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

This series consists of the correspondence of successive heads of the Annelida Section, together with some administrative papers. The correspondence covers the acquisition, loan and exchange of specimens, enquiries relating to public health and other topics, and Annelida research.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF ZOO/265). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 265.

The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by writer.

Topics

Museums and galleries

The Annelida Section originated in 1913, when Harold Arnold Bayliss (1889-1972) was appointed to take charge of the Worms (or Vermes) Section. He specialised on the nematodes, and in 1922 he retained charge of the parasitic worms when Charles Carmichael Arthur Monro (1894-1942) was appointed Head of both the Annelida and Echinodermata sections. Monro had studied classics at Oxford, but turned to zoology when he returned to Oxford after the war, and joined the Museum in November 1922. He specialised in the polychaete worms, and published many papers on the group. He dealt with collections from the 'Alert'. the 'St George' and 'Discovery' cruises, and was responsible for new gallery displays in 1930 and a Guide the following year. Colonel Stephenson, an unofficial worker, made a great contribution to the work of the Section up until his death in 1933. Monro was transferred to the Ministry of Food in 1939, and died three years later.

Maurice Burton took over responsibility for the Annelida Section until 1950, when Norman Tebble (b 1924) was appointed Head of Section. Tebble studied planktonic polychaetes, travelling to the USA on a Royal Society John Murray Studentship in 1958. He also undertook a long study of the life history of Mercierella in a lake near Weymouth. The Annelida Section was split in 1960, with the Rotifera, Gastrotricha, Echinodera and Priapuloidea going to make up the new Aschelminthes Section, and in 1961 Tebble transferred to Mollusca. Reginald William Sims (b 1926) was appointed Head of the smaller Annelida Section in 1961, with A J Nowers as his attendant. Sims worked on British aquatic oligochaetes and African earthworms, travelling in Gambia in 1964. The Section was split again in 1976 when the polychaete worms were transferred to join the sponges in the Polychaeta and Porifera Section, under David George. Sims was left in charge of the Annelida (Clitellata), Echiura, Sipuncula and Chaetognatha. He was made Publications Officer for the Museum in 1974, while retaining nominal control of the Annelida Section.