Introduction

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.

Descriptive Entry

The papers of Isaac Ginsburg chiefly document his career with the Bureau of Fisheries from 1922 to 1956. There is extensive correspondence concerning the fishes of the Gulf coast, ichthyological nomenclature, and Ginsburg's war work, as well as Bureau of Fisheries affairs. The collection also contains materials concerning Bureau investigations that were probably sent to Ginsburg in connection with his research. This material includes notes and logs of William W. Welsh and Samuel Frederick Hildebrand on their investigations in New England and the Gulf of Mexico and photographs, probably of Hildebrand's work in Central America and the southern United States.

Correspondents include Elbert H. Ahlstrom, Allan Hancock Foundation, American Museum of Natural History, American Society of Ichthyologists And Herpetologists, William W. Anderson, Edgar L. Arnold, Jr., Richard H. Backus, Edward W. Bailey, Reeve M. Bailey, Thomas Barbour, John Lafferty Baugham, Barton A. Bean, Henry M. Bearse, Elinor Helene Behre, Henry Bryant Bigelow, Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, James Erwin Bohlke, Alva Esmond Brandt, Charles Marcus Breder, Jr., William Bridges, Vernon E. Brock, E. Milby Burton, Louella E. Cable, David Keller Caldwell, Leonard Carmichael, Chicago Natural History Museum, Eugene Clark, Robert Ervin Coker, Edwin Grant Conklin, Edwin H. Dahlgren, Myvanwy M. Dick, Forrest V. Durand, Howard H. Eckles, Theodore Engelbach, William E. Fahy, Wilbur Irving Follett, Henry Weed Fowler, Isaac Ginsburg, William A. Gosline, James Nelson Gowanloch, Clifford C. Gregg, Gordon Gunter, William J. Hargis, Jr., Robert R. Harry, Edward Sturtevant Hathaway, Earl S. Herald, Albert W. Herre, Elmer Higgins, Henry H. Hildebrand, Samuel Frederick Hildebrand, Carl Leavitt Hubbs, Clark Hubbs, Theodor Just, Robert H. Kanazawa, A. Remington Kellogg, Joseph E. King, Milton Jerome Lindner, Irene McCulloch, Donald L. McKernan, John C. Marr, Ernst Mayr, Giles W. Mead, Daniel Merriman, Robert C. Miller, Robert Rush Miller, James E. Morrow, Museum of Comparative Zoology, George Sprague Myers, Robert A. Nesbit, Morris Graham Netting, New York Zoological Society, James B. Nichols, John Treadwell Nichols, J. R. Norman, Yngve H. Olsen, Albert Eide Parr, Raymond Pearl, John C. Pearson, Max Poll, Edward C. Raney, George K. Reid, Jr., Luis Rene Rivas, Luis Howell Rivero, C. Richard Robins, William F. Royce, Leslie W. Scattergood, Karl Patterson Schmidt, Waldo LaSalle Schmitt, William C. Schroeder, Leonard Peter Schultz, Hurst Hugh Shoemaker, F. G. Walton Smith, Society of Systematic Zoology, Stewart Springer, Victor G. Springer, H. Steinitz, Frank Stick, Royal Dallas Suttkus, John Tee-Van, Texas Academy of Science, Paul E. Thompson, Lionel A. Walford, Alfred C. Weed, William W. Welsh, John W. Winn, Loren P. Woods, Joe Young, Woodhull B. Young.

Historical Note

Isaac Ginsburg (1886-1975) was born in Lithuania and came to the United States as a boy. He studied ichthyology at Cornell University and after graduating, spent a short time as an aid in the Division of Fishes, United States National Museum, in 1917. In 1922, he received an appointment with the Bureau of Fisheries and worked there until his retirement in 1956.

Ginsburg's chief scientific interest was the marine fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Though at one time he intended to prepare a large work on the shore fishes of the Gulf, necessary revisionary work on those groups took up most of his time. In addition, he worked on the problem of species and their subdivisions. Other duties at the Bureau of Fisheries included handling of the correspondence concerning marine fishes and war work in connection with the coordination of fisheries in 1943-1944.