The U.S. National Parasite Collection--a century of service

The U.S. National Parasite Collection will complete its first century of service to the field of animal parasitology in 1992. A brief history of the collection and a description of current policies on deposit and loan of specimens are provided. The collection, started in 1892 by Charles Wardell Stiles and Albert Hassall, now includes several constituent collections: The USNM Helminthological Collection, The USDA Parasite Collection, The Hoffman-Bangham Collection of Parasites of Freshwater Fish, and The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Diseases Study Collection of Parasites of White-tailed Deer. Major personal collections have been donated by F. W. Douvres, J. H. Fischthal, A. O. Foster, A. Goldberg, E. P. Hoberg, R. Honess, R. A. Knight, D. C. Kritsky, R. E. Kuntz, G. L. LaRue, D. R. Lincicome, E. Linton, G. A. MacCallum, J. H. Sandground, L. Schultz, and H. J. Van Cleave. In addition to Stiles and Hassall, the collection has been curated by B. H. Ransom, M. C. Hall, A. McIntosh, W. W. Becklund, M. B. Chitwood, and the authors of this report. Other USDA researchers closely associated with the collection over the years include B. G. Chitwood, E. B. Cram, G. Dikmans, J. T. Lucker, E. W. Price, and E. E. Wehr. The collection includes about 90,000 lots of specimens, mostly helminths, but also significant numbers of ticks, mites, protozoans, and other miscellaneous parasites. Annually about 600-1,000 lots are accessioned and 300-400 lots are loaned to researchers around the world.