College and Research Libraries


By D O R O - J H Y M . H A L M O S 

The Hancock Library of Biology 
and Oceanography* 

Mrs. Halmos is librarian, the Hancock 
Library of Biology and Oceanography, 
Los Angeles. 

OC E A N O G R A P H I C A L R E S E A R C H began in fairly recent times and has developed 
a considerable body of literature only during 
the present century. T h e earliest studies 
depended upon logs kept by sailors, as in the 
book by M . F. Maury, 1855, entitled The 
Physical Geography of the Sea, to which 
title he later added the words and Its 
Meteorology. In fact, these early records 
were of value mainly in the field of meteor-
ology, although some attempts were made to 
explore currents, temperatures, and bottom 
contour and composition. But it was not 
until better instruments for recording and 
exploring the various phenomena had been 
invented, that oceanographical research 
could be put upon a systematic basis. 

M u c h of the information w e have about 
the ocean has come from the observations of 
scientific expeditions, especially those into 
polar regions, such as the voyages of the two 
Rosses, Sir John to the north, Sir James to 
the south. 1872 saw the start of one of the 
greatest purely scientific expeditions ever 
undertaken, that of the "Challenger," which 
added immeasureably to our knowledge of 
the ocean, by its accurate measurements and 
careful records. Other countries followed 
the example of Great Britain in sending out 
expeditions, such as that of the " G a z e l l e " of 
Germany, and the "Tuscarora," the 

* Presented at meeting of A C R L P u r e and Applied 
Sciences Section, L o s Angeles, J u n e 2'3, 1 9 5 3 . 

"Blake," and the "Albatross" of the United 
States. In 1902, at Stockholm, was 
founded the International Council for the 
Study of the Sea, which has been very 
influential in organizing and encouraging 
oceanographical research. Since that time, 
the volume of publication has increased 
tremendously in this field, and its character 
has changed also. 

D r . Dale F. Leipper, Head of the De-
partment of Oceanography of the Agri-
cultural and Mechanical College of Texas, 
in a recent article on "Oceanography and 
the Special Library," has given an inter-
esting discussion of oceanographical liter-
ature and the problems involved in trying to 
build up an adequate library in this field. 
He divides the study of oceanography into 
five aspects: the biological, the chemical, the 
geological, the physical, and the physical and 
meteorological. For each of these aspects, 
three groups of library materials are 
needed. For example, in biology, there are 
the materials which pertain to all plants and 
animals, terrestrial and marine; this portion 
of the library is by far the largest. Then 
there will be those works dealing with 
marine biology, that is, the plants and ani-
mals of the sea; and last, a comparatively 
small collection of works on the purely 
oceanographical aspect of biology, the study 
of plants and animals in the sea, involving 
considerations of currents, temperature, 
weather, chemistry of the water, and chem-
ical reactions, ocean bottom, and so forth. 
W h i l e this last group is small, it presents 
many problems in acquisition and recording, 

JANUARY, 1954 29 



classifiying and cataloging, because so much 
of it is in the form of mimeographed reports 
issued in limited numbers, which quickly go 
out of print and become unobtainable. A n 
oceanographical institution which is not 
located near a large scientific library must 
have in its own library not only the last and 
smallest group, but must also provide for 
the use of its research staff the basic works 
in the various fields involved in the study of 
the sea—biology, geology, geography, me-
teorology, chemistry, physics, and related 
fields. A n oceanographical library on or 
near a university campus has, then, a decided 
advantage in that it can draw on the univer-
sity library for much, if not all, of the basic 
material, and probably for some of the 
marine portion. T h e available funds and 
the time of the library staff can then be de-
voted to securing and caring for the purely 
oceanographical material. 

Another advantage in being part of a 
university campus comes from the possibility 
of close cooperation with the various colleges 
and departments of the university. T h i s is 
a two-way advantage, as the oceanographical 
library is available to university scientists 
who may wish to use the material there or 
who are working on special problems with 
the members of the oceanographic staff; and 
it offers to the oceanographical institution an 
opportunity to draw into its work qualified 
scientists from other fields, as well as to 
develop interest in oceanographical work 
among the graduate students of the uni-
versity. 

T h e Allan Hancock Foundation is an ex-
ample of such an institution so located. 
W e are able to depend upon the university 
library for much of the material we need, 
especially in the fields of physics, chemistry, 
biochemistry, and bacteriology. There is 
very close cooperation between the staff of 
the foundation and the faculty of the uni-
versity, with members of the staff offering 
courses in the university and faculty mem-

bers given space and facilities in the found-
ation for research; and Hancock research 
scholarships are available to graduate 
students in the university. 

T h e Hancock Foundation is still young, 
having been founded in 1938 by Captain 
Allan Hancock, our director. T h e fol-
lowing year, plans were begun for a building 
to house the institution, and this building 
was formally dedicated in January, 1941. 
T h e need for a library was recognized from 
the start, and by the time the building was 
dedicated, the foundation had acquired a 
library of more than a thousand volumes, 
including the reports of the Challenger and 
Siboga expeditions, the voyages of Albert 1, 
prince of M o n a c o , and d'Orbigny's voyage 
to South America. T h e library continued 
to grow, acquiring more reports of scientific 
expeditions, as well as important basic works 
such as those of Kiener, Reeve, Martini and 
Chemnitz, and Bleeker. By 1944, the 
library possessed over 3000 volumes, in-
cluding the reports of fifteen of the more im-
portant scientific voyages in the Pacific. 
T h u s early was started our special emphasis 
on the results of scientific expeditions. 

In 1944, Captain Hancock purchased for 
the foundation the foreign serials from the 
library of the Boston Society of Natural 
History, and in 1946 he purchased from the 
same society the greater part of its valuable 
collection of books and American serials. 
T h u s in the space of about two years, the li-
brary grew from a collection of 3000 vol-
umes to one of 75,000 volumes and 100,000 
reprints and pamphlets. Since then the 
Hancock Library has been adding to its 
holdings, both by purchase and exchange, so 
that we n o w have a collection of over 
85,000 volumes and approximately 125,000 
reprints and pamphlets. 

In order to explain just how valuable and 
extensive a library the foundation has been 
able to acquire through the generosity of 
Captain Hancock, I should like to take a 

30 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



few minutes to tell you something about the 
library of the Boston Society of Natural 
History, which was the second oldest natural 
history library in this country. 

T h e Boston Society of Natural History 
was organized as a result of a "meeting of 
gentlemen favorable to the formation of a 
Society for the study of Natural History, 
held at D r . Channing's Rooms on the 
evening of the 9th of Feby 1830." 
A m o n g the charter members of the society 
were such men as Amos Binney, W a l t e r 
Channing, Simon E. Greene, Gamaliel 
Bradford, Henry Godman, Benjamin D . 
Greene, Martin Gay, A . A . Gould, and D . 
Humphreys Storer. T h e need for a library 
was recognized from the beginning, and 
among the first officers chosen on M a y 13, 
1830, was a librarian; and in January, 1831, 
a library committee was appointed to receive 
donations for the library. A t the annual 
meeting of M a y 4th, 1831, the first dona-
tions to the library were announced—thirty 
books and two pamphlets. 

In 1834, the first number of the society's 
Journal appeared. A n exchange list was at 
once established with other scientific institu-
tions increasing until there were over five 
hundred names on the list. T h u s the 
Journal and later publications were im-
portant factors in the steady growth of the 
library. T h e second chief source of books 
was the generous gifts of members and 
friends, who from time to time made val-
uable donations or bequeathed their private 
libraries to the society. There are records 
of many such, as in 1845 a gift of fifty 
volumes from D r . Francis Boott, of 
L o n d o n ; the bequest, in 1855, of the library 
of James Brown, of the publishing firm of 
Little, Brown, who left to the society his 
splendid collection of expensive works in 
ornithology; the fine library of Amos 
Binney, at one time president of the society, 
was donated by his w i d o w ; and in 1863 
came similarly the large botanical library of 

Benjamin D . Greene, comprising over 1500 
volumes. W h e n , in 1864, Samuel H . 
Scudder became librarian, he devoted great 
energy to increasing the number of ex-
changes and did much to perfect the series of 
publications thus received. A t his death, 
he left his wonderful private library of 
entomological literature to the society, thus 
putting it in the high place in this field 
which it held. In 1836, a group of eleven 
members and friends subscribed to Audu-
bon's Birds of America for the library. 
W h e n , in 1840, Colonel Thomas H . Per-
kins presented to the society another copy 
which, in the words of the secretary, "was 
an early impression and is probably unsur-
passed by any in the country," the first set 
was sold and the money used to buy other 
important works in ornithology. In 1843, 
ten members subscribed to Audubon's Quad-
rupeds for the library, and in 1932 D r . 
Henry Jackson gave a nearly complete set 
of Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds of 
North America, in the original covers. In 
1854, the H o n . Francis C. Gray presented 
to the library a beautifully bound set of 
the Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes, by 
Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier. This 
tradition was maintained and the library 
was continually enriched by gifts, until in 
M a y , 1936, the librarian reported: 

I doubt whether many of our members or 
outsiders realize the tremendous value of 
our library. W e hardly did ourselves until 
we began getting out our treasures for re-
pairs. . . . W e are especially strong in 
old sets of books and serials, and few li-
braries in the country can even equal us 
in this respect. . . . A library like this can 
rightly hope to enlist the support of anti-
quarians and bibliophiles as well as that of 
naturalists. 

In the book, The Boston Society of Natu-
ral History, 1830-1930, is the following 
description of the library: 

The Library is devoted to Natural His-
tory in its wider sense and contains many 

JANUARY, 1954 31 



sets or single volumes, notable for their 
rarity, value, or beauty. Among the last 
are the beautiful sets of original elephant-
folio plates of Audubon's Birds of America 
and the Quadrupeds. Hardly less elegant 
are the complete works of Gould, including 
sumptuously bound monographs on various 
groups of brilliantly colored birds, such as 
the humming birds and the toucans, il-
lustrated by magnificent colored plates in 
folio size. There is also a copy of the 
rarer volume on the Odontophorinae or 
quails, and a set of the Birds of Australia. 
The earlier classic works of Wilson and 
Catesby, the former on birds, the latter on 
plants and animals of the Carolinas, are 
also represented. Several volumes of 
colored figures by Abbot, illustrate the birds 
and insects of Georgia, and are exceedingly 
rare if not almost unique. Other older 
works include beautifully illustrated vol-
umes on shells, such as the series of Reeve's 
Concliologia Iconica and Conchyliorum Cabi-
net of Martini and Chemnitz. More mod-
ern works of great beauty and value are 
the series of volumes of the Biologia Cen-
trali-Americana, the Flora of Brazil, Sar-
gent's Sylvia, and others too numerous to 
name in a brief paragraph. Then there are 
many sets of the transactions of learned 
societies, some of wThose publications extend 
back for a century or more. Special efforts 
have been made to complete the more valu-
able of these, so that some at least are more 
nearly perfect than are to be found else-
where in the vicinity. Others are less an-
cient but rare in this neighborhood, such as 
the fine series of illustrated volumes of the 
Bombay Society of Natural History. Nu-
merous old works of a bygone day are repre-
sented, whose value lies in their quaintness 
or other historic importance as source books, 
or records of the beginnings of a more exact 
knowledge of Natural History. Among 
these are the great volumes of Gesner's 
Natural History, written in Latin and 
Greek, with quotations from the writers 
of antiquity concerning the animals known 
in a past century, for it dates from 1555; 
while a second work of the same date and 
of equal importance is the volume on birds 
by the French savant, Belonius, almost the 
first treatise on this group of animals. 

There are numerous works on insects that 
are equally valuable through their rarity 
and historic association. Examples are the 
little book by Bilberg on the insects of 
Scandinavia, and one by the German, 
Hiibner, on butterflies, while another al-
most unique copy in this part of the world 
is Koch's series of hand-colored plates and 
text issued on separate sheets of small size, 
monographing the mites and allied types, 
nearly a century ago. Several of the rare 
works of Peter Pallas, an illustrious pupil 
of the great Linnaeus, are here also, and 
include the results of his early investigations 
in the Natural History of Siberia and 
northern Asia. 

W e are adding to our library both by 
purchase and by exchange. T h e Hancock 
Library now has about three hundred and 
fifty exchanges in more than fifty countries, 
and new ones are being arranged as we can 
find time. W e are trying to complete 
broken sets, and to add those titles in our 
own special field which were lacking in the 
Boston Society library. A s the work of 
the Allan Hancock Foundation is primarily 
in marine biology and oceanography, we are 
concentrating on building up the titles in 
these fields, and the library of the Univer-
sity of Southern California is assuming 
much of the responsibility for continuing 
and completing sets in the other fields cov-
ered by the collection. T h e two libraries 
together thus offer a wealth of material 
to the research scholar in any field of the 
natural sciences. 

However, we can still say with a former 
librarian of the Boston Society of Natural 
History: 

What a convenience it would be if it were 
possible for an investigator to go to a single 
library and there find all the journals, books 
and transactions of learned societies that 
have ever been published, dealing with even 
this one branch of science. Such an ideal, 
however, seems infinitely far from realiza-
tion ! 

32 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES