Scope and Content Note
The papers of Albert Kenrick Fisher (1856-1948) span the years 1827-1957, with the bulk of the material dating from 1867 to 1948. The collection consists of diaries, correspondence, family papers, letterbooks, notes, memoranda, reports, drawings, photographs, bibliographic cards on miscellaneous plants and animals, articles and speeches, maps, printed matter, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks. The papers are organized into ten series: Family and Personal Papers , General Correspondence , Biographical Data and Notes , Field Notes , Subject File , Articles and Speeches , Photographs , Miscellany , Scrapbooks , and Oversize .
The papers relate to Fisher's activities as an ornithologist and vertebrate zoologist; the Death Valley Expedition of 1891; biological surveys in California, Nevada, Arizona Territory (including New Mexico), Utah, and portions of other Western states, 1892-1898; as a member of the Harriman Expedition to Alaska in 1899 and member of the Pinchot South Sea Expedition in 1929; as one of the founders and assistant chief of the United States Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture; as one of the founders and presidents of the American Ornithologist's Union; as a founder of the Washington Biologist's Field Club on Plummer's Island in the Potomac River; and his activities concerning his fight for game laws and conservation.
Much of the collection consists of correspondence, the major part of which is from scientists and conservationists. The remainder is composed mainly of family and personal papers, material concerning Fisher's field trips and expeditions, his work in ornithology, and personal photographs.
The collection includes the family papers of his son and daughter-in-law, Walter K. Fisher (1878-1953) and Anne B. Fisher (1898- ). Walter K. Fisher, professor emeritus of zoology at Stanford University, was a prominent naturalist, author, and artist. Anne B. Fisher authored several works of fiction and nonfiction including Wide Road Ahead (1939), Cathedral in the Sun (1940), Salinas, Upside-down River (1945), No More a Stranger (1946), Oh Glittering Promise (1949), and Stories California Indians Told (1957). Also of interest is correspondence from Ben Lilly, a big-game hunter of New Mexico and Arizona, Edgar Alexander Mearns, and C. Hart Merriam; Fisher's field notes and records; and photographs.
Other prominent correspondents are Frank M. Chapman, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Gifford Pinchot, Robert Ridgway, Witmer Stone, and Alexander Wetmore. Fisher’s correspondence with Pinchot, beginning about 1905 and continuing until 1941, is replete with comments on forestry and wildlife conservation.