Materials about the Aquarium, circa 1900

The collection consists of records from the New York Aquarium and the Osborn Laboratories of Marine Sciences. The Aquarium material consists of Directors’ files, departmental files, and exhibit records. The Directors’ files consist primarily of subject files kept by Directors Christopher W. Coates, Paul L. Montreuil, and Ross F. Nigrelli, and document the construction, opening, and initial operation of the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, as well as its ongoing operation and expansion. The departmental records were for the most part created by the Aquarium’s animal curators and its Education Department. Major subjects include the Aquarium’s volunteer/docent program, its educational programs, the duties of Aquarium tank-men, the animal collection, and relations between Aquarium staff and their colleagues at the New York Zoological Society. The Aquarium’s exhibit records document the planning, design, construction, and appearance of the Aquarium’s animal facilities. The series is arranged roughly chronologically, starting with Charles Townsend’s labels from the original Battery Park Aquarium and continuing through the Sea Cliffs exhibit that opened in the early 1990s. The OLMS material includes correspondence, administrative records, and topical files from OLMS Directors Ross F. Nigrelli and George D. Ruggieri. The records document the planning, funding, and construction of the laboratories at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, the scientists who worked there, and their research interests and activities. The collection also includes personnel files with additional material pertaining to the research interests of and grants pursued by OLMS and Aquarium personnel, materials from NYZS trustee and Aquarium supporter Nixon Griffis, and a scrapbook of clippings concerning the New York Aquarium from around 1900.