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Guide to the Hastings Natural History Reservation collection at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at University of California,
Berkeley
MVZA.MSS.0118
MVZA.MSS.0118
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Table of contents
Title: Hastings Natural History Reservation collection
Identifier/Call Number: MVZA.MSS.0118
Contributing Institution:
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
30.5 Linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1927-2010
Abstract: Hastings Natural History Reservation, located in the foothills of Monterey County, California’s Santa Lucia Mountains in upper
Carmel Valley, serves as a biological field station of the University of California, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ),
and the University of California’s Natural Reserve System (NRS). The Hastings Natural History Reservation collection spans
the years 1927 to 2010 and, with the exception of a limited number of field notes taken outside of Hastings, documents both
the administration of the reservation and the research conducted within its borders. This documentation includes administrative
files originally housed at and maintained by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology; species accounts and general notes, created
by a variety of researchers, that were originally housed at Hastings and kept together as an ongoing file; field notes and
data that were generated by researchers at Hastings and housed separately from the species accounts at the reservation; and
a series of photographic materials also created and originally housed at Hastings.
Creator:
Arnold, Fanny H.
Creator:
Christman, Gene M.
Creator:
Davis, John William, 1917 -
Creator:
Fisler, George F.
Creator:
Griffin, James R.
Creator:
Grinnell, Joseph, 1877-1939
Creator:
Hannon, Susan Jean, 1951-
Creator:
Hastings, Frances Simes
Creator:
Koenig, Walter D., 1950-
Creator:
Koford, Carl B., 1915-1979
Creator:
Linsdale, Jean M. (Jean Myron), 1902-1969
Creator:
Miller, Alden H. (Alden Holmes), 1906-1965
Creator:
Tevis, Lloyd P. (Lloyd Pacheco), 1916-2002
Creator:
Tomich, P. Quentin (Prosper Quentin), 1920-
Creator:
Williams, Pamela L. (Pamela Lorraine)
Conditions Governing Access note
The collection is open for research.
Copyright restrictions may apply. All requests to publish, quote, or reproduce must be submitted to the Museum of Vertebrate
Zoology Archives in writing for approval. Please contact the Museum Archivist for further information.
[Identification of item], Hastings Natural History Reservation collection, MVZA.MSS.0118, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Archives,
University of California, Berkeley.
Hastings Natural History Reservation, located in the foothills of Monterey County, California’s Santa Lucia Mountains in upper
Carmel Valley, serves as a biological field station of the University of California, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ),
and the University of California’s Natural Reserve System (NRS). At approximately 2,500 acres in size, Hastings consists of
exemplary habitats characteristic of the interior central Coast Range, including annual and perennial grasslands, oak woodlands,
chaparral, and running streams. Carefully protected to reduce human impacts, Hastings provides the wildlands and facilities
necessary to conduct university and graduate level studies of natural systems in the area.
In September 1937, Frances Simes Hastings and her husband Russell Hastings offered the University of California use of their
Rancho Pato Allegre (“Happy Duck Ranch”) as a biological field station. University of California President Robert Sproul and
MVZ Director Joseph Grinnell quickly accepted the offer, and one month later the Frances Simes Hastings Natural History Reservation
was officially established. In an October 1937 letter to the Hastings family, President Sproul outlined the University of
California’s goals for the reservation, stating that the university aimed to “preserve an area in California’s coastal region
where native plants and animals may live undisturbed by human use of the land” and to “provide for continuous study of vertebrate
animals, especially their numbers and relationships to their surroundings, as these relationships change in the annual cycle
and from year to year.” With such goals in mind, MVZ staff member Jean M. Linsdale arrived at the reservation and initiated
field research on the property that same year. Title for the land remained with Frances Hastings until her death in 1963,
when it was officially transferred to the University of California. In 1965, Hastings Natural History Reservation became one
of the seven University-owned sites initially included in the University of California’s Natural Land and Water Reserves System,
now the NRS. The Reservation grew substantially in 1971 when the United States Bureau of Land Management transferred an adjacent
297 acres to the property, and from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s Frances and Russell Hastings’ daughter Fanny Arnold donated
the funds necessary for the reservation to acquire additional land and several new buildings.
Hastings Natural History Reservation is administered by the MVZ Director, a Faculty Manager at the MVZ, and a Resident Director
who lives at Hastings. As part of the NRS, Hastings also follows NRS management guidelines and is overseen by UC Berkeley’s
NRS advisory committee. In addition, Hastings is a member of the Organization of Biological Field Stations and is a part of
the Berkeley Natural History Museums (BNHM), a consortium of UC Berkeley natural history museums and associated field stations.
Hastings and nearby institutions curate complete collections of invertebrates, plants, and vertebrates from the reservation,
and over thirty long-term ecological data sets have been compiled on the reservation’s plants and animals. In addition to
these research efforts, Hastings supports college-level teaching with a number of courses taught each year by visiting faculty
from the University of California, California State University, and other colleges from across the country. Hastings also
participates in K-12 education, conducting outreach with Carmel Unified School District and participating in “Exploring California
Diversity,” a program designed to connect teachers and students in under-served San Francisco Bay Area schools with the facilities,
resources, and graduate students of the BNHM.
References:
Berkeley Research, University of California. “Hastings Natural History Reservation.” Accessed November 26, 2014. http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/research-unit/hastings-natural-history-reservation.
“Exploring California Biodiversity: A Berkeley Natural History Museums Project.” Accessed November 26, 2014. http://gk12calbio.berkeley.edu/.
Hastings Natural History Reservation. “Frances Simes Hastings Natural History Reservation.” Accessed November 26, 2014. http://www.hastingsreserve.org/Brochures/Hast%20Brochure%201995.pdf.
Hastings Natural History Reservation. “Overview: Hastings Natural History Reservation.” Accessed November 26, 2014. http://www.hastingsreserve.org/HistoryWebHNHR/OverviewHNHR.html.
Natural Reserve System, University of California. “Hastings Natural History Reservation.” Accessed November 26, 2014. http://nrs.ucop.edu/reserves/hastings/hastings.htm.
Natural Reserve System, University of California. “History of the NRS.” Accessed November 26, 2014. http://nrs.ucop.edu/history.htm.
Stromberg, Mark R. “History of Hastings 1940's to 2003.” Hastings Natural History Reservation. Accessed November 26, 2014.
http://www.hastingsreserve.org/HistoryWebHNHR/HNHR1940_2003.html.
The Hastings Natural History Reservation collection spans the years 1927 to 2010 and, with the exception of a limited number
of field notes taken outside of Hastings, documents both the administration of the reservation and the research conducted
within its borders. The collection contains a series of administrative files, originally housed at and maintained by the Museum
of Vertebrate Zoology, that relate to the operation of the reservation from 1937 to 2002. This series also includes extensive
correspondence with Fanny H. Arnold regarding the state of the reservation as well as Arnold’s financial assistance. In addition,
the collection houses an extensive group of species accounts and general notes recorded by a wide variety of researchers at
Hastings from 1927 to 2010. These species accounts and general notes, originally housed at Hastings and kept together as an
ongoing file, include observations about mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and even insects. The general notes also
contain a mixture of field notes, including catalogs and journal entries. Similarly, the collection also contains a series
of field notes and data generated by researchers at Hastings between 1937 and 1994 that were housed separately from the species
accounts at the reservation. Finally, the collection includes a group of photographic materials, also created and originally
housed at Hastings, that visually document the reservation from around 1929 to 1976. The majority of these materials are black
and white negatives and prints, ranging from around 2 inches x 2 inches to 8 inches x 10 inches in size, and include images
of landscapes, buildings, people, plants, and animals. Of note is the Hastings photo file, a group of prints and negatives
numbered 1 to 733 that were taken by a variety of photographers between 1937 and 1951. Overall, with the exception of a limited
number of items in the species accounts series and the photographic materials series, the materials within the collection
were created and accumulated beginning around the time Hastings officially became a University of California field station.
The collection is arranged in the following four series, two of which have been further arranged into subseries:
Series 1: Administrative files. Subseries 1.1: Operations, education and publicity Subseries 1.2: Budget and accounts receivable
files Subseries 1.3: Fanny H. Arnold papers
Series 2: Species accounts. Subseries 2.1: Mammals Subseries 2.2: Birds Subseries 2.3: Amphibians Subseries 2.4: Reptiles
Subseries 2.5: Fish Subseries 2.6: Mixed species accounts, including birds, mammals, and insects Subseries 2.7: General notes
Series 3: Researcher field notes and data.
Series 4: Photographic materials.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Biological specimens--Collection and preservation.
Biological specimens--Identification
Biology Fieldwork
Carmel Valley (Calif.)
Cataloging--Specimens.
Correspondence
Field notes
Hastings Natural History Reservation (Calif.)
Natural history.
North America, United States, California, Monterey County
Photographs
University of California (1868-1952). Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
University of California Natural Reserve System
University of California, Berkeley