Romeo Mansueti papers
Collection
0299-UA
Romeo Mansueti (1923-1963) was a biologist and research professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and at the University of Maryland. He received his bachelor's degree (1948) and master's degree (1950) from the University of Maryland and Ph.D. (1957) from Johns Hopkins University. Mansueti's papers document his professional work on various committees and as editor of several scientific journals, as well as his research on fish migration, bionomics of fresh water and estuarine fish populations, and the taxonomy and ecology of fish eggs. Teaching materials, reports and pamphlets, legislation on commercial fishing, and photographs are also included.
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21.25 Linear Feet
The papers of Romeo Mansueti cover the period from 1922 to 1963; the bulk of the materials date from 1950 to 1963. The collection includes correspondence, reports, clippings, pamphlets, photographs, notes, memorabilia, and manuscripts, which relate primarily to Mansueti's research projects. Also included are drafts of Mansueti's doctoral dissertation.
The files also document Mansueti's work on various committees, his activities as editor of Copeia and Chesapeake Science, and his years as professor at the University of Maryland.
Among the correspondents are Eugene Cronin, director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Tom McNally, a journalist of the Baltimore Evening and Sunday Sun, the U.S. Department of Wildlife, and numerous scientists.
Romeo Mansueti was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on May 18, 1923, and moved to Baltimore County, Maryland, at an early age. Due to his participation in World War II he did not receive his B.S. until 1948, and his M.S. in 1950, both from the University of Maryland. In 1954 Mansueti received an $8000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his research, which resulted in his doctoral dissertation on the white perch and a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1957.
From 1948 to 1950 Mansueti worked as zoological assistant at the University of Maryland. In 1950 he became Senior Fishery Biologist at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the Maryland Department of Research and Education. In 1962 he was promoted to the position of research professor at the University of Maryland.
Mansueti served as curator at the Natural History Society of Maryland between 1939 and 1955, and as curator of its museum from 1946 to 1950. In 1950 he was a science aide at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Mansueti also served as ichthyological editor of the scientific journal Copeia between 1959 and 1963. And beginning in 1962 and until his death, he was managing editor of the Chesapeake Science journal. In addition, Mansueti was a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the British Ecological Society, and the Marine Biologists Association.
Having developed an early interest in natural sciences, Mansueti had written two books by 1946 on reptiles and amphibians in Baltimore County, and on herpetology in Calvert County. In addition to the grant received in 1954, Mansueti received a second grant of $20,000 in 1960 from the Natural Science Foundation to study the early development stages of commercially important fish. His main areas of interest were fish migration, bionomics of freshwater and estuarine fish populations, and the taxonomy and ecology of fish eggs, larvae and young.
Romeo Mansueti died in June 1963 during open-heart surgery. Posthumously, his wife Alice, a scientific illustrator, and biologist Jerry D. Hardy assembled Mansueti's remaining research notes on 600 species of fish, with support of a grant received in 1964, and published a five-volume atlas on the development of fishes of the Chesapeake Bay region.
The collection has been divided into seven series
Mrs. Alice Mansueti donated the papers of Romeo Mansueti to the University of Maryland College Park Libraries in 1966. Kathy Heil of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory donated additional materials in 1986.
The addendum was refoldered into acid-free materials. After combining the addendum with the previously processed materials, the entire collection was reorganized into a new series arrangement. Photographs have been placed with the photograph collection.
In September 2011, photographs that had previously been placed in the Subject Photographs - Print File collection were removed from that collection and reintegrated into the Mansueti papers.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives