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Smithsonian Institution Archives
Records, 1947-1975
Summary
- Collection ID:
- SIA.FARU7226
- Creators:
-
Society of Systematic Zoology
- Dates:
-
1947-1975
- Languages:
-
English
- Physical Description:
-
26 cu. ft. (11 record storage boxes) (30 document boxes)
- Repository:
-
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Descriptive Entry
Descriptive Entry
These records include membership files, administrative files, reports, fiscal records, records related to the Journal of Systematic Zoology and copies of other SSZ publications, records related to the annual meetings, the Pacific Section of SSZ records, files on scientific societies, and the records of the Summer Institute in Systematics.
Historical Note
Historical Note
The Society of Systematic Zoology (SSZ) was organized at the Chicago meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1947. Prior to the meeting, Waldo LaSalle Schmitt and George W. Wharton, Jr., had polled taxonomists about the founding of a systematics society; and the result was an organizational meeting on December 29, 1949. The first annual meeting of the SSZ was held in Washington in September 1948. Schmitt became its first president and Wharton its first secretary-treasurer. The government of the Society was vested in a council, with officers elected from nominees named by the Council. Original Council members were Orlando Park and Richard Eliot Blackwelder. A president ad president-elect were elected to one-year terms.
A News Letter for the SSZ was first published in 1949 under the direction of Hobart Muir Smith, chairman of the Publications Committee. In 1952 the Journal of Systematic Zoology was founded under the auspices of Richard Eliot Blackwelder. It gradually supplanted the News Letter which was discontinued in 1964. The quarterly Journal was considered the most important project of the SSZ; it was devoted to theoretical and philosophical considerations in systematics rather than the naming of new taxa.
Other projects of the Society have included the continuing publication of "List of Books on Zoology," and a Directory of Zoological Taxonomists.
Administration
Author
Finding aid prepared by Smithsonian Institution Archives
Using the Collection
Prefered Citation
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7226, Society of Systematic Zoology, Records
More Information
Notes
Non-SI Records
Keywords
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Washington, D.C.
Contact us at osiaref@si.edu