A Guide to the Daniel Merriman Papers, 1971-1978
Manuscript Collection MC-14
1 box (.25 lin. ft.)
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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution A Guide to the Daniel Merriman Papers, 1971-1978 Manuscript Collection MC-14 1 box (.25 lin. ft.) |
Daniel Merriman was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1908, the son of Professor Roger Bigelow Merriman, a Professor of History at Harvard. He received his B.S. from the University of Washington, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He was employed variously by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, the Portland Trawling Company, and from 1930-1932 at WHOI, and was an Aquatic Biologist in charge of the striped bass investigation for the Connecticut State Board of Fish and Game from 1936-1938. Dr. Merriman began as an Instructor in Biology at Yale in 1938, became Assistant Professor in 1942 and Associate Professor in 1946. He served as Director of the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory at Yale from 1942-1966, from 1953-1956 he was Commissioner of the Connecticut State Board of Fisheries and Game, and from 1946-1966 he was Master of Davenport College at Yale. He also served as a Research Associate for the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Biology, American Museum of Natural History in New York from 1945 to 1962. He served as a Trustee of the Bermuda Biological Laboratory from 1944, was a member of the editorial board of Limnology and Oceanography since 1963 and of Fishes of the Western North Atlantic since 1961. In 1953 he headed an expedition to the South Pacific to study el Nino and it was one of the first expeditions to study the phenomenon while in progress. He was a prolific writer and throughout his career contributed numerous articles to scientific journals.
In 1980 on the occasion of the Institution's 50th Anniversary, he chaired the Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography held in Woods Hole. Together with Dr. Mary Sears, he edited an 812 page volume on oceanography containing sixty-nine papers on the history of oceanography from nineteen countries.
He served as a Trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1944 to 1964. He was a member of the Nominating Committee from 1956-1957 and again in 1959. In 1957 he was a member of the Trustees ad hoc Committee to find a replacement for Columbus O'D. Iselin. From 1959-1963 he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee and in 1974 he served as Chairman of the Biology Department Visiting Committee. In 1979 he was designated an Honorary Trustee and Honorary Member.
Daniel Merriman died on August 6, 1984, at his home in Bethany, Connecticut.
[Taken from Daniel Merriman's WHOI Obituary.]
The papers comprise an unpublished manuscript entitled Challenger of Neptune that Merriman wrote while he was director of Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, and Master of Davenport College, at Yale University, from 1942-1966. Also included is a folder on the “YASA” Expedition with which Merriman was affiliated.
The custodial history of the papers is undocumented.
Daniel Merriman Papers, 1971-1978. MC-14, "Folder Name." Data Library and Archives, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The papers of Dan Merriman were given to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives on May 22, 1992 by Jean Merriman, wife of Daniel Merriman.
Processed by Marisa Hudspeth.
Open: materials are available for research.
Copyright: Permission to publish material from the collection must be authorized by the Institution Archivist.
Records for the Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography (ICHO-III) (AC-02), for which Merriman chaired the Organizing Committee in 1977.
A collection of papers relating to Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, a Scottish naturalist, was removed, deaccessioned, and transferred to the Edinburgh University Library, Department of Archives on March 9, 2000.
Arranged in a single series:
| Subject Files 1971-1978 1 box (.25 lin. ft.) | |||||||||||
| Scope and Content Note | |||||||||||
| The three folders comprise an unpublished manuscript entitled Challenger of Neptune that Merriman wrote while he was director of Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, and Master of Davenport College, at Yale University, from 1942-1966. The Challenger manuscript relates the development of oceanography as a science from the early 19th century to around 1877, the end of the Challenger Circumnavigation Expedition. There are several chapters on both Edward Forbes and Charles Wyville Thomson. Accession 96-20, a folder of materials relating to HMS Challenger, was added to this collection. They include a reprint by Merriman, four photographs illustrated in the reprint, and a copy of a letter to Paul Fye, then director of WHOI. Also included is a folder on the “YASA” Expedition with which Merriman was affiliated. This material is in Spanish and consists of a report and several charts. | |||||||||||
| Arrangement | |||||||||||
| Folders are arranged chronologically. | |||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | HMS Challenger - reprint & photographs | 1971-1972, 1978 | ||||||||
| 2-4 | “Challenger of Neptune”, unpublished Mss. | undated | |||||||||
| 5 | Yasa Expedition | undated | |||||||||