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Summary
Cites case of Owen’s getting compiler’s name removed from title of a British Museum catalogue.
Transcription
21 Feb 1862
My Dear Darwin
I do not know if the enclosed has any interest to you when read please return it.f1
A curious incident has occurred here Gerrard has compiled a catalogue of the Bones of mammaliaf2 he also aded where these skeletons had been figured & gave a list of those that had been figured we had not
I printed the Catalogue & put Gerrard name in the title
My report had to go through Owen as usualf3 He objected to the name being there because the list was on a system now made by Gerrard himself there[fore] it could not be catalogue[d] & his name should only be mentioned in the Preface I replied that the system adopted was that on which the Bones & stuffed skins were arranged & any other system would not be so usefull to the Museum He persisted in his objection & the Trustees have ordered the name to be errased!f4
Adieu | Ever Yours sincerely | J. E Gray
Footnotes
- f1
- The enclosure has not been identified.
- f2
- J. E. Gray ed. 1862b. Edward Gerrard, curator of the galleries and storerooms of the British Museum natural history collections, was Gray’s `right hand man’ (Gunther 1975, pp. 268–9). As there was not room in the zoological department for Gerrard to have a desk, he wrote the catalogue on a board across his knees (Gunther 1975, p. 275 n. 11).
- f3
- Richard Owen was superintendent of the natural history collections at the British Museum.
- f4
- Only Gray’s name appeared on the title-page.