Andrew Grebneff wrote,
> My friend Jeffrey D Stilwell, now a paleontologist but then a student,
says he was (visiting) at Princeton at the time; they actually invited the
general public in to take specimens away. He couldn't believe it. He snagged
quite a bit...

I wouldn't have believed it either, except for having heard of several
similar cases already.

For example, the faculty did nothing to move the geology department's
library at the Colorado School of Mines when the building was renovated, and
so the construction crew quite rightly tossed it into the trash on the
appointed day. "Anything left in the building after this date will be thrown
away" was clearly announced and understood by all for weeks in advance. The
disbelieving students and the museum assistant rescued some of the more
valuable books and maps from a full dumpster. They even sent me a few,
knowing that I would appreciate them.

A similar event occurred at the University of Alabama when Smith Hall was
renovated.

A former State Geologist of Alabama decided that the Survey needed more
room, and had a hundred years' worth of correspondence (essentially a record
of the industrial development of the state, carefully maintained at least
from 1871 to 1961) discarded. Incidentally, Alabama law stipulates that such
records be offered to the State Archives first. A maintenance man saved some
of the antique envelopes for their postage stamps, but the letters are gone.

The Geological Survey of Canada responded to a wartime paper drive by
donating the correspondence files. At least this paper was put to good use.

And an oil company that suddenly went bankrupt in Colorado discarded its
library, filling two dumpsters. The person who told me this said that little
was salvageable, as the books had been covered with wet snow for some time
when he arrived.

So, as I mentioned before, the worst threat to North American collections
during the twentieth century was not war, but neglect. University
collections have been particularly at risk as taxonomists become fewer. A
geochemist cannot be expected to spend much time worrying about the fate of
an orphaned paleontologic collection.

As to Princeton, your revelation might explain why all of B. F. Howell's
most photogenic specimens of Skolithos linearis are missing today,
complicating the redescription of this ichnospecies -- the first trace
fossil to be named in North America, and one of the most common, especially
in Cambrian rocks. I had already guessed that they were on exhibit during
the transfer, because such specimens are prone to being lost, or to losing
their data. But I hadn't imagined this.

Can you please send me his email address (privately) so I can follow this
lead further?

Thanks,
Andy

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------