Collection Labels

Originally compiled by Jennifer Olori, June 2006-August 2008.

From Word document: Z:\DocLib\Database Notes\DatabaseNotes_IMPORTANT

IBR

This seems to be the Wallace brachiopod collection in cabinets 263 and 284 in the PRC-122 main room.  NOTE: they do not seem to have the IBR prefix on the label, just the number.

Adkins type material (Adkins & Winton 1920, etc.):

I) Some of the “collector” and “collection date” information in the catalog inventory may be incorrect. Adkins did often collect his own material, sometimes in the same year that his publication came out, but this did not occur all the time. Especially be suspicious of collectors and dates that exactly match the author/publication date, for example “coll. Adkins and Winton, coll. Date 1920; Publication: Adkins and Winton, 1920, UT Bull. 1945, p. 33”. I think what has happened is that occasionally the person entering the data into the database did not separate collectors from authors, and this confusion was compounded by the fact that most of the time Adkins truly was the collector. My guess is that it was assumed that if Adkins collected a few times then he probably collected all of his type material. Check the BEG books to be sure.

BEG numbers:

I) The R- 20000’s and R-17000’s-18000’s

The Rio Bravo Catalog numbers only go up to about 4000. In the middle of the BEG book #4, however, (records 17,000 – 30,000) there are a few pages where the BEG specimens suddenly have an “R” in front of the catalogue numbers. This occurs from (BEG)R-17451 through (BEG)-R 17369, (BEG)R-17799 through (BEG)-R 18163 and then (BEG)R-20190 through (BEG) R – 20209. The first of these sections is prefaced with “All R numbers are Rio Bravo Oil Company Collections”. In the computer catalog inventory many of these specimens have been entered twice, once with collection code BEG and once with collection code R. This should be reflected in the “other numbers” column, although not all will have been updated yet (especially the R list). Make sure that theRio Bravo specimens are entered with collection prefix “R”. They should not be tagged with a BEG suffix. The BEG connection can be commented on in the notes or in the “other numbers” column.

II) King Collection

The King Collection was accessioned by the BEG. Specimens and labels will be designated with the collection prefix “K”. These specimens need to be entered in the computer catalog with that collection prefix “K”. Do not enter these as BEG numbers. However, it is worth nothing that a run of BEG numbers starting at 14001 was reserved for the King specimens. Therefore BEG14001 = K1, BEG14002=K2and so on. This partially explains why the BEG catalog books have a large gap between 13,650 and 17,000.

 III) Chantegrain Collection

The chantegrain collection was accessioned by the BEG. Unfortunately, unlike the situation with the King collection, the chantegrain specimens were never given their own collection prefix. Even more unfortunate, most of the chantegrain numbers were duplicated by regular BEG specimens. In order to distinguish the Chantegrain BEG numbers from the regular BEG numbers the Chantegrain was given the suffix .ch within the computer catalog. Therefore they will be found in the computer as BEG_number_.ch. In the future a decision may be made to change the BEG collection prefix to a separate collection prefix of CH. The entire Chantegrain Catalog in the BEG catalog book has already been entered into the computer catalog. It is complete and easily searchable.

Form 2- 1889 and (No., N.B., and P.)

I)   Some of the older labels, many of which show a printed “Form 2- 1889” in the top left corner, also record the “No., N.B., and P.”. Often these are referred to as “Taff notebook numbers” and much of the time the collector is Taff. The abbreviations stand for “Number”, “Note Book”, and “Page”, respectively, and may look like “No. 107__N.B. J__P. 81” followed by the collection date. The first and last are always numbers, but the “N.B.” can be a letter or combination. Occasionally this information also appears on the smaller, square labels which list “locality”, “examine for”, and “collector:”. In this case the information will appear abbreviated and may look like “107-J-81”, for example. DO NOT confuse these with a BEG or other locality numbers. Sometimes it is impossible to tell the difference, but BEG locality numbers almost ALWAYS have a “T” in the middle space and usually do not appear on such old labels. Confusion has already occurred and you will find that rarely, a previous recorder has taken a “Notebook number”, swapped the “J” for a “T”, and entered it as a “locality number”. If the original label is intact this will be obvious. Other signs may be, for example, that this locality number differs from that of other specimens collected from the same place.

 II) Linking No., N.B., and P. to Geol. Surveys of Texas:

 If you are lucky enough to also have a Red locality (“Dumble” Station) number associated with the specimen you may be able to double check the “Taff Notebook numbers” (No., N.B., P.) with information in Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey). This is only going to work if you are fortunate to have something collected in 1891 or 1892. When you open the Records, the first column is the Red (loc.) number, and the three columns following to the right are the “No.”, “N.B.”, and “P.”, respectively.

Dumble Survey labels

I)  Multiple Dumble Surveys

This is a summary of parts II-V below. Refer to them for more information and explanation.

Unfortunately, it looks like there are multiple “Geol. Survey of Texas” records casually referred to as “Dumble Survey” and similar (but not always associated) numbering systems were used. To figure out which record a specimen belongs to, it seems to help if you know the collector and collection year [collection year often not given!]. For example, in both Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register and Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey), the locality numbers were written on a red tag. Often the same numbers are used in both records, but they do NOT refer to the same locality! Use caution! It may also help to know if the specimen has an original Dumble label. By this I mean the very old square labels that say “Geol. Surv. of Texas” across the top. They also list the specimen number (Cat. No.) at the top in a box, below that the taxon, below that the “Sta.” (station), and then the “collector”. Along the sides are printed “Tertiary” and “Eocene”. These (including Dr. Shumard’s “Eocene of Texas” Collection) are nearly always associated with Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register, and specimens will ONLY have a white and a red number. A record with a green number (see part IV, below) is usually denoting a BEG accession and the accession data will be found in Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey) (after p. 120). Most of the time the locality/collection data will also be found in the book (p. 2-120), although it seems that locality numbers after 506 have been lost even though the accession data still exists.

Quick guide:

• Specimens with White number (Cat. No.) and Red number (Sta.) ONLY, and/or original Dumble label are associated with Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register, including specimens from Dr. Shumard’s “Eocene of Texas” Collection.
• Specimens with Green numbers are associated with Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey)

 II) White, Red, and Cat., Sta. (Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register)

• The Dumble Survey label WHITE number = Dumble Surv. Cat. No.
  • example: “white 1577” on BEG labels or “1577” located in the box at the top of the original Dumble labels. Often the specimen has a white tag with this number glued onto it (or placed in vial).
  • These numbers are found in the FIRST column in the Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register, and run sequentially.
• The Dumble Survey label RED number = Dumble Surv. Sta. (station or locality no.).
  • example: “red 47” on BEG labels  or  “sta. 47” on the original Dumble labels. Often the specimen has a red tag with this number glued onto it (or placed in vial).
  • These numbers are found in the THIRD column in the Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register.
• These numbers are NOT the same as those found in Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey)
•  Dr. Shumard’s “Eocene of Texas” specimens have Dumble survey numbers which match the catalogue, station numbers (always 40), and data in Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register.

III) Three part code on original Dumble labels

The 3 part code often hand written on the original Dumble Survey labels (example = 125-12-711) may actually be a code specifying the formation or other locality data. See one of the labels with specimen BEG 35661 for evidence. This system would work similarly to the BEG locality numbers (example = 37-T-4). Another hypothesis is that these numbers refer to field or note books and page numbers therein, similar to the “Form 2- 1889” labels. It is NEVER the collection date.

IV) Green numbers

According to Twining (see section V, below), “green numbers in right column are BEG accession numbers.” This list is found after p. 120 in Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey).

Data for a specimen with a green number is generally listed in Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey) (see part V below for more). HOWEVER, this record only lists data from may-dec 1892 and 1891. The locality numbers (Red) stop at 506, even though the accession data exists for many locality numbers higher than that. Missing books or pages??

V) Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey)

• This record includes specimens collected by J.A. Taff and assistants, S. Levrett, L.S. Williams, A.C. McLaughlin, and Jasper Wooldridge, all from field season 1892, May through December (p. 1 to 58)
• Specimens collected by J.A. Taff and S. Levrett during field season 1891 follow from p. 60-107, and from p. 108 -120 collectors include J.A. Taff, S. Levrett, Wooldridge, Cummins, Drake, Dumble, Stephens, Jeremy, Stone, Hill, Streeruwitz, Askew, Pense, Struer, Walker.
• List of BEG accessioned collections follows the specimen list. Numbers = Green numbers
• “Catalogue of specimens, 1892, Frank S. Ellsworth” follows the accessions and finishes out the book.
• These numbers are NOT the same as other Dumble numbers, even though locality numbers are also written on RED tags.
• Note, H.B. Stenzel: “location numbers in the first column are usually on small red paper labels.”
• Note, J.T. Twining (9/17/52): “green numbers in right column are BEG accession numbers.”
• When using this volume, the red locality numbers are in the first column of p. 2-120 and run fairly sequentially. The green numbers are the first column in the accession list (begins after p. 120) and they run sequentially.
• On each page (from p.20-120) the first column is the Red (loc.) number, and the three columns following to the right are the “No.”, “N.B.”, and “P.”, respectively. The abbreviations “No.”, “N.B”, and “P.” refer to field notebooks, most often “Taff notebooks”, and generally appear on labels with the title “Form 2-1889” or something similar.

VI) Older, handwritten record books

        There are a few older, handwritten record books that I presume contain the data that Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey) was compiled from (or copies of the same).

• non-descript, plain white, faded, cloth cover: First page (p.15) states “Pages 16-    contain record of fossils etc. collected by J.A. Taff and assistants S. Leverett, L.S. Williams, A.C. McLaughlin, and Jasper Wooldridge during field season of 1892-May-Dec. ’92.” This is identical to some of the information on the first page of Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey). Indeed, on p. 62 we see notice that the list is now “record of fossils, etc. collected during field season of 1891 by J.A. Taff and S. Leverett.” Again, the same is found in Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey). However, this white book stops at locality 318 while Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey) continues through 506.
•  Black leather, hardcover, with red spine and corners, binding on spine nearly gone: Appears to have belonged to Dumble – “E.T. Dumble” opposite inside cover. Contains exactly the same information as that of the white book above and Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey). However, like the latter, this volume continues through locality number 506.
•  Black leather, hardcover, with red spine and corners, all binding nearly gone, pages loose. Front cover title “Record of Specimens Collected by W.F. Cummins and M.F. Drake, Principally from the Coal Measure and Permian Formations”. Does not seem to be associated with either Geological Survey of Texas: A. Species Register or Records of the collections: Geological survey of Texas (Dumble Survey), though it does use a system similar to that of the latter. Also divides up records by “Division”, ie. “Cisco Division”, “Canyon Division”.