British Museum (Natural History): Department of Zoology: Crustacea Section: Correspondence

Correspondence of the Crustacea Section staff.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF ZOO/252). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 252.

Letters are arranged alphabetically within two-yearly or annual collections. Letters relating to the Entomostraca for 1930-1971 are in a single alphabetical series in DF 252/85-97.

Topics

Museums and galleries

The Crustacea Section was formally constituted in 1913 when the old Invertebrate Section was split up on the retirement of Edgar A Smith. However, its origins can be traced back to 1904 when William Thomas Calman (1871-1952) was appointed to take charge of the group. Calman grew up and was educated in Dundee, where he studied with Professor D'A Wentworth Thompson. He came to the attention of the Director, E Ray Lankester, and obtained a temporary post at the Museum, which was made permanent in 1904. Calman led the Section until 1927, when he became Keeper of Zoology. He was succeeded as Head of Section by Dr Isabella Gordon (1901-1988), who had studied at Aberdeen University and Imperial College, London. She had worked on the embryology and development of echinoderms before coming to the Museum, where she specialised on crabs and sea spiders (Pycnogonida). Dr Gordon retired in 1966. Dr J P Harding joined the Section in 1937 to study the Entomostraca; other staff included William A Smith (1925), Raymond W Ingle (1948), and Miss A C Edwards, later Mrs Evans (1953).

The Section was entitled 'Crustacea and Pycnogonida' from 1917 to 1947, and 'Crustacea and Polyzoa' from 1948 to 1958. It was divided into 'Crustacea (Malacostraca) and Pycnogonida' and 'Crustacea (Entomostraca) and Polyzoa' in 1959, the two new sections being renamed simply 'Malacostraca' and 'Entomostraca' in 1967.