Department of Vertebrate Paleontology loans and exchanges

Between the years 1896-1930, Henry Fairfield Osborn actively sought from universities, museums, and institutes from around the world paleontological specimens to exchange, borrow, and purchase. The collection of correspondences provides a map of acquisitive collecting that followed the last half of the 19th century’s expansion in paleontological activity, with the trend continuing into the 20th century as more areas around the world developed systematic fossil collections. There are 5 boxes of correspondence primarily during the years 1896-1930 though a small amount continues to the 1940's. In large part the correspondence is with Henry Fairfield Osborn for the AMNH and the university or museum department seeking to exchange, borrow or buy paleontology specimens. The arrangement is first by State (in the U.S.), with Boxes 1-2 containing records about loans, exchanges, and purchases of specimens between the AMNH and universities or museums in the U.S., such as Columbia University, Cornell University, University of California, University of Texas, New York University, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Academy of Natural Sciences, the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, and many others. The arrangement in Box 3 includes inter-museum loans with the U.S. National Museum (Smithsonian Institution) and Boxes 4-5 contain inter-museum loans from museums and universities abroad, like with the Musee Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Royal Ontario Museum of Zoology in Toronto, Canada, the Naturhistorisches Museum in Mainz, Germany, the Imperial University, Tokyo Museum in Tokyo, Japan, and many others.