THE MICROPALEONTOLOGY PROJECT,
1928-2003
Quotations are from internal reports
October
26, 1929 ‚ Stock market crash; the Great Depression begins.
July 1930 – Brooks F. Ellis joins the faculty
of the Department of Geology at New York University, bringing
with him the first pages of an illustrated catalogue of the
Foraminifera, on which he has been working since 1928. In
1932 he receives his PhD and services of a student assistant,
Angelina R. Messina.
“In
view of the fact that there are over 12,000 of the genera
and species of Foraminifera ... the undertaking appeared to
be an almost hopeless one. With the aid of students at the
University,the compilation actually got under way.”
NOTE -The Catalogue of Foraminifera now contains over 45,000
taxa.
July 1931
– Private charities in New York join to create the Emergency
Work Bureau.
September 1931
– Ellis obtains the assistance of four men from the
Emergency Work Bureau, and puts them on the job of preparing
a bibliography of literature on Foraminifera.
“This phase of the work occupied
about a year, and resulted in a card index of about 50,000
references."
May
1933 – FDR creates the Civil Works Administration, modeled
on the EWB.
January 2, 1934
– Ellis hires 82 artists, photographers, typists, librarians,
and geologists through the Civil Works Administration, using
space at 13 Astor Place donated by the Alexander Hamilton
Institute. Civil Works Division Project 89 FB 1122,
“Micropaleontology Project,” is launched.
September 1934 – Project
evicted, moves to A. W. Stephens printing plant in Brooklyn.
The Borough of Brooklyn provides carpenters and painters,
while individuals and businesses donate furniture and materials.
October
1934 – CWA abolished as “wasteful”, Emergency
Relief Bureau formed.
April 1935 – The Project is reorganized, with
a quota of 60 people.
“About
one year more will be required to finish the first draft of
the manuscript and to complete our very extensive card index.
This will mean, at this time, we will have in our files between
twelve and fifteen thousand descriptions of species and and
about 25,000 detailed illustrations. Our card index will expand
to about 300,000 references.”
August
1935 – The Works Progress Administration is created.
September 1935 – With the American Museum
of Natural History as sponsor the Project, renamed the “Geologic
Catalogue”, obtains a WPA grant for a term of two years,
with funds for 201 employees.
“In
addition extensive equipment was purchased and funds were
provided for fifty typewriters, specially built tables and
chairs, and complete photostat and photographic equipment.”
November 1935 – The Stephens building is condemned
for a new approach to the Brooklyn Bridge.
“After
a brief but rather hectic period permission was obtained to
use part of the new grant for rent. Soon thereafter a lease
was signed for a portion of the seventh and all of the eighth
floor at 45 West 18th Street. The [personnel] quota was reduced
to 130.”
December
1935 – With commercial printing for the 25-volume
set estimated at $150,000 or more, Ellis arranges for the
Project to use government-subsdized staff and equipment to
print the Catalogues in house.
September
1939 – Hitler invades Poland; France and England declare
war.
September
1940 – With the ever-growing Catalogue still unfinished
after four extensions, WPA declines to continue support. AMNH
creates a Department of Micropaleontology with the object
of housing the Catalogue work. The “Department”
is required to be entirely self-supporting; it is never granted
Museum funds, and Ellis and Messina never become more than
honorary curators.
December
7, 1941 – Japanese attack Pearl Harbor; US enters World
War II.
May 1942 – WPA officially terminates
the Project and removes all equipment. Over the next eight
months Ellis and Messina and one assistant, using borrowed
equipment, complete printing of the 29-volume Catalogue and
send it out to more than a hundred subscribers at $100 per
set. During the following lean years Ellis and Messina, working
alone, edit and print a 3-volume synonymy supplement.
August
1945 – end of World War II
November 1945 – An Advisory Board is formed,
including the head of US Geological Survey, president of AAPG,
and several oil company chief geologists, to arrange donations
that revive the Department. The first annual supplement contains
more than 500 new species from the East Indies found by Dutch
micropaleon-tologists before the war. In 1946 Ellis becomes
Chairman of the NYU Geology Department, a position he holds
for the next 20 years.
July
1947 – First issue of “The Micropaleontologist”
newsletter. Graduate student training is initiated in 1948,
and a Living Foraminifera laboratory is established under
Messina in 1950.
December
1952 – The “Catalogue of Ostracoda”
is launched. In 1954, the Department expands, adding a spore
and pollen laboratory under L. R. Wilson, replaced in the
next year by Harold Cousminer.
January
1954 – “Micropaleontology”
succeeds the newsletter. The Department begins taking in consulting,
initially from Carter Oil Co., and by 1959 has five staffers
who are employed full time in this capacity. In 1958, the
last copy of the original 32-volume Foram set is sold and
a microfilm edition is initiated.
June 1967 – Brooks Ellis retires at age 70, and
Angelina Messina takes over.
May
1968 – Publication of the “Catalogue
of Index Microfossils” and “Catalogue
of Larger Index Microfossils,” each in 3 volumes.
September
1970 – In a meeting with visiting scientists, Angelina
Messina has a massive heart attack and falls dead on the floor.
The Museum takes possession of the previously independent
Department and all senior staff resign in protest, ending
consulting and research programs. Tsunemasa Saito (Lamont)
becomes part time head of renamed Micropaleontology Press,
now supported entirely by publishing.
January
1972 – With money from NSF, “Bibliography
and Index of Micropaleontology” is launched.
A festschrift for Saito’s professor Kyoshi Asano is
the first in the “Micropaleontology Special
Papers”.
January
1978 – After Saito resigns to become a head of
department in Japan, Museum canvasses oil companies and decides
to continue the Press. John A. Van Couvering becomes full
time Editor in Chief.
August
1982 – First volume of “Catalogue
of Diatoms.” In 1986 oil companies contribute
money for a CDROM edition of the Ellis and Messina Catalogues,
subsequently the basis for the internet edition.
September
11, 2001 – Islamist terrorists destroy the World Trade
Center
June 30, 2003 – AMNH, seeking to
reorganize and in need of space, transfers Micro Press to
The Micropaleontology Project, Inc., an independent
non-profit corporation founded by the former staff of the
Museum program. The Project, relocated to 256 Fifth Avenue,
begins to explore new non-publishing projects.
"In 2003, the Foraminifera Catalogue
reached 106 looseleaf volumes containing more than 87,000
pages ... Since all the printed volumes must be unbound and
rebound each year for the alphabetic insertion of 500 to 600
additional pages, the internet edition has quickly become
popular."
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