Conway, William, 1971 - 1973

This series consists of three overlapping subseries. The first two are particularly closely linked, with the main difference between them being that the first, “Staff correspondence, 1970-1977”, is arranged chronologically by year, while the second, “Departmental correspondence, 1971-1976 (bulk 1971-1973)”, is arranged alphabetically by staff member or department name. Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be much distinction between the two runs of files, and documents on a particular topic or from a particular staff member may equally appear in one or the other set of files; researchers are advised to check both. Both of these subseries—along with the third, “Subject files, 1966-1999 (bulk 1970-1976)”—contain memos and other correspondence, reports, announcements, factsheets, position statements, and similar documents pertaining to the day-to-day administration of the New York Aquarium [NYA] during Oliver’s tenure as Director.

Topics of note include the relation of the Aquarium to its parent organization, the New York Zoological Society, the Aquarium’s Curatorial, Education, Graphics, and Maintenance Departments, and the ongoing efforts to build a Whale and Dolphin Arena at the Aquarium. (As reflected in the dates of those particular files, planning for the arena started during the era of Oliver’s predecessor, Paul Montreuil, and was continued by his successor, George D. Ruggieri.) Most of the correspondence in the series is between Oliver and Aquarium staff, but there is also a significant amount of correspondence between Oliver and New York Zoological Society staff, and correspondence among Aquarium staff which Oliver was copied on. Notable NYA staff members represented include Animal Curators H. Doug Kemper, Stephen Spotte, and William Flynn; Executive Assistant Debbie Fisher; Education Curator Karen Hensel; Graphic Designer Elie Aliman; and Maintenance Supervisors Lars Melkvist, Richard Manhart, and Frank Domon.