Ivan Mackenzie Lamb (1911-1990)
Papers

Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, later known as Elke Mackenzie, was born on September 11, 1911 in London, and died of Lou Gehrig's disease on January 28, 1990. He was a botanist of world renown, focusing primarily on the study of mosses and lichens. He is most known for his 1943 wartime expedition to the Antarctic, known as Operation Tabarin. He was the recipient of both the British and U.S. Polar Medals. After the war in 1946, Lamb became Professor of Cryptogramic Botany at Tucuman University in Argentina. Four years later he went to Canada to the Canadian National Museum in Ottawa. It was in 1954 that Lamb became director of the Farlow Herbarium at Harvard. He remained there until his retirement in 1972. Lamb's publications include Index Nominum Lichenum (1932), Catalogue of Benthic Marine Algae from the Antarctic (1964), and Icones of Type and Authentic Materials of Antarctic Marine Algae (1964).

References:
Bryologist: a quarterly journal of Bryology and Lichenology, Fall 1991, p 315-319.
Lichenology of the British Isles, 1977, p. 31.
Taxon, v. 3, 1954, p. 92-93.

Provenence:
The Lamb papers automatically went to Harvard, as Lamb was the director of the Farlow. The papers were not donated or given in any formal fashion.

This collection includes Lamb's correspondence; papers related to his trips and field work; manuscripts, notes, and plant lists related to his research; papers related to his NSF grants; financial records from his travel and research; a variety of papers from Lamb's Antarctica projects; illustrations from The Benthic Marine Algae of the Antarctic Peninsula; and miscellaneous material including a log book of his dives and some photographs.

The collection is broken down into 8 series.

Series I - Correspondence

Lamb's correspondence deals mainly with botanical research and the work of the Harvard University Herbaria. Most letters are from 1950-1973. Most letters are arranged alphabetically by last name. Some are listed by institution.

Series II - Travel

Papers related to Lamb's field work and other trips, including correspondence, notes, lists, expense records, and maps, dated from 1957-1969. Also includes a section on Venezuelan Algological Field Seminars.

Series III - Manuscripts, Notes, and Plant Lists

Mainly related to West Antarctica botanical survey.

Series IV - Grants and other funded projects

Correspondence, records, receipts, invoices, and transaction records related to NSF Grant GB-4503 (Stereocaulaceae), 1965-1971.

Series V - Financial Records

Financial records from Harvard, and from trips to Europe and Antarctica, 1964-1968.

Series VI - Antarctica Papers

Series VII - Illustrations for Benthic Marine Algae of the Antarctic Peninsula

A chart, map, series of illustrations, set of negative plates, and photographs related to Lamb's Benthic Marine Algae...

Series VIII - Miscellaneous

Includes a log book of trips and dives, and a small number of photographs, negatives, and slides.

Container List:

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