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John Muirhead Macfarlane writings

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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

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John Muirhead Macfarlane was a Scottish botanist who was born in 1855 and died in 1943. He held academic positions at the University of Edinburgh before moving to the United States in 1893. He then became a botany professor at the University of Pennsylvania, a position he held until his retirement in 1920, as well as the director of Penn's Botanic Garden. Macfarlane was also a well-known author in his field and he published his most famous book, The Causes and Course of Organic Evolution, A Study in Bioenergics, in 1918 along with several others including The Evolution and Distribution of Flowering Plants, and The Evolution and Distribution of Fishes, Fishes, the Source of Our Petroleum, and The Quantity and Sources of Our Petroleum Supplies.

This collection includes several manuscripts and typescripts for writings by John Muirhead Macfarlane, dating from 1923 to 1929, after his retirement in 1920. The typescripts include Fishes the Source of Petroleum from 1922; a report from the Spec. American Petroleum Institute from 1925; "The Origin and Amount of Petroleum Supplies: A Study, a Criticism, and a Review of Criticisms" from 1929; and "The Evolution and Distribution of Asclepiadaceae" which is undated. The manuscript dates to 1923 and is titled, "The Fishes of the Ancient Mediterranean Basin in Relation to Supplies of Petroleum."

Gifts of John Muirhead Macfarlane, 1923 and 1930.

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Finding Aid Author
Kelin Baldridge
Finding Aid Date
2017 January 19
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

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Fishes, the Source of Petroleum, chapters 1-12, typescript, 1922.
Box 1 Folder 1-12
"The Fishes of the Ancient Mediterranean Basin in Relation to Supplies of Petroleum," manuscript draft, 1923.
Box 1 Folder 13
Report: Spec. American Petroleum Institute, typescript, 1925.
Box 1 Folder 14
"The Origin and Amount of Petroleum Supplies: A Study, a Criticism, and a Review of Criticisms," typescript, 1929.
Box 1 Folder 14
"The Evolution and Distribution of Asclepiadaceae, parts A and B, typescript (possibly published as The Evolution and Distribution of Flowering Plants), undated.
Box 1 Folder 15-16

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