No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
This collection consists of manuscripts; a catalog; a financial notebook, 1852-1857; and general correspondence and receipts regarding publications based on the North
Pacific Exploring Expedition and Stimpson's manuscripts, 1858-1861.
Historical Note:
Naturalist and zoologist, William Stimpson (1832-1872) spent four years as a naturalist with the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, 1852-1856. For nine years after
the completion of the expedition, Stimpson utilized the facilities of the Smithsonian Institution while preparing a report based on the collections gathered during the expedition.
While at the Smithsonian, he also helped classify and name specimens which the Smithsonian had been collecting. In 1865, Stimpson was called to Chicago by his friend Robert
Kennicott in order to take over the directorship of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. At the Academy, Stimpson assembled probably the largest collection of specimens ever gathered
up to that time, in preparation for a major work on invertebrates. It contained the Smithsonian specimens of American invertebrates and Stimpson's private collection, as well
as loans from a number of other collections. This great collection, including all the manuscripts being prepared by Stimpson, was destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871, an
event from which Stimpson never fully recovered.
Descriptions of new species of marine invertebrata from Puget Sound collected by the naturalists of the North-west Boundary Commission, A.H. Campbell Esq. Commissioner by Wm. Stimpson
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
