Descriptive Summary
Restrictions
Acquisition Information
Preferred Citation
Publication Rights
Biography
Scope and Content of Collection
Descriptive Summary
Languages:
English
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Earl Murray Papers
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0772
Physical Description:
1.4 Linear feet
(2 archives boxes and 1 film)
Date: 1951-1982
Abstract: Papers of Earl Murray, Scripps Institution of Oceanography staff research associate and expert deep diver. The collection
consists of material from the U.S. Navy's SeaLab II project including Murray's journals and logs, papers relating to his diving
and consulting career, photographs and slides, and one original film.
Restrictions
Original reel-to-reel sound recording and film are restricted. Digital copies may be requested in advance.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2014.
Preferred Citation
Earl Murray Papers, MSS 772. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the Regents of the University of California.
Biography
Earl Murray (born in 1927 in Alamogordo, New Mexico) was a staff research associate and laboratory technician at the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography from 1952-1977. Murray was well-known for his deep diving experience and underwater photography
skills. Murray's diving expertise supported numerous expeditions and research programs at Scripps and for the government,
including: serving on the University of California SCUBA Safety Board and California state-wide SCUBA boards, 1953-1974; reconnaissance
diving and photographing the wreck of the Andrea Doria off Nantucket in 1956; stabilizing buoys during experimental Mohole
drilling and the Deep-Sea Drilling Expedition in 1960-1961; participating in the dives of Jacques Cousteau's diving saucer
Soucoupe in the submarine canyons off La Jolla and Baja California, Mexico in the 1960s; and serving as an aquanaut with the U.S.
Navy's "Man in the Sea" SeaLab II project, living in an underwater habitat for 15 consecutive days at 210 feet. Murray died
in 2009 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers of Earl Murray, Scripps Institution of Oceanography staff research associate and expert deep diver. Half of the collection
consists of material from the U.S. Navy's SeaLab II project, including Murray's journals and logs, a recording of a radio
interview with Murray, photographs, and situational reports. The remainder consists of miscellaneous papers relating to his
diving and consulting career, including correspondence, drawings for instruments and equipment, contracts, materials on diving
off the Southern California coast, photographs, slides, and one original film.
Arranged in three series: 1) SEALAB II; 2) MISCELLANEOUS; and 3) PHOTOGRAPHS, SLIDES AND FILM.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sealab II
Manned undersea research stations
Deep diving -- California -- San Diego
Murray, Earl -- Archives