Scope and content:

Series 5) CORRESPONDENCE: Twenty-five boxes of correspondence, arranged alphabetically by folder title (usually the surname of the correspondent, though occasionally the title of the folder is the name of an individual being discussed in the letters therein). Most of this material was originally part of Hubbs's subject files, where it was somewhat hidden under the headings "Biographic" and "Publications." The "Biographic" folders typically contained correspondence with the person who is named on the folder. "Publications" consisted of correspondence regarding or mentioning publications – any publication, whether it was an article by Hubbs, or a writing by someone else, also arranged by surname. Since Hubbs was a prolific writer, editor, and reprint collector, this is a substantial grouping of several boxes of interesting correspondence with people he wrote to regularly.

While voluminous, this series is not inclusive of all Hubbs's correspondence. The Hubbs' attempted to interfile most of his correspondence into the SUBJECT FILES and two MARINE LIFE series by the main topic of each letter. This makes it fairly straightforward to locate material in those other series by subject, but very difficult to locate correspondence by date or author, or to see all the correspondence from one individual. If a correspondent is well-represented in this series, that person may well have additional letters to Hubbs filed in other parts of collection based on what Hubbs determined was the main subject of other letters. For example, Carl Hubbs and Robert Rush Miller first corresponded in 1937 when Miller wished to become Hubbs' field assistant and made arrangements to join Hubbs on a desert field trip. Hubbs filed this correspondence in the Marine Life series under "Fishes, Western North America Freshwater, Correspondence," as the letters include some information on the specimens they collected on the trip. Correspondence exchanged by Hubbs and Errol Flynn concerning their 1948 cruise to Baja California on the yacht Zaca is also filed in a Marine Life series under "West Coast Localities, Mexico, Baja California: San Ignacio Lagoon."

Folders contain both ingoing and outgoing correspondence, as well as some material from other sources. For example, Hubbs acquired some letters of Carl H. Eigenmann and Rosa Smith Eigenmann from their daughter when he wrote a biography of the latter. He filed these letters under "Biographic - Eigenmann," and they are now in this series. Hubbs was also given some correspondence from SIO Diving Officer Conrad Limbaugh after Limbaugh's death in 1960, and material that wasn't separated out for the Limbaugh Papers (SMC 86) may be found here. The first subseries begins with a log of Hubbs's outgoing correspondence.

Arranged in two subseries: A) A-Z, and B) Publications-Related Correspondence.

Contents

Access and use