The Charles S. Thaeler, Jr. papers consist of two bound volumes spanning the years 1956-1963. The field notes focus mainly on the Thomomys genus, smooth-toothed pocket gophers, with some research on the Empidonax genus, birds of the tyrant flycatcher family. The notes include journals, catalogues, and species accounts from localities within California and Nevada. Some of the field notes contain map sketches. The Thaeler correspondence spans from his time at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology as a graduate student to his time as a professor of biology at New Mexico State University.

Dr. Charles S. Thaeler, Jr., born on January 9, 1932, mainly studied pocket gopher species in California and the Western United States during his time with the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley. Although formally a graduate PhD student under Dr. Seth B. Benson from 1964-1969, Thaeler was affiliated with the MVZ prior to his enrollment as a graduate student. The Thaeler Field Notes Collection contains his research from 1956-1963 on the genus Thomomys, smooth-toothed pocket gophers, which were the subjects of his PhD dissertation entitled “An Analysis of the Distribution of Pocket Gopher Species in Northeastern California (Genus Thomomys)” (1968). Thaeler’s research took him all throughout California, but he mainly focused his research on Northern California counties, including Lassen, Shasta, Siskiyou, Plumas, and Mendocino county.

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The collection is open for research.