William Healey Dall - Collections Lists, Western Union Telegraph Expedition, 1865/1868

From 1865-1867, a group of scientists, under the guidance of the Smithsonian Institution and Chicago Academy of Sciences, set off to explore building a trans-Pacific communication system through Alaska and Asia. During what became known as the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, this Scientific Corps (led by naturalist William Healey Dall) collected specimens to send to the Smithsonian. What exactly did the expedition collect? Find out with this set of collections lists kept by Dall during the Western Union Telegraph Expedition. One list details materials sent back to the Smithsonian in 1865, and the other is a catalogue of specimens collected in 1868. Dall himself later became an Honorary Curator of the US National Museum's Division of Mollusks from 1880 until his death in 1927. Explore the Western Union Telegraph Expedition collections and help transcribe important specimen information!