Harry Clifford and Myra B. Fassett papers
Finding aid created by California Academy of Sciences staff using RecordEXPRESS
California Academy of Sciences
2022
55 Music Concourse Drive
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California 94118
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Title: Harry Clifford and Myra B. Fassett papers
Dates: 1870-1953
Collection Number: MSS-162
Creator/Collector:
Harry Clifford Fassett
Extent: 14 manuscript boxes, 1 oversized box (7.56 linear feet)
Repository:
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco, California 94118
Abstract: The papers of Harry Clifford and Myra B. Fassett. Fassett worked as a map maker, photographer, and record keeper during his
employment with the Bureau of Fisheries where he became a salmon fisheries expert. Includes correspondence, reports, notebooks,
diaries, pamphlets, photos, ephemera, and publications relating to his work in Alaska and with the U.S. Fish Commission aboard
the USFC Albatross.
Language of Material: English
Access is unrestricted
[Identification of item]. Harry Clifford and Myra B. Fassett papers. Collection Number: MSS-162. California Academy of Sciences
Biography/Administrative History
Harry Clifford Fassett was born May 9, 1870, in Contra Costa Co., California. Employed by the Bureau of Fisheries (Department
of Commerce & Labor) between 1911-1919, he was involved in Alaska salmon investigations and the Pribilof Islands Fur Seal
investigations. Two of Alaska’s topographical features were named in his honor: Fassett Point on Kodiak Island and a glacier
on the Territory’s southeastern coast.
A resident of San Francisco since 1934 and a Member of California Academy of Sciences since 1945, Harry Fassett was particularly
interested in the Academy’s Library and donated all of his books over a period of years along with extensive Reports and Bulletins
of the U.S. Fish Commission, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, Coast Geodetic Survey and more.
At the time of his death on December 9, 1953, Fassett was the last surviving member of the team that made the steamer Albatross
famous as an oceanographic institution. He joined the crew in 1889, just after the research vessel had been brought to the
Pacific. He stayed with the ship, as a representative of the U.S. Fish Commission then the Bureau of Fisheries, keeping the
vessel’s scientific records, until the close of its Philippine Expedition in 1910. He took part in almost continuous investigations,
including expeditions to Hawaii, Panama, the South Seas (1899), Japan, and Alaska (1897).
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers of Harry Clifford and Myra B. Fassett. Fassett worked as a map maker, photographer, and record keeper during his
employment with the Bureau of Fisheries where he became a salmon fisheries expert. Includes correspondence, reports, notebooks,
diaries, pamphlets, photos, ephemera, and publications relating to his work in Alaska and with the U.S. Fish Commission aboard
the USFC Albatross.
Ichthyology
Albatross Expedition (1899-1900)
Albatross Expedition (1907-1910)
Fisheries.
Salmon fisheries
U.S. Fish Commission
Alaska