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New York Zoological Park. Office of Director. W. Reid Blair collection of records from Matameck Conference on Biological Cycles

 Fonds
Identifier: 1014

Scope and Content

This collection includes material collected by W. Reid Blair and related to the 1931 Matameck Conference on Biological Cycles (also known as the Canadian Biological Conference). Among its contents are program notes by W. Reid Blair, news clippings, conference memorabilia, and incoming correspondence from Copely Amory, host of the Matameck Conference. Also included in the collection are typed manuscripts of reports by the influential ecologist Charles Elton as well as notes on biology, as extracted by Charles and Rose Elton, Mary Nicholson, and Phoebe Ashburner.

Dates

  • 1931 - 1935

Creator

Access Restrictions

Please contact the WCS Archives regarding possible access restrictions.

Usage Restrictions

Please contact the WCS Archives regarding possible usage restrictions.

Historical Note

In 1931, thirty naturalists gathered at the Matameck Factory, Copley Amory's manor on Moisie Bay, near the Labrador boundary for the Matameck Conference on Biological Cycles (also known as the Canadian Biological Conference). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and attempt to define the natural laws that govern the alternating plenitude and scarcity of Canadian wildlife.

New York Zoological Society President Madison Grant delegated the directors of the Zoological Park and Aquarium, W. Reid Blair and Charles H. Townsend, to represent NYZS at the conference. As a result of the conference, NYZS extended a three-year grant to Charles Elton, Director of the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford University, which enabled him to study the records in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives and to trace recurrent cycles of abundance and scarcity among the snowshoe rabbit, lynx, and other furbearing wildlife in the MacKenzie River District and Labrador.

Extent

0.4 Linear Feet (1 Hollinger box)

0.47 Cubic Feet (1 flat box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection includes notes, clippings, memorabilia, and correspondence collected by W. Reid Blair and related to the 1931 Matameck Conference on Biological Cycles (also known as the Canadian Biological Conference). Also included in the collection are typed manuscripts of reports by the influential ecologist Charles Elton.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in two series:

Series 1
Matameck Conference records
Series 2
Charles Elton records

Acquisition Information

Internal transfer.

Title
Guide to the Records of the Matameck Conference on Biological Cycles Collected by W. Reid Blair, 1931-1935
Status
Published
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Wildlife Conservation Society Archives Repository

Contact:
WCS Library/Archives
2300 Southern Blvd
Bronx New York 10460 United States