George M. Gray Museum Archives

The George M. Gray Museum traces its beginnings to material that originated from the Supply Department of the Marine Biological Laboratory. The museum is named for George Gray, an early collector in the Supply Department who spent time curating the preserved specimens. The collection developed slowly, but underwent rapid expansion after the transfer of specimens from the Systematics Ecology Program.

The Marine Biological Laboratory Systematics Ecology Program was founded by Carriker in 1963 to study the flora and fauna of the western North Atlantic. The invaluable reference manual Keys to Invertebrates of the Woods Hole Region was published in 1969. Subsequently, as an outgrowth of this manual, a series focusing on taxonomy was published as National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Technical Reports under the subseries title Fauna and Flora of the Eastern (originally Northeastern) United States.

The George M. Gray Museum collection complements the Division?s extensive holdings of invertebrates from the same region assembled and studied by Addison E. Verrill and his colleagues during the latter half of the 19th century, partially as a result of his association with the U.S. Fish Commission. Many of the New England localities studied by the Fish Commission were ultimately resurveyed by the Systematics Ecology Program?s dredging operations nearly 100 years later. The combination of these 2 collections is a unique resource that will help document historical faunal changes in New England.