Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution records
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains chiefly correspondence, along with reports, minutes of meetings, and financial records related to the establishment, development, and operation of the Desert Laboratory and Coastal Laboratory under directors Daniel T. MacDougal and Forrest Shreve. Correspondents include Carnegie Institution officials, the Smithsonian Institution, laboratory staff members Godfrey Sykes and Herman A. Spoehr, Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, William Boyce Thompson, Andrew E. Douglass, and Mary Austin, as well as societies, herbariums, and universities around the world. Additional correspondence relates to equipment, scientific societies, plant exchanges and collecting, the University of Arizona, and personal material of both Shreve and MacDougal.
Dates
- Creation: 1903-1985
Restrictions
There are no restrictions on this collection.
Copyright
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the University of Arizona, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.
Historical Note
The Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution was established by Volney M. Spaulding and William A. Cannon at Tumamoc Hill, Tucson, Arizona, in 1903. It was sold to the U.S. Forest Service in 1940, and later to the University of Arizona in 1960. The purpose of the laboratory was to research the of adaptation of desert plants to their environment. The Laboratory was directed by D.T. MacDougal from 1906 to 1918, then by Forrest Shreve from 1929 to 1938.
By 1920, a related institution, the Coastal Laboratory was established in Carmel, California with MacDougal as director.
Extent
4 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection contains chiefly correspondence, along with reports, minutes of meetings, and financial records related to the establishment, development, and operation of the Desert Laboratory and Coastal Laboratory under directors Daniel T. MacDougal and Forrest Shreve.
Organization
This collection is organized into seven series:
- Series I: Carnegie Institution Officials Records and Correspondence, 1903-1938
- Series II: Desert Laboratory Records and Correspondence, 1905-1937
- Series III: Coastal Laboratory Correspondence, 1910-1938
- Series IV: General Records and Correspondence, 1905-1938
- Series V: D. T. MacDougal Personal Papers, 1908-1935
- Series VI: Forrest Shreve Personal Papers, 1916-1937
- Series VII: Desert Botanical Laboratory Plot Records, 1906-1985
Separated Material
Slides received with the collection were removed and cataloged separately.
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Botanical laboratories -- Arizona -- Tucson -- History -- Sources
- Botanical laboratories -- California -- Carmel -- History -- Sources
- Botanists -- Correspondence
- Desert ecology -- Arizona
- Desert ecology -- Sonoran Desert
- Desert plants -- Arizona
- Desert plants -- Arizona -- Sonoran Desert
- Plant ecologists -- Correspondence
- Plant ecology -- Arizona
- Title
- Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution records
- Status
- Complete
- Author
- Inventory prepared by Phyllis Ball.
- Date
- 2001
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- 2017-06-19: This finding aid was updated in alignment with LC EAD 2.0 specifications using a python script created by Erik Radio.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Arizona Special Collections Repository