Viola Shelly Shantz

Viola Shelly Shantz

Viola Shantz surveys animal pelts from a storage drawer.
Born June 22, 1895[1]
Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania[2]
Died May 1977[1]
District of Columbia[1]
Nationality American
Occupation
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Frank P. Briggs presents a citation for distinctive service to Viola Shantz.

Viola Shelly Shantz (1895–1977) was an American biologist and zoologist. She worked for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from 1918 to 1961, serving as a Biological Aide, Biologist and Systematic Zoologist. Stationed at the Smithsonian Institution throughout her career, she also served as the curator for the North American mammal collection in the National Museum of Natural History.[3]

Biography

Viola S. Shantz was born in 1895 in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania to parents John and Laura Shantz.[2]

She died in May 1977 at the age of 82 in the District of Columbia.[1]

Professional accomplishments

Shantz was one of the founding members of the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), and was present at their inaugural meeting at the United States National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History[4]), in Washington, D.C. on April 3–4, 1919.[5] Shantz served as treasurer for the organization for twenty-two consecutive years, from 1930 to 1952,[6] and was the first woman to serve as the chair of the Local Committee for the annual meeting of the ASM in 1959.[5]

She co-authored a comprehensive catalog of the mammal specimens in the collections of the United States National Museum, which was published in 1942.[7]

Shantz received an award for distinguished service, presented to her by the Department of the Interior, 1962.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "United States Social Security Death Index". familysearch.org. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Viola Shantz in household of John Shantz (Salisbury Township, Western Election District, Lehigh, Pennsylvania)". United States Census, 1900. familysearch.org. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 "SIA RU007288, Shantz, Viola Shelly 1895-1977, Viola Shelly Shantz Collection, 1961-1962 and undated". Smithsonian Institution Archives. 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
  4. "A Brief History of the Museum". National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  5. 1 2 Genoways, Hugh H., Freeman, Patricia W. (2001). "Evolution of a Scientific Meeting: Eighty Annual Meetings of the American Society of Mammalogists, 1919-2000." (PDF). Journal of Mammalogy. 82 (2): 582–603. doi:10.1644/1545-1542(2001)082<0582:eoasme>2.0.co;2. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  6. Hoffmeister, Donald F. (November 1969). "The First Fifty Years of the American Society of Mammalogists". Journal of Mammalogy. American Society of Mammalogists. 50 (4): 794–802. doi:10.2307/1378258. JSTOR 1378258.
  7. Poole, James Arthur, Shantz, Viola S. (1942). Catalog of the type specimens of mammals in the United States National Museum: including the biological surveys collection. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.