Professional Correspondence, 1921

The Reginald Harris Collection consists of biographical documents, professional correspondence, and records of biological research expeditions spanning Central and South America and North Africa. It is divided into three series: Series I: Photographs, 1912-1933; Serires II: Personal Papers, 1892-1998; Series III: Professional Papers, 1909-1940. Of note, the administrative records of the Long Island Biological Association contain information that relates to this collection.

The collection includes documents, college essays, research notebooks, scrapbooks, and photographs. Most of Harris's personal correspondence is to and from his family, with his brother, Rev. Malcolm Harris, being a major correspondent. Other personal correspondence is with scientists including J. Chester Bradley, and geneticists William E. Castle, George W. Corner, Thomas Hunt Morgan, and H. M. Parshley. There are two years (1924-1925) of Harris's correspondence for the Life Extension Institute, an agency founded to counsel prospective marriage partners on their genetic suitability for marriage.

Harris's professional correspondence is chiefly (though not exclusively) administrative after 1924; it has not been broken out into sent and received, as most of his letters are carbon copies.

The collection contains most of Harris's published writings both in manuscript form and as printed copies, as well as research that was not published. The large number of negatives and loose photographs from the Cornell Entomological Expedition to South America have been identified in this finding aid by markings on the envelopes in which they were held by Harris (numbered A1-D22).

The material from the Second Marsh-Darien Expedition in this collection is extensive. Among other things it includes hair clippings, glass lantern slides, a sheet of picture writing, a research notebook, and many photographs. The photographs, negatives, and lantern slides that are captioned are those that were seen and described by anthropologist James Howe. Howe's captions have been retained because of his knowledge of the Kuna and their history. There is no evidence in Howe's inventory (that accompanied his letter-of-gift) that he saw the Glenn Gift material that relates to this expedition before his donation.