Folder 10 Correspondence of Frederic Augustus Lucas and William Harvey Brown concerning setting up of exhibit. Includes lists of skeletons to be sent to exhibition. 1888.
Collection Creator::
United States National Museum. Division of Comparative Anatomy Search this
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 203, United States National Museum. Division of Comparative Anatomy, Divisional Records
United States National Museum. Division of Comparative Anatomy Search this
Extent:
0.5 cu. ft. (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Date:
1885-1917 and undated
Descriptive Entry:
The records of the division include memoranda for the divisional reports, lists of specimens, records of divisional operations, material concerning the Ohio Valley
and Central States Exhibition of 1888, and the daily calendar of Frederic A. Lucas for 1886-1895 and 1898-1899.
Historical Note:
From 1885 until about 1904, a Department of Comparative Anatomy existed within the United States National Museum. This department (after 1897 a division in the Department
of Biology) was responsible for the preparation and care of the osteological specimens of the museum. From the early days of the museum collections, separate bone catalogs
were kept, distinct from the other specimen catalogs. In addition, a series of vertebrate skulls and skeletons were exhibited in the main hall of the Smithsonian building,
and much additional material was in storage.
When the collections were moved from the Smithsonian building to the Museum in 1883, a proposal was made that a department of comparative anatomy should be set up. Although
Frederick William True and Frederic Augustus Lucas were listed as curator and assistant in such a department as early as 1883, formal organization of the department first
came in 1885.
Frederic A. Lucas joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1882 as an osteological preparator and became assistant curator to True in 1887. True was the first full curator
and served from 1885 to 1890, when Frank Baker became honorary curator. In 1893, Lucas became curator and remained in that capacity until he left the Smithsonian in 1904.
Following Lucas' departure, the division remained without a curator until it was gradually incorporated into the other zoological divisions.
