|
 n 1965 a new wing was added to Dyche Hall and the ichthyological collection moved from the seventh floor to the fourth floor, which Ichthyology shared with Herpetology. Dr. Cross officially became the first Curator of Ichthyology at the Natural History Museum in 1973 when he received a 50% curatorial appointment. The collection and the division moved a second time to the fifth floor of Dyche Hall (where the division remains today) during the 1974/1975 academic year.
  erald R. Smith became the second curator in the division in the late-1960's and added many specimens from the western United States to the collection, most notably many minnow (Family Cyprinidae) and sucker (Family Catostomidae) specimens. In the early 1970's, Dr. Smith left the University of Kansas for a position as faculty curator of ichthyology and vertebrate paleontology at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. In 1968, Joseph T. Collins became part-time collection manager for Ichthyology, where he served for 25 years. In 1993, he moved to KU Natural History Museum Publications full time.
 . O. Wiley joined Dr. Cross as a faculty curator of ichthyology in 1976. Since that time Dr. Wiley has pursued a research program based on the phylogenetic systematics of fishes and the development of systematic philosophy, including the publication of the book Phylogenetics, The Theory and Practice of Phylogenetic Systematics (1981). In 1987 Dr. Wiley began a laboratory for molecular systematics in the Division of Ichthyology. Dr. Wiley also began the ichthyology tissue collection and has added to it through collecting trips to the southeastern United States, Belize, and the South Pacific.
  r.
Cross retired in June 1991 after forty years of work at the University of
Kansas and became a Faculty Curator Emeritus. At the time of Dr. Cross'
retirement, the collection had grown to 22,984 lots and was considered the
16th most important collection in North America. His extensive work on Kansas
fishes and the waters they inhabit has formed the foundation for all subsequent
work on the fishes of Kansas.
 ate A. Shaw became the first full-time collection manager of ichthyology in 1993. Dr. Shaw has overseen the final stages of computerization of the collection and has been involved in several efforts focused on the assessment, care, and maintenance of ichthyological specimens. Dr. Shaw has also continued a research program including studies of curatorial procedures, systematics of fishes, and the natural history of Kansas fishes. Dr. Shaw has made significant collections of marine fishes which have greatly augmented the tissue collection.
 alter W. Dimmick joined Dr. Wiley as a faculty curator of ichthyology in 1993. The molecular systematics laboratory was greatly expanded in anticipation of Dr. Dimmick's arrival. Since that time Dr. Dimmick has pursued a research program based on molecular, phylogenetic systematics of fishes and studies of modes of speciation. Dr. Dimmick's current research has brought many tissue samples from Ethiopian cyprinids into the tissue collection.
 . Richard Robins joined the Division of Ichthyology as a Faculty Curator Emeritus in 1994. Dr. Robins continues to be an active researcher studying the systematics of various marine fish groups. Dr. Robins has contributed many cusk eel (ophidiiform) and cutthroat eel (synaphobranchids) specimens to the collection.
n 1996 the alcohol collections were moved into a new wing of Dyche Hall constructed to hold all museum alcohol collections. Skeleton, tissue, and cleared and stained collections remain on the fifth floor with the staff and students of the division.
 ndrew C. Bentley became the collection manager at the start of 2001, after Dr. Shaw left for Saipan, in the South Pacific. He came here from the J. L. B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology in Grahamstown, South Africa, where he was the collection manager for four years. |
he first catalog of the Kansas fish collection was created by zoology students in the early 1900's using a series of cards. These early specimens were cataloged individually rather than in lots and were stored in formalin. The collection was largely unused, except for work done by Claude Hibbard (a University of Kansas paleontologist), who contributed many skeletonized specimens to the collection, as well as John Breukelman (from the Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia, Kansas). John Bruekelman in particular made many collections in Kansas and published "A Collection of Fishes in the State University Museum" (Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. 43:377-384) in 1940 and "A Review of Kansas Ichthyology" (Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. 49:51-70) in 1946. As Curator of Lower Vertebrates during the 1940's, Edward H. Taylor hired a student to create a new card catalog of fish specimens based on the publications by Dr. Breukelman (1940, 1946). This second catalog was independent of the previous catalog and was never completed.
rank B. Cross arrived at the University of Kansas in 1951. Dr. Cross was originally hired as a fisheries biologist through the Kansas Biological Survey. Dr. Cross had a 25% appointment through the Natural History Museum to care for the fish collection but this appointment was not an official curatorial appointment. Dr. Cross instituted a new ledger-based catalog and used the incomplete catalog created in the 1940's for the first 1754 ledger entries. Dr. Cross began the preservation of fishes in 70% ethanol (isopropanol has never been used in the KU collection) and he changed the collection from a specimen based to a lot based one. Other older material not included in the second catalog was eventually incorporated into the catalog ledger. Dr. Cross' ledger-based catalog (supplemented by an ichthyology collection computer database) is still in use today.
