Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Murray Newman fonds
General material designation
- Textual record
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- Source of title proper: Title based on provenance of fonds.
Level of description
Fonds
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Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
- 2.05 m of textual records
- ca. 189 photographs
Publisher's series area
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dr. Murray A. Newman was born in Chicago in 1924 and served in the second world war as a member of the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps posted to the South Pacific. After the war ended, he returned to Chicago where he achieved his Bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago, followed by a Master's degree in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley. with the Master's completed, he worked as a museum zoologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He moved to Vancouver in 1953, studied for a Ph.D at the University of British Columbia while working as curator of UBC's fish museum. In 1955, Newman was offered the job as director of the yet to be completed Vancouver Public Aquarium. Throughout his 37 year career as Director of Vancouver's Aquarium, Dr. Newman saw its development from the pre-construction phase into a prime tourist attraction, educational institution, and centre for marine research. He retired in 1993.
Custodial history
The records remained in Murray A. Newman's custody until he donated the materials to the City of Vancouver Archives in December 1996 and May 2012.
Scope and content
The fonds consists of records pertaining to Dr. Newman's professional life as Director of the Vancouver Aquarium with personal notes and correspondence. It is comprised of eight series: correspondence, newspaper articles, Aquarium newsletters, manuscript notes, transcripts of oral histories, consultant reports, awards and scrapbooks as well as two bound unpublished manuscripts written by Newman chronicling his time during World War II and later traveling to various island locations in the Pacific Ocean, such as Australia, Guam, and the Trobriand Islands. For detailed listing see the file listing attached.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The fonds was donated by Murray A. Newman in December 1996.
Arrangement
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Script of material
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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
File list available.
Associated materials
Add.MSS 757 - Vancouver Public Aquarium Association fonds and published book, Murray Newman, "Life in a Fishbowl", Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1994, QL79 C32 V364 1994.