Re: Padian and Commerciality

["Jane P. Davidson" <jdhexen@unr.edu>]

I am somewhat confused as to why Cope would be considered exclusively a
"commercial collector."  He did work for, and under limited financial
sponsorship, the United States government and in fact the government of
Canada.  This last he took as a sponsor because he needed the monay. It is
true he did not receive a large amount of remuneration from the USGS and
its ancestor surveys, and that was why he refused to deliver his total
collection of specimens to the Federal government.  He maintained and
truthfully so that he had paid for his own field teams.  For all practical
purposes, that is true.  The vast majority of the moneys he spent were
his. But, you will recall, that some of his publications, including his
Tertiary Vertebrata (which weighs 7 pounds, I weighed it one day) were
Federally financed publications. Are we suggesting here that that working
in a government sponsored project is "commercial?"  Marsh on the other
hand, was technically working for Yale College. His collections went
there.  Again would that make Marsh a "commercial collector?"
Jane Davidson

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