Dean Bashford Collection

Résumé du livre

The collection consists of two 5 x 7 inch sketchbooks and 281 items of papers, mostly correspondence, with a few sketches, maps and notes. The sketchbooks are dated July 26, 1892, and Aug. 19-20, 1892, respectively. The second book is labeled on title page: Notes on fossil fishes taken at British Museum. The leaves of the first book are unnumbered; in the second book, leaves are hand-numbered in the upper right corners. Sketches are in pencil; some contain textual annotations and some use the verso of the previous leaf. The papers consist primarily of letters to and from Dean, both handwritten and typewritten (many carbon copies), most related to his scientific interests and work. The third series contains some personal and family items, mostly posthumous, including an excerpt from Dean's will in which he leaves his library to the AMNH, along with $5000 for its upkeep. In the Series I, 7 of the letters are from Richard Rathbun of the U.S. Fish Commission; there are also letters from Dean to Rathbun in Series II. In the Series III, 12 letters are between Dean and William K. Gregory, paleontologist at the AMNH; much of the posthumous material is to and from Francesca LaMonte, assistant curator of ichthyology at the AMNH, concerning the planning and administration of the memorials to Dean. Three correspondents from Series II have a folder of material each: William [Bullock] Clark, Dr. Arnold Graf and [the Rev. Dr.] William Kepler. Other correspondents of interest with two or more letters in the collection include Tarleton Bean, Charles R. Eastman, David S. Jordan, Alfred G. Mayer and Charles H. Sternberg.