Series 1: Field diaries, 1891-1998

Series

Identifier: VPA 101

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Consist of field diaries, lists of specimens found, locations of finds, records of day to day activities. All of the expeditions listed were conducted under the auspicies of AMNH (some jointly with other organizations), with the exception of early field diaries of Richard Tedford. Teford joined the museum in 1966, however the archive has his field diaries prior to that date.

Most of the diaries from the Central Asiatic Expedition were transferred to the main museum archive in the 1970's. The Department of Vertebrate Paleontology Archive holds copies of those diaries.

The diaries of the Frick Laboratory expeditions have been trasferred to VPA 108 Frick Laboratory Field Work.

Dates

1891-1998

Creator

American Museum of Natural History. Department of Vertebrate Paleontology (Creator, Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is housed in the Division of Paleontology. Please contact the collection manager for access; materials are sometimes restricted. https://www.amnh.org/research/paleontology/collections/vertebrate-paleontology-archives

Extent

13.5 Linear Feet (30 boxes and 2 folders)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Separated Materials

2 of George G. Simpson's notebooks from 1939 trip to Venezuela describe his anthropological observations. Since these are out of scope for the Vertebrate Paleontology Archive, they have been transferred to the Division of Anthropology Archive.

General

Based on Ruth Sternfeld's historic finding aid, Binder 4.

Historic Call Number: 6:2 to 6:6

Formerly VPA 38

Processing Information

The collection was created by gathering all the field notes from the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology expeditions.

The notebooks are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within the same year. The records are generally grouped by decade, however, some notebooks span multiple years and do not fit into one decade. In those cases, the records are listed outside of the decade folders.

2 of George G. Simpson's notebooks from 1939 trip to Venezuela describe his anthropological observations. Since these are out of scope for the Vertebrate Paleontology Archive, they have been transferred to the Division of Anthropology Archive.