5.5 cu. ft. (5 record storage boxes) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Place:
Solomons Island (Md.)
Dry Tortugas (Fla.)
Trout Lake (Vilas County, Wis.)
Date:
1913-1979
Introduction:
This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Descriptive Entry:
These records consist of the correspondence of both Conger and Mann with botanists, diatomists, and other colleagues. The files were apparently begun by Mann, and then
used and retained by Conger, who continued many of the same associations. Correspondence concerns specimens, identifications, laboratory administration, equipment, publications,
research projects and summer work at Woods Hole; Dry Tortugas, Florida; Trout Lake, Wisconsin; and Solomons Island, Maryland. Also included are notes, annual and other reports,
articles and papers, and the notes and manuscript of Conger's "Thomas Christian and the Diatomists of Richmond."
Historical Note:
Paul S. Conger (1897-1979) was a botanist who specialized in the study of diatoms, microscopic components of plankton. He was the protege of Albert Mann (1853-1935),
diatomist of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW). Mann was employed by the CIW but maintained his office and laboratory at the United States National Museum (USNM)
where he also held the title of honorary custodian of diatoms, 1913-1935. In 1922 Conger joined the staff of the Carnegie Institution and worked as Mann's assistant in the
lab at the USNM. After Mann's death, Conger retained his affiliation with the CIW, serving as research associate, 1935-1943. Concurrently he was named honorary custodian of
diatoms at the USNM, 1935-1943; then associate curator, 1944-1966; and botanist emeritus of cryptogams, 1967-1979.
