New York Aquarium. Office of Director. James A. Oliver records

During the course of his career James A. Oliver held various positions at some of New York City’s most prominent science museums, specifically at the American Museum of Natural History and at the New York Zoological Society [NYZS]’s Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium.

In June 1970, after a celebrated career at the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Zoological Park (better known as the Bronx Zoo), Oliver came back to NYZS, this time as Director of the New York Aquarium. During his tenure at the Aquarium, which lasted until he retired on doctor’s orders in May 1976, Oliver oversaw the institution’s day-to-day management. Oliver shepherded the Aquarium through an era of increasingly limited resources as NYZS felt progressively more pressured by New York City’s changing demographics and famously dire financial straits.

Meanwhile, Oliver held leadership positions in several city, national, and international cultural and scientific organizations. He helped found and was a long-time member of the Board of Directors of both the Caribbean Conservation Corporation and the Bahamas National Trust, and was a Council member and committee chair of the American Association of Museums, President of BIOSIS (the Biosciences Information Service of Biological Abstracts), a founding member of New York City’s Cultural Institutions Group, on the Council of the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association, Vice-Chairman of the American Committee for International Wild Life Protection, and more.

After his retirement Oliver was succeeded in the Directorship by George D. Ruggieri, SJ, who had previously been the Aquarium’s Assistant Director as well as Director of its Osborn Laboratories of Marine Sciences. Oliver was named Director Emeritus of both the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Zoological Society, and continued his activities with the Bahamas National Trust and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation until his death in 1981.

For more information on Oliver’s early career, including a career chronology, see the finding aid for collection 2027: New York Zoological Park Director and Herpetology Curator James A. Oliver records, circa 1926-1959 (bulk 1938-1959). Further information on Oliver—including a bibliography of his writings, a list of species named after him, and additional achievements—can be found in his Wikipedia biography and in his New York Times obituary. For more information on the history of the Aquarium, including chronologies of its Directors and Curators, see the finding aids for Collection 3001: New York Aquarium records, circa 1900-1998 (bulk 1960-1990), and Collection 3054: New York Aquarium Senior Staff records, 1955-1979 (bulk 1964-1979).