This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Descriptive Entry:
These papers concern mostly his professional work as an entomologist and administration of the work of the Department of Agriculture and the National Museum. His field
notebooks include information on his trips to California (1903), Texas (1904 and 1918), Guatemala (1906), and Arizona (1914), and lists of photographs of specimens taken during
the trips. In a series of outgoing correspondence, 1904-1909, family and other personal correspondence predominates, but in later correspondence, professional and museum matters
assume priority. Some letters to and from Schwarz are included, probably a result of close association. This latter correspondence is concerned with Museum and Agriculture
business, including acquisition of specimens, arrangements for study at the Museum, internal administration, acquisition and loan of specimens, and answers to questions and
requests for determinations; a substantial proportion of the correspondence consists of professional communication between Barber and other entomologists concerning questions
of taxonomy and biology of insects.
Prominent correspondents are listed in the description of each series, followed by folder lists. Some Barber material remains in the Department of Entomology, notably random
nomenclature and taxonomic notes on various genera of Chrysomelidae (.75 cubic foot) and card files of collecting and research work at Plummer's Island.
Historical Note:
Herbert Spencer Barber (1882-1950) was associated with entomology in the United States National Museum, Division of Insects, from 1898 until his death in 1950. A man
with little formal education, he was appointed as assistant preparator of insects in 1898, and until 1902 worked directly for Eugene Amandus Schwarz. From 1902-1904 he was
employed by the United States Department of Agriculture, part of which time he spent studying cotton insects in the southern states. From 1904 to 1908 he was back in the museum
with Schwarz. From 1908 until his death in 1950 he was a specialist on beetles in the Division of Insect Identification in the Agriculture Department. During these years he
worked mostly in the museum, in association with Schwarz until the latter1s death in 1928. Barber collected insects in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala, and he was
an internationally recognized authority on chrysomelid bruchid and lampyrid beetles. He had wide knowledge extending beyond his own specialties, the coleoptera, and even the
field of entomology.
This accession consists of correspondence to and from dipterist Charles Henry Tyler Townsend of the United States Department of Agriculture. Most of the correspondence
is between United States National Museum Division of Insects staff, primarily John Merton Aldrich.
This accession consists of field notebooks from his travels in Cuba, Jamaica, Colombia, and Chile. The typewritten notebooks include journal entries, correspondence,
photographs, news clippings, maps and checklists.
Historical Note:
Edward Albert Chapin (1894-1969), a leading authority on beetles, received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1916, a master's degree from Massachusetts State
University in 1917 and a Ph.D. in Zoology from George Washington University in 1926. From 1917 to 1920 he worked for the Bureau of Biological Survey. He then worked for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (from 1920 to 1926 in the Bureau of Animal Industry and from 1926 to 1934 in the Bureau of Entomology). In 1934 he joined the United States
National Museum, Division of Insects, and remained there as curator until his retirement in 1954. After moving from Washington, DC, to West Medway, Massachusetts, he became
an associate of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
United States National Museum. Division of Insects Search this
Extent:
2.5 cu. ft. (5 document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Letterpress copybooks
Date:
1882-1918
Descriptive Entry:
These records include receipts for specimens, annual and monthly reports of the Division, and correspondence regarding acquisition, distribution, and loan of specimens.
Historical Note:
The Division of Insects of the United States National Museum, reorganized in 1963 as the Department of Entomology, had its origin in the deposit of personal collections
in 1881 by Charles Valentine Riley, entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. The Museum became the depository for the national collection of insects. The chief entomologist
of the Department of Agriculture became honorary curator of insects in the national museum, aided by an assistant curator on the museum staff. Many staff members of the Department
of Agriculture served as custodians, and thus the national collection of insects has become a joint enterprise of the Department and the Museum. Honorary curators were as
follows: Charles Valentine Riley, 1881-1894; Leland Ossian Howard, 1895-1927. Assistant curators (museum employees) were as follows: John Bernhard Smith, 1886-1889; Martin
L. Linell (aid), 1889-1896; William Harris Ashmead, 1897-1908; James Chamberlain Crawford, Assistant and Associate Curator, 1908-1919.
United States National Museum. Division of Insects Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Note:
Outgoing Correspondence (1882-1905) includes receipts for specimens, first to Spencer F. Baird from Charles Valentine Riley and later from an assistant to the Museum's
registrar; annual and monthly reports of the Division of Insects, including accession lists; correspondence from the Division regarding collection, distribution, and determination
of specimens; and occasional extensive reports by curators regarding the status of the national collection. The outgoing correspondence series is mostly useful for documenting
the growth of the Museum's insect collections, but it is also more generally useful for the history of entomology, especially in the correspondence of Riley, Leland Ossian
Howard, and William Harris Ashmeade.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 139, United States National Museum. Division of Insects, Correspondence and Specimen Records
