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

The series consists of the correspondence of successive heads of the Coelenterata Section, and covers the acquisition, loan and exchange of specimens, enquiries from both professional and amateur zoologists, and coelenterate research.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF ZOO/253). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 253.

Both Arthur Knyvett Totton and William James Rees kept individual files for the chief correspondents (DF 253/31-84 and DF 253/86-189), with a chronological or alphabetical sequence for the remainder (DF 253/1-30, DF 253/85).

A large collection of papers removed from Arthur Totton's house after his death are held in the Miscellaneous Archives.

Topics

Museums and galleries

The Coelenterate Section was formally set up in 1913 when the old Invertebrate Section was split up on the retirement of Edgar A Smith. Immediately prior to this, Smith had been responsible for the corals, and R Kirkpatrick for the hydrozoa. Arthur Knyvett Totton (1892-1973) was appointed in 1914 to take charge of the coelenterates, but had only just started work when he left to serve in the army. Totton had studied zoology at the Royal College of Science, London, under Professor E W MacBride, and specialised on the siphonophores while at the Museum. He retired in 1954, but was retained as an Associate until 1963. In 1955 William James Rees (1913-1967) was moved from the Mollusca Section to take charge of the Coelenterata. He worked mainly on hydroids, although retaining an interest in cephalopods, and died suddenly in 1967. Ernest White worked as an assistant on the Section from 1918, when he joined the Museum, until his retirement in 1964.