Recent Acquisition

As the Academy's archivist one of my primary responsibilities is to collect materials related to Academy history, the records of Academy departments, and the work of our scientists. We have approximately four hundred manuscript collections that contain materials like field notes, journals, diaries, photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, film, and even some collecting equipment. By collecting the working papers of our scientists we preserve them for use by current and future researchers.

One of our recent accessions came from Betsey Cutler's daughters. Betsey Cutler was a curatorial assistant in our Ornithology and Mammology department and her daughters brought in 35 mm slides, two notebooks of species accounts, several research folders, lab notes, card files, and field notes. Some of the donated items are research materials and notes from Betsey’s unpublished manuscript “The Syrinx of Darwin’s Finches”. According to Kathleen Berge from O&M, "Academy Research Associate Sylvia Hope is planning on adding recent related findings into the text and the literature". Some of the materials from this acquisition will help Sylvia update Betsey's manuscript.

Portrait of Betsey Cutler from the Academy photo department archive.

Sharon Beals has been photographing some of the nests in our Ornithology and Mammalogy department. Here is a wonderful photo of a Marsh Wren nest that Betsey Cutler collected.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetcitizen/3041552258/

©Sharon Beals

Marsh Wren

Cistothorus palustris

San Francisco, Lake Merced, 20 May 1962

North America, California, San Francisco County

CAS#10766

California Academy of Sciences

Collector: Betsey Cutler

Here is another photo by Sharon Beals of a bank swallow nest that Bestey Cutler collected.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetcitizen/2740335872/

©Sharon Beals

Bank Swallow Nest

nest collected from
Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

Collection of The California Academy of Sciences

Bank Swallow
Riparia riparia
North America, USA, California, San Francisco Co, San Francisco
Ocean Beach 06 June 1960
CAS 10751

-- Danielle Castronovo

Archives & Digital Collections Librarian