United States National Museum. Division of Marine Invertebrates

The origins of the collection of marine invertebrates under the care of the Smithsonian Institution can be traced to the collections made by William Stimpson while serving as zoologist on the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, 1853-1856, and the specimens collected by the United States Exploring Expedition which were transferred to the Smithsonian in 1858. Stimpson seems to have been, nominally at least, in charge of the Smithsonian marine invertebrate collections until 1865. By that date the Smithsonian collection of crustacea numbered more than 10,000 jars--the largest in the world at that time. In 1867, Stimpson was authorized to take most of the collection of American invertebrates to the Chicago Academy of Sciences for study, where they were destroyed when the Academy was burned in the Chicago fire of 1871.

Beginning in the 1870s, large collections of marine invertebrates came to the Smithsonianas a result of the various expeditions conducted by the United States Fish Commission. Many of these specimens were retained at Yale University by Addison Emery Verrill for study and identification and did not reach the United States National Museum until 1907.

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