An archive of 49 offprints on the biology and classification of fishes

1896 - 1926. First editions.

1896 - 1926 COLLECTION OF 49 OFFPRINTS ON FISHES OF THE WORLD BY DAVID STARR JORDAN, FOUNDER OF AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY AND FIRST PRESIDENT OF STANFORD UNIVERISTY.

49 offprints 9 1/2 - 11 inches tall, in self or printed wrappers, some with notations on covers, several with age-toning and edgewear, text unmarked, very good. Covers bear the handstamp of Herman Adair Fehlmann or Ernest A. Cachner, both curators at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington. The collection is housed in an archival document box with metal reinforced corners. HEAVY ITEM WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL POSTAGE.

THE COLLECTION INCLUDES: 1) The history of ichthyology. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Washington, 1902; 2) A review of the giant mackerel-like fishes, tunnies, spearfishes and swordfishes. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco, September, 1926; 3) Notes on fishes, little known to science. Leland Stanford Jr. University, Palo Alto, 1896; 4) On a collection of fishes from Fiji, with notes on certain Hawaiian Fishes. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Washington, 1908; 5) On a collection of fishes made by Mr. Alan Owston in the deep waters of Japan. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Washington, 1904; 6) On the species of white chimaera from Japan. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Washington, 1904; 7) The trout and salmon of the Pacific coast. The Pacific Monthly, April, 1906 (entire issue); 8) A list of fishes collected in Japan by Keinosuke Otaki, and by the United States Steamer Albatross with descriptions of fourteen new species. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Washington,1900; 9) Notes on fishes of Hawaii, with descriptions of new species. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, October, 1907; 10)Fishes from islands of the Philippine Archipelago. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, December, 1908.

DAVID STARR JORDAN (1851 - 1931) was president of Indiana University and subsequently the founding president of Stanford University. Jordan arrived at Stanford in June 1891 and immediately set about recruiting faculty for the university's planned September opening. He served Stanford as president until 1913 and then chancellor until his retirement in 1916. While chancellor, he was also elected president of the National Education Association. Jordan was inspired to enter ichthyology by Louis Agassiz in the summer of 1873, at the Anderson School of Natural History on Penikese Island, Massachusetts. From 1876 he customarily spent each summer collecting, the earliest trips being largely along the rivers of the Allegheny Mountains and in much of the South. Later, for the U.S. Fish Commission he collected and presented taxonomic monographs on fishes of the Pacific coast, the Gulf coast, Florida, and Cuba, and the fish faunas of the major American rivers. While at Stanford, besides making many trips within California, Jordan visited Mazatlán, Mexico, the Bering Sea, Japan, Hawaii, Samoa, Alaska, and Europe. From 1908 to 1910 he served as the U.S. International Commissioner of Fisheries for the conservation of fisheries along the Canadian border. The result of Jordan's work was the naming of 1,085 genera and more than 2,500 species of fishes, as well as synopses of the classification. An uncanny ability to distinguish similar species, an unfailing intuition of diagnostic characters, and a phenomenal memory made Jordan an outstanding taxonomist. Why Fish Don't Exist, an interesting account of Jordan and his obsession with classification, was published by Lulu Miller in April 2020, and reviewed in Science (12 June 2020 - Vol 368, p 1197). COMPLETE LIST OF THE 49 OFFPRINTS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.