30 Facts About Paul Bartsch

Paul Bartsch was an American malacologist and carcinologist.

Paul Bartsch was named the last of those belonging to the "Descriptive Age of Malacology".

Paul Bartsch soon took an interest in nature, first by keeping a small menagerie at home, and during his high school years, collecting birds and preparing skins.

Paul Bartsch established a natural-history club in his home with a little museum and a workshop.

Paul Bartsch graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1896, a Master of Science degree in 1899, and a PhD in 1905.

In 1896 Bartsch was invited by William H Dall to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to serve as his assistant in the Division of Mollusks.

At that time, Paul Bartsch knew little about mollusks and expected more to make ornithology his life work.

In 1899 Paul Bartsch became an instructor in zoology at the Columbian University, but declined the next year a full-time professorship as he was more devoted to scientific research.

Paul Bartsch was joined a few years later by Dall in directing graduate students.

Paul Bartsch continued teaching zoology until he retired in 1945 with the rank of professor emeritus.

In 1901 Paul Bartsch became lecturer on histology at the Medical School of Howard University.

Paul Bartsch's workload became heavier as in 1902 he was promoted to professor of histology and became director of the histology laboratory.

In 1914 Paul Bartsch became curator at the National Museum of Natural History of the combined divisions of Mollusks and Marine Invertebrates.

Paul Bartsch continued as curator of the mollusk division until 1945.

In 1956 Paul Bartsch retired from the Smithsonian Institution after more than 50 years of service.

Paul Bartsch retreated into his estate on the Potomac River shore at Mason's Neck, below Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Paul Bartsch spent his time in turning the estate into a wildlife sanctuary.

Paul Bartsch published his first malacological paper, as a junior author together with Dall, in September 1901: A New Californian Bittium.

On 9 October 1907, Paul Bartsch left from San Francisco, California, aboard the United States Bureau of Fisheries steamer USFS Albatros to take part in a cruise in the waters of the Philippine Islands and the China Seas on an expedition to collect specimens of marine and non-marine snails.

Paul Bartsch left the expedition at Hong Kong after ten months and traveled home via Europe, arriving in Washington, DC, in October 1908.

In 1915 Bartsch published, after five years of preparation, his study of South African marine mollusks, initiated by the donation by William H Turton of his collection in 1906.

In February and April 1909 Paul Bartsch was aboard Albatross for a voyage along the Pacific coast of North America from San Diego, California, to the Baja California peninsula.

In May 1912 Paul Bartsch was invited on an expedition to the Bahamas aboard the Carnegie Institution of Washington motor vessel Anton Dohrn.

Paul Bartsch became intrigued by the variety of the halophilic land snail genus Cerion.

In 1916, at the request of the United States Navy, Paul Bartsch started a study of shipworms.

Paul Bartsch suggested several novel procedures against these boring clams in his paper Report on the Marine Boring Mollusks in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 1927 Paul Bartsch started his study of the large gastropod family Turridae.

Between 1923 and 1939 Paul Bartsch published several papers on intermediate snail hosts of the Asiatic blood fluke Schistosoma japonicum.

Between 1937 and 1941 Paul Bartsch studied, jointly with the Cuban malacologist Don Carlos de la Torre, the Cuban land snail fauna.

Paul Bartsch proposed 3278 taxa, 2,979 of which are of new species and subspecies, and 299 are supraspecific names.