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

This series contains a collection of correspondence from the Sponge Section.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF ZOO/260). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 260.

Topics

Museums and galleries

Sponges had been the responsibility of Randolph Kirkpatrick (1863-1950) within the Invertebrate Section, and remained under his care when a Sponge and Polyzoa Section was set up in 1922. Maurice Burton (1898-1992) was appointed to the staff in 1928, following Kirkpatrick's retirement. Burton had studied zoology at London University, and had worked on sponges with Arthur Dendy. He published a notable paper on sponge locomotion in 1933, but thereafter devoted much of his energy to the classification of sponges, devising and publishing a system of his own which has not stood the test of time. He also wrote extensively on popular natural history and was in demand as a columnist and broadcaster. Burton became Deputy Keeper of the Department in 1948 and retired in 1958.

A departmental reorganisation in 1932 led to Burton taking charge of a new Porifera and Protozoa Section, and losing control of the Polyzoa. The Sponge Section as a separate entity came into being in 1956. Shirley M Stone, who had been Burton's assistant since 1953, continued curatorial work on the collection after his retirement in 1958. She came under the supervision of Ailsa McG Clark until 1962, when William G Fry was appointed Head of Section. Fry studied the culture and maintenance of British sponges before his resignation at the end of 1964. In 1967 the Porifera were linked with the Polychaeta under J David George, who made a fine study of sponge spicule development before turning his attention to the Polychaeta.