Record

Ref NoDF/ZOO/232
Alt Ref NoDF232
TitleMammals Section Correspondence
DescriptionThis series consists of the correspondence of Mammal Section curators and the general correspondence for the section.
Includes the correspondence of Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (1858-1929). Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas was Curator of Mammals from 1879 until his retirement in 1923. Letters deal with the acquisition, loan and exchange of specimens, enquiries from both professional and amateur mammalogists, and letters concerned with Thomas' taxonomic researches. Many of the letters are from explorers and big-game hunters, some of whom were financed out of Thomas' own pocket.
Date1886-1941
AccessStatusOpen
Related MaterialThere are microfilms of DF232/1-22. Correspondence of subsequent heads of the Mammal Section are held in the Section archive room. Many letters from Thomas are held in DF200, and his mammal notebooks are held in Zoology Library manuscripts.
Held ByNHM Archives
LevelSeries
AdminHistoryOldfield Thomas grew up in South Africa, returning to England for schooling at Haileybury. He secured a clerkship in the Secretaries office at the British Museum in 1876, and transferred to the Zoology Department as an Assistant in 1878. After a short period working with the invertebrates, he was given charge of the mammal collection. In 1895 his post became part of the Vertebrate Section of the Department, under R Bowdler Sharpe, and in 1922 the Mammal Section was set up. Thomas continued to work regularly at the Museum until shortly before his death in 1929.

Show related Persons records.

Persons
CodePersonNameDates
PX1925Thomas; Michael Rogers Oldfield (1858-1929); Curator of Mammals, British Museum (Natural History)1858-1929
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