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Daniel Merriman papers

 Record Group
Identifier: MC-14

Scope and Content Note

The papers comprise an unpublished manuscript entitled Challenger of Neptune that Merriman wrote while he was director of Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, and Master of Davenport College, at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, and 28 lantern slides relating to a lecture on the HMS Challenger expedition..

Dates

  • 1971-1978

Language of Materials

The records are in

English and

Spanish.

Access

Open: materials are available for research.

Use

Copyright: Permission to publish material from the collection must be authorized by the Institution Archivist.

Biographical Information

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.]

Extent

1 box (.25 lin. ft.)

Overview

The Daniel Merriman papers consist of an unpublished manuscript entitled

Challenger of Neptune. Also included is a folder on the “YASA” Expedition with which Merriman was affiliated, and 28 lantern slides relating to a lecture on the HMS Challenger expedition.

Arrangement

Arranged in two series:

List of Series:

Custodial History

The custodial history of the papers is undocumented.

Acquisitions Information

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.

Related Material

Records for the Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography (ICHO-III) (AC-02), for which Merriman chaired the Organizing Committee in 1977.

Separated Material

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.

Processing Information

Processed by Marisa Hudspeth.

Title
A Guide to the the Daniel Merriman papers, 1971-1978
Author
Marisa Hudspeth
Date
September 23, 2004
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written inEnglish

Repository Details

Part of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Data Library and Archives Repository

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