History

The fish collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University is an International Ichthyological Resource Center in North America (see Copeia, 1976:625-642 and 1995:48-70). Since the 1976 review, the number of specimens in the MCZ collection has quadrupled, the quality greatly improved, and the accessibility significantly enhanced, resulting in a great increase in loans, visitors, exchanges and accessions. The present size of the collection (in May of 2007) is 167,801 lots conservatively estimated at 1.3 million specimens, with at least 3,000 lots of putative types.

Currently all of the MCZ fish holdings) are in a MUSE database that can be accessed over the World Wide Web.

MCZ is an old collection with some material dating back to 1790. The actual museum was founded in 1859 by Louis Agassiz. Many of the types date back to the "Agassiz Period" (1859-1874) when fishes were sent from all over the world by hundreds of individuals and from two major expeditions, i.e. the Thayer Expedition to Brazil and the Hassler Expedition that circumnavigated South America. Other important accessions involving type material gathered during the Agassiz Period include: Nicholas Pike fishes from Mauritius; Andrew Garrett fishes from the South Pacific; types of Eastern European and Central Asian fishes from the Imperial Museum of St. Petersburg; almost all of Felipe Poey's types of Cuban Fishes; Indian freshwater fishes from Rev. M.M. Carleton and Sir Francis Day; and representatives of Klunzinger's fishes from the Red Sea.

In the subsequent period which can be designated as the "Garman Period" (1874-1928), an extensive program of exchanges was established with the emphasis on the acquisition of type specimens and fishes not represented in the collection. Important accessions of this period include: world-wide elasmobranchs; deep-sea fishes from the steamers BLAKE and ALBATROSS; fishes from Lake Titicaca (Garman and Agassiz); types of Chinese fishes from the Lyons Museum; selected material from the "Talisman" and "Travailleur" expeditions; and Eigenmann's British Guiana fishes, including many types. Other addition from this period are fishes from Japan (S. Tanaka), East Africa (Loveridge) and Central China (J.E. Thayer).

After the Garman Period and until 1974, the fish collection underwent selective and limited growth. The more important additions during this period include: East African freshwater fishes (Loveridge); Cameroonian freshwater fishes (Schwab); deep-sea fishes from the western North Atlantic (Iselin) and from off Cuba (Harvard-Havana Expedition); Great Barrier Reef fishes (Barton); Gulf of Mexico Fishes (OREGON); Atlantic Slope fishes (W.C. Schroeder); Panamanian Marine Fishes (Mead and Rubinoff); Indian Ocean and eastern South Pacific mid-water fishes (RV ANTON BRUUN Cr. 3, 6 & 13); freshwater fishes from Brazil and Ecuador (Roberts); freshwater fishes from west and central Africa (Roberts); freshwater fishes of Thailand (Roberts); freshwater fishes of Zaire (Roberts and Stewart); and fishes from Lake Tanganyika (Stewart) and Lake Malawi (Eccles).

Since 1974, New England freshwater fishes (Hartel & EMAP Program), shelf and slope fishes from off New England (Hartel, WHOI, & NMFS), and Arabian sea fishes (R/V Malcom Baldridge , Hartel) were been added. The most important accession during this period was the transfer of the meso-pelagic material from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution which more than doubled the size of the MCZ collection. Under the direction of Dr. K.F. Liem and the efforts of K.E. Hartel, the number of specimens in the MCZ fish collection more than quadrupled in size between 1973 and 2007.

For more information contact: Karsten E. Hartel