herpetology and zoogeography of Latin America became main subjects of interest for Peters after he did field work on the Mexican Plateau in 1949 and in Michoacan in
1950. His concentration on Ecuador was largely due to the wide scope of biogeographical faunal comparisons available in the Andes Mountains. While completing his doctoral
work on the snakes of the subfamily Dipsadinae, he embarked in 1952 upon a long-term research project on the herpetology of Ecuador that resulted in twenty-one published papers.
The culmination of his Latin American work was the two-volume Catalogue of the Neotropical Squamata co-authored with Braulio Orjas-Miranda and Roberto Donoso-Barrios
(1970). Over 100 scientific publications are attributed to James A. Peters, including two books, Classic Papers in Genetics (ed., 1959) and Dictionary of Herpetology
(1964). He described seventeen new species or subspecies and had five taxa, four Neotropical amphibians and reptiles, and one snake named for him.
The computer analysis of biogeographic data greatly enhanced Peters' study of the systematics and ecology of reptiles and amphibians. An effective use of this technique
was the gathering of comparative cardiac physiology of Ecuadorian snakes and lizards using data obtained from an electrocardiograph. Identification of specimens was another
field adaptable to the use of computer technology. In this area of interest Peters developed computer programs that facilitated the identification process by searching on
a larger constellation of characters than had previously been employed. Eleven papers were published from 1968 to 1973 on the subject of computer usage. He also founded the
newsletter MUDPIE (Museum and University Data Program and Information Exchange) which contained information about computer programs, references, grants, meetings, and
related news.
This accession consists of the records of research zoologist Roy W. McDiarmid and his work at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, United States Geological Survey
(USGS). McDiarmid's research focuses on the systematics, behavior, ecology, and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles in the Neotropics. Records include graduate work; research
projects and publications; special projects, such as workshops, committees, and reviews; and activities with professional societies, including the American Society of Ichthyologists
and Herpetologists (ASIH) and the Herpetologists' League (HL). Some materials predate his time with the USGS.
Materials include correspondence, notes, research information, manuscripts, proposals, reports, reviews, maps, illustrations, postcards, newspaper clippings, microfiche,
photographs, negatives, and transparencies. Some materials are in electronic format.
This accession consists of an addition to the records of the Herpetologists' League. Materials include a notebook concerning the founding of the organization and renewal/membership
cards collected on a yearly basis by the Treasurer.
This accession consists of an addition to the records of The Herpetologists' League. Materials include files relating to manuscripts for their journal, Herpetologica.
These records were created and maintained by Robert Jaeger, Editor.
This accession consists of the records of J. Whitfield Gibbons as President of the Herpetologists' League, c. 1988-1992. Materials include minutes of the meetings of
the Board of Trustees and correspondence of the president.
