The Kate Stephens Papers consists of 12 folders of material relating to her work for the San Diego Society of Natural History. The collection includes original field notes, diaries, and logs of her work as Curator of Collections for the Society and as Curator of Mollusks and Marine Invertebrates for the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Kate Stephens (née Brown) was born in London circa 1853; she immigrated to the United States between 1888 and 1890, settling in the east San Diego County community of Witch Creek. She married naturalist Frank Stephens in 1898 and traveled with him on many collecting trips throughout San Diego and Imperial Counties in the early 1900s. She participated in the 1902 Colorado Desert expedition for the U. S. Biological Survey and the 1907 University of California Alexander expedition to southeastern Alaska. An authority on terrestrial and marine mollusks including fossils, she was first hired by the San Diego Society of Natural History as Curator of Collections in 1908 and served as Curator of Mollusks and Marine Invertebrates at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1910 until 1936; she continued her conchology work into her mid-90s. She died in 1954.

.5 Linear Feet

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The collection is open to researchers by appointment. Contact the Research Library Director, San Diego Natural History Museum.