Details - Waldo L. Schmitt Papers : diary, Galapagos Islands, June-July 1942 [transcript]

Waldo L. Schmitt Papers : diary, Galapagos Islands, June-July 1942 [transcript]

Title

Waldo L. Schmitt Papers : diary, Galapagos Islands, June-July 1942 [transcript]

Related Titles

Contained In: Waldo L. Schmitt papers, 1924-1927, 1930-1932, 1937, 1941-1942, 1961-1963

Series: SIA Acc. 17-104

Series: Smithsonian Field Book Project : an initiative to improve access to field book content that documents natural history

By

Schmitt, Waldo L. (Waldo Lasalle), 1887-1977

Type

Book

Material

Archival material

Publication info

1942

Notes

This diary is part of a collection of Waldo L. Schmitt papers. Schmitt was a carcinologist. During the summers of 1924 and 1925, Schmitt was at the Carnegie Institution's Marine Laboratory at Tortugas, Florida, surveying the crustacean fauna of the area, identifying crustaceans found in the stomachs of fishes, and taking underwater photographs. In 1925, Schmitt was awarded the Smithsonian's Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship "for the study of the fauna of countries other than the United States." The scholarship enabled him to collect marine invertebrates along the coasts of South America from 1925 to 1927. He also participated in field work at Tortugas during the summers of 1930, 1931, and 1932. As a guest of G. Huntington Hartford, he explored and collected in the West Indies on the Smithsonian-Hartford West Indies Expedition of 1937. During 1941 and 1942, Schmitt spent time on special detail with the United States Navy investigating the possibility of establishing a biological station in the Galapagos Islands. The diary, a printed transcript of the original, includes notes related to a trip to the Galapagos Islands made in 1942 on tuna boats. The diary starts on June 8, 1942 and ends on July 3, 1942. The notes tell of the general traveling conditions and do not include any list of collected specimens.