PBA Galleries

To his mother and sister in Oakland. 8pp. with original mailing envelope.

A long, descriptive narrative of more than 1600 words, detailing the oceanographic research work he and five other young scientists (including Zoologists Charles Kofoid and Calvin Esterly and Geologist Ida Oldroyd)  were doing at Catalina Island under the direction of UC Berkeley Zoology Professor William Emerson Ritter – two years before Ritter won the financial support of Los Angeles magnate E.W.Scripps to found the “Marine Biological Association” that became the renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Raymond himself was a 36 year-old Assistant Professor of Physics at Berkeley with an early passion for Conchology and a “remarkable” personal collection of sea shells, which he mentions in this letter. The Catalina expedition was, in fact, largely devoted to collecting shell specimens, many of great rarity, from the waters off Catalina. In this letter, Raymond describes, in enthusiastic detail, the Ritter team’s work, the sailing of their research vessel and their simple living arrangements – and notes, ironically, “Ritter is in a quandary as to how to keep the work going…L.A. people seem enthusiastic about our work and $25 was given by one man, night of lecture. I hope there will be something for our expenses…”  Mr. Scripps beneficence was still in the distance. The Scripps Institute notes that their very first samples of zooplankton were collected by Raymond’s colleague Esterly in 1903, the year the Institute was founded, so this earlier letter dates from the very foundation of California Oceanography and Marine Biology of the future. Partial transcript of the text available on request.