Letter to Trevor Kincaid, Professor of Biology at the University of Washington, from William H. Dall of the Smithsonian Institution, regarding Kincaid's collection of Pacific Northwest and Alaskan shells, January 31, 2005

Dall, of the Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum, writes that he has received a collection of Puget Sound shells from Kincaid. Dall inquires as to if Kincaid wishes to name the items and if he would like them to stay at the museum. Dall says he is working on a book about shells of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dall, William Healy, 1945-1927
Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division.
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:unknown
Subjects:
Online Access:http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/pioneerlife/id/8114
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Summary:Dall, of the Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum, writes that he has received a collection of Puget Sound shells from Kincaid. Dall inquires as to if Kincaid wishes to name the items and if he would like them to stay at the museum. Dall says he is working on a book about shells of the coast from the Arctic to Monterey. William Healey Dall was a great American naturalist, a prominent malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacific Northwest of America. He would become America's preeminent authority on living and fossil mollusks. He also made substantial contributions to ornithology, vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, physical and cultural anthropology, oceanography and paleontology; and performed meteorological observations in Alaska for the Smithsonian Institution. He was Vice-president of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) (1882, 1885), a founder of the National Geographic Society, and the Philosophical Society of Washington. In 1897 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His eminence also earned him several honorary degrees. Trevor Kincaid received his Bachelor's degree from the UW in 1899 and his M.A. degree from Harvard in 1901. Shortly thereafter, the UW established individual departments for zoology and botany, and Kincaid joined the faculty as a professor of zoology. Over the years, Kincaid discovered many new species and played a key role in the development of local natural resources. A history of the UW zoology department prepared by Melville Hatch in 1936 lists some 47 plants and animals named after Kincaid. Insects were Kincaid's early passion. "He served with such success as entomologist on the Harriman Alaska Expedition in 1899 that he was selected in 1908 and 1909 by L. O. Howard, chief of the Bureau of Entomology, to make trips to Japan and southwestern Russia for parasites of the gipsy-moth," writes Hatch. "The chalcid fly, Schedius kuvanae Howard, which was introduced from Japan as a result of Kincaid's investigation, has proven one of the most valuable parasitic enemies of the gipsy-moth so far established in America," he records. In 1854, Territorial Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens suggested that a university for Washington Territory be established. The school officially opened on November 4, 1861 with 30 students. In 1862, the Washington Territorial Legislature incorporated the school and appointed a Board of Regents. Throughout its early years, the university consisted not only of college curricula but also preparatory school curricula. The school faced constant changes in administration, enrollment and financial support in its first twenty years, often closing due to lack of students or funds. By the 1890s, the school had grown by leaps and bounds and had outgrown the size of its original campus. A graduate of the school and later professor, Edmond Meany, served as head of a committee to choose a new site for the university off of Union Bay, further north and east of its current site. In 1895, the school formally moved to this new campus. In 1902 the school consisted of approximately 600 students, and by 1913 the number had increased to roughly 3,340 students. From 1915 to 1926, Henry Suzzallo served as the University's president and the school underwent massive changes in new building construction.