The Charles Lewis Camp Papers
Introduction  |   Biographical Chronology  |   Series Description

Introduction

Funding
Funding for processing provided by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

Access
The collection is open for research at the Museum of Paleontology, with permission from the Museum Director. Contact Mark Goodwin for further information.

Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director or the Principal Museum Scientist for forwarding. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Museum of Paleontology as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Size
Number of containers: 5 boxes, 1 carton, 5 negative boxes, 1 drawer, 4 large format print containers, 1 poster roll.
Linear feet: 6

Processed by
Robin P. Walker

Date Completed
July, 2004

Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], [collection name & number], University of California Museum of Paleontology

Related Collections
Researchers should also note that the Bancroft Library, the Bioscience and Natural Resources Library, and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (all on the Berkeley campus) also hold some papers of Charles L. Camp.

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Biographical Chronology

1893 Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 12.
1895 Camp family moved to southern California near Pasadena.
1908 Visited fossil localities in the Bridger Basin, Wyoming.
1911 Entered the University of California, Berkeley as an undergraduate in the Department of Zoology, where his studies led to nine publications on mammalogy, herpetology, and a description of fossil amphibian remains from the Rancho la Brea tar pits.
1915 Received a Bachelor's Degree from UC Berkeley.
1916 Received an M.A. at Columbia University.
1917 Camp attended the U.S. Army School at Plattsburgh, NY, was commissioned Second Lieutenant, Field Artillery, and served overseas in the American Expeditionary Forces, where he advanced to First Lieutenant. Camp was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his service.
1922 Appointed to teach comparative anatomy in the UC Berkeley Zoology Department.
1923 Wrote Classification of the Lizards.
Received Ph.D. from Columbia under the tutelage of William K. Gregory and Henry Fairfield Osborn.
Appointed a Director of the California Historical Society and a member of its publications committee, where he served until 1935.
1924 Married Jessie Margaret Pratt, with whom he later had four children: Charles, Nancy, Patsy, and Roderick.
1930 Appointed Director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, a position he maintained until 1949.
Wrote "A Study of the phytosaurs with Description of New Material from Western North America."
1933 Began abstracting publications to compile a bibliography of fossil vertebrates.
1935-36 Received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study vertebrate mammal-like reptiles in the Karroo region of South Africa, visit Triassic exposures in China with C.C. Young, and visit Triassic vertebrate collections in Europe.
1937 Edited The Plains and the Rockies by Henry Raup Wagner.
1938 Camp and others resurrected the miners' organization E. Clampus vitus as a prominent historical preservation fraternity and social club.
1939 Appointed Chair of the UC Berkeley Department of Paleontology, where he served until 1949.
1946 Elected President of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology.
1947-48 Second African Expedition to Karoo with Frank E. Peabody for study of vertebrates and to visit a number of important Pleistocene sites associated with early humans.
1952 Published Earth Song: A Prelude to History.
1953 Excavated ichthyosaur fossils form the Shoshone Mountains in Nevada. Camp dedicated the next five summers to this endeavor, eventually persuading the State of Nevada to declare the site a state park (Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park).
1959 Wrote monograph on dicynodonts.
1960 Retired from teaching at UC Berkeley.
Expedition to Western Australia with John Cosgriff to find Triassic vertebrates.
Published James Clyman Frontiersman: The Adventures of a Trapper and Covered Wagon Emigrant as Told in His Own Reminisces and Diaries.
1968 Completed the 8-volume Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates and related subjects: 1928-1968.
1970 Camp received the Henry R. Wagner Memorial medal, the California Historical Society's highest honor.
1971 Jessie Camp died.
1972 Married Joanna Bilbrey.
1975
Camp died on August 14 in San Jose.
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Series Description

Series 1: Correspondence, 1936-1996

Container Contents
Box 1
 
Correspondence to and from Charles L. Camp arranged alphabetically, with major correspondents included in separate files.
 

Series 2: Manuscripts and Paleontological Research Notes

Container Contents
Box 2
 
Research files and manuscripts arranged alphabetically.
 

Series 3: Field Notes

Container Contents
Drawer 1
 
Field notes and locality files arranged chronologically. An overview is related below:
 
Date Subject
1913-14

Section 1: Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Tehama Counties, CA ("North Coast Counties")

Section 2: Marin County, CA

Section 3: San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, CA

Section 4: E. Base Turtle Mts., San Bernardino County, CA; Arizona

Section 5: Kern, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino Counties, CA
 

1920
 
1920 weekend trips about NY
 
1921
 
Triassic Chinle Formation, northeast Arizona
 
1922
 
Santa Barbara
 
1923
 
Southern Nevada, Utah, and Arizona
 
1924
 
Arizona and New Mexico
 
1926
 
Arizona and Mexico
 
1927
 
Arizona and Utah
 
1928
 
New Mexico, Texas via Arizona
 
1930
 
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah
 
1931
 
Nevada and St. Johns, AZ
 
1932
 
St. Johns, AZ
 
1933
 
Vols. 1 and 2: New Mexico
 
1934
 
Arizona, New Mexico, and vicinity
 
1935-36
 

Volume I: Southwest U.S., England, France

Volume II: France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Africa

Volume IV: Africa, China
 

1937-38
 
California, Arizona, and New Mexico
 
1939
 
Arizona
 
1941
 

Genesee, CA, and Nevada

San Andreas, CA
 

1942
 
Field trip to Arizona
 
1943
 
Elephant locality at Milbrae, CA
 
1945
 
Utah
 
1946-47
 

Vernal, UT; Pat's Hole and Lily Park

Colorado; Rockville, UT; Princeton

Meetings; African memoranda
 

1947
 
Africa, Book I, II
 
1947-48
 
Africa, Book III
 
1948
 
Africa, Book IV, V
 
1949
 
New York
 
1950
 
Squaw Creek Salamander Hunt
 
1950
 
New Mexico and southern Utah
 
1952
 
Eastern U.S., South Dakota, Kansas
 
1953
 
Santa Barbara, Arroyo Grande, Monument Valley, Colorado, Utah
 
1953-54
 
Nevada
 
1955
 
Nevada
 
1956
 
Nevada (Ichthyosaur Park)
 
1957
 
Nevada (Ichthyosaur Park)
 
1958
 
Wyoming
 
1960
 
Australia
 
1960-65
 
Nevada
 
1966-68
 
Nevada
 
1969
 
South Dakota and Wyoming
 
1970

 
California, Wyoming, South Dakota
 

Locality and Specimen Numbers and Records 1921-1924 (Book I)

Locality and Specimen Numbers and Records 1926-1932 (Book II)
 

Series 4: Miscellany

Container Contents
Box 3
 
Miscellany, including newspaper clippings, fliers, and C.L. Camp obituaries. Also contains the South African diary of Dr. Camp's son, Charles M. Camp.
 
Container 1
 
Plates and William Huff sketches for Earth Song: A Prelude to History
 
Container 2
 
Miscellaneous plates and sketches
 
Container 3
 
Miscellaneous illustrations
 
Poster roll
 
Oversized Huff illustrations
 

Series 5: Film and Photograph Collection

Container Contents
Sm. Boxes 1-5
 
Lantern slides, unorganized
 
Carton 1

 
Miscellaneous films and negatives, unorganized
 
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