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British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Algae Section Correspondence...

Catalogue reference: DF 421

What’s it about?

This record is about the British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Algae Section Correspondence... dating from 1925-1965.

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Full description and record details

Reference
DF 421
Title
British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Algae Section Correspondence and Papers
Date
1925-1965
Description

The series consists of a small collection of Geoffrey Tandy's (b 1900) correspondence, papers, photographs and newscuttings, including the scripts for a number of unofficial radio broadcasts. There is also a packet of Shirley Eskritt (Mrs Phillips) correspondence.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF BOT/421). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 421.

Arrangement
Arrangement

The series has not been arranged or listed in detail.

Related material

Tandy's diaries and notebooks are held in the Marine Algae Section.

Held by
The Natural History Museum Archives, London
Legal status
Public Record(s)
Language
English
Physical description
file(s)
Access conditions
Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition
The series was transferred to the archives from the Botany Library in 1989.
Subjects
Topics
Radio and television
Museums and galleries
Custodial history
Previously housed in the Crypogamic Herbarium.
Administrative / biographical background

Geoffrey Tandy (b 1900) was the first member of staff to specialise on the algae. He was appointed in January 1926 having read Forestry at Oxford, and was in post when Antony Gepp retired in 1927. Tandy remained at the Museum until September 1939 when he joined the Royal Navy, and did not return after the war. He was given special leave in 1928 and 1929 to act as botanist to the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, and again in 1931 to work on the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Most of his career at the Museum was spent working on the collections made on these two trips.

After Tandy's departure in 1939 algae, along with bryophytes and lichens, were the responsibility of Alan H Norkett, and it was not until Linda Newton (Mrs Irvine) was appointed in 1950 that there was a separate Algae Section once again. She was succeeded by Yvonne Chamberlin (Mrs Butler) in 1954 and J H Price in 1963. Shirley Eskritt (Mrs Phillips) worked in the Alga Section from 1956 until she resigned in 1964/5.

Publication note(s)
'The Great Barrier Reef Expedition, 1928-1929', G Tandy, Natural History Magazine, 2: 82-92 (1929). 'A summer at the Dry Tortugas Laboratory, Florida', G Tandy, Natural History Magazine, 3: 145-156 (1932).
Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C15512/

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Within the fonds: DF

Records created and acquired by the Natural History Museum, London

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British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Algae Section Correspondence and Papers