British Museum (Natural History): Department of Zoology: Echinodermata and Protochordata...

This series consists of the correspondence of successive heads of the Echinoderma Section, and covers the acquisition, loan and exchange of specimens, enquiries from both professional and amateur zoologists, and echinoderm research. There is also correspondence relating to protochordates which originated in the Fish Section and was handed over in the reorganisation of 1954.

The series contains separate alphabetical series of echinoderm and protochordate correspondence, together with other collections and accumulations.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF ZOO/264). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 264.

Topics

Museums and galleries

The Echinoderma Section was listed separately in the Annual Report of the Department of Zoology from 1917, although it had no dedicated staff until the arrival of D D John in 1936. Echinoderms had been the responsibility of F J Bell during the late 19th century, passing to H A Baylis in 1913 and C C A Monro in 1922, both of whom paid much greater attention to the study of worms. The name of the section was variously given as Echinodermata (1924-1925), Echinoderms (1926) and Echinoderma (other years). In 1954 the section was enlarged in scope and renamed the Echinoderma and Protochordata Section, later the Echinodermata and Protochordata Section.

David Dilwyn John (1901-1995) was educated at Bridgend School and University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating BSc in 1924 and MSc in 1925. He worked on the 'Discovery Investigations until joining the Museum as Assistant Keeper in charge of the Echinoderma Section in 1935. John worked on echinoderms collected by the Discovery, on the BANZAR expedition, and on the Rosaura and Scotia cruises. He was away from the Museum on military service from August 1939 until July 1945, and the years 1946-1948 were devoted to restoring the collection to its pre-war state and preparing new displays for the gallery, which opened in November 1948. John resigned from the Museum in September 1948 to become Director of the National Museum of Wales and was succeeded by Miss A McG Clark. He had been assisted by G J Lockley for many years.

Ailsa McGown Clark (b 1926) took over as Head of the Section in 1948. She had attended schools in Falmouth and Reading, and read zoology at Oxford, graduating BA in 1948. Miss Clark worked mainly on starfish and brittle stars, spending twelve months working on these groups in the USA in 1953-4. From 1956 she worked on part 5 of A H Clark's Monograph of the Existing Crinoids, which was published in 1967, and which led to her becoming Honorary Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution for 1961-1964. In the 1960s she collaborated with F W E Rowe on a monograph of the shallow-water echinoderms of the Indo-West Pacific, which was never published. Miss Clark retired in 1986.