Mission. The ISHBH aims to promote research related to historical herpetology. The Society is devoted to stimulating and advancing the study of the history of the herpetological discipline and its bibliography. We bring together individuals for whom the history and bibliography of herpetology are appealing. We promote the knowledge of these and related topics among members and the general public. The Society was established in Guelph, Canada in 1998. Membership is open to anyone who shares the aims of the Society.

Activities. The society members meet every year, usually in connection with other general herpetological meetings with international participation. Activities include visits to private and public libraries, museums and other places with historical links to the discipline. We organize workshops and sessions in the fields that form parts of larger national or international meetings on herpetology. Our shared lunches adjacent to the yearly business meetings have become popular among members and guests. The Society works to facilitate both formal and informal contacts among members.

Journal. The ISHBH publishes Bibliotheca Herpetologica, which is the central pillar of the Society. It contains articles, essays, bibliographies and news of people and events in our field and is a peer-reviewed journal published with two issues per year. The many important contributions make the publication a vital source for bibliographers, historians and taxonomists alike but at the same time the papers are by and large appealing to the layperson in the field.

The name of the journal, up to volume 5(1), was: International Society for the History and Bibliography of Herpetology Newsletter and Bulletin.

Membership. The biennial fee for 2006/2007 or 2007/2008 is Regular US $30, Sponsoring US$50, and Benefactor US$100. Institutions US $50 and Life Membership US $300. This fee includes a subscription to Bibliotheca Herpetologica with two volumes. For more information see our Membership page.

Next Meeting
The ISHBH 2008 annual meeting will be held in Montreal in conjunction with the joint meeting of ichthyologists and herpetologists. More information will be posted in due course.

The Herpetological Legacy of Linnaeus:
A Celebration of the Linnaean Tercentenary.

The Society commemorated the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus at the 2007 joint HL/SSAR/ASIH meeting, hosted by St. Louis University at the Hyatt Regency in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 11 - 16 July. With the Herpetologists League (HL) as sponsor, the ISHBH organized a half-day symposium on 14 July 2007 at 8 a.m. to noon.

Carl Linnaeus was born on 23 May 1707. He is often called the father of taxonomy but he made also important contributions specific to herpetology through his original descriptions of numerous taxa, ecological and biological writings, publications on snakebite and its treatment and, indirectly, through his influence on a generation of students who served as apostles of "the Linnaean system" and themselves collected and described amphibians and reptiles from around the world.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Torbjörn Lindell, a distinguished Linnaeus scholar from Sweden, the country in which Linnaeus was born and practiced most of his life. Other speakers were Kraig Adler, Aaron M. Bauer, William E. Duellman, László Krecsák/Richard Wahlgren, Ernest A. Liner, Roy W. McDiarmid, Chuck Schaffer, John E. Simmons/Julianne Snider, and Kevin de Quiroz.

The symposium included an open exhibition of most of the original publications written by Linnaeus and his students relating to herpetology.

A study tour to a library of the Missouri Botanical Garden with the immense holding of Linnaean original publications was organized immediately after the symposium and shared luncheon. Our thanks go to Robert E. Magill and James C. Solomon who so kindly opened up this unique library for the society members and shared the knowledge in demonstrating the books.

The business meeting for 2006 was held in New Orleans, on 16 July. The meeting was held in conjunction with the traditional luncheon with a fairly classic Louisianan ambiance and it had attracted 10 people. The Board members were reelected and the Treasurer's Report (Financial Statements) for the year ended 2005 was approved.

The Annual Business meeting for 2005 was held on July 9 in Tampa, Florida, USA
in conjunction with joint meeting of the three large American herpetological societies (HL/SSAR/ASIH). The meeting took place with the traditional shared luncheon by members and guests. Ten members attended the meeting.

The plan for an observation of Carl Linnaeus' 300th birthday that will occur in 2007 was discussed under Other Business. The meeting encouraged the idea of commemorating Linnaeus with a special symposium of Linnaeus contributions to herpetology and with an exhibition of original printed material by Linnaeus. The joint HL/SSAR/ASIH meeting that will be held in Saint Louis, USA was proposed as the place for the ISHBH assembly and symposium. The executive board members should form a steering group to pursue the idea.

The meeting in Norman, Oklahoma, USA.
The business meeting of the Society took place in conjunction with the joint meeting of the three large American herpetological societies (HL/SSAR/ASIH) in Norman, Oklahoma, USA, on Saturday, 29 May 2004. The meeting was attended by 14 members and was preceded by a shared luncheon with members and guests.

Executive Committee members Richard Wahlgren, Ron Javitch, and Aaron Bauer indicated their willingness to continue in their respective capacities as Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Meeting organizer respectively. Kraig Adler wished to be replaced on the Executive Committee as Secretary-Treasurer, and that Ralph Tramontano had requested to be relieved of his duties as editor of the Newsletter and Bulletin, although he was willing to continue to take responsibility for the publicaton's layout, the web site and related issues as Managing Editor. John Moriarty (USA) was proposed as a candidate for the position of Secretary-Treasurer and Patrick David (France) as a candidate for the position of Editor. The members unanimously approved the election. The Chairperson made a statement of appreciation for the contributions of Kraig Adler and Ralph Tramontano since the founding of the Society in 1998.

Following the meeting a group of 12 members were treated to a special guided tour of the world class University of Oklahoma History of Science Book Collection. This tour was arranged through the kind invitation and prearrangements of Dr. Marilyn Ogilvie, Professor of the History of Science and Curator of the History of Science Collection, and Dr. Victor H. Hutchison of the Department of Zoology. Highlights of the collection were first edition works by Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Mendel, some inscribed or annotated by the authors, as well as herpetological works by Aldrovandi, Lacepède and others. ISHBH members spent part of the visit inside the large, climate-controlled vault in the library, where they could browse through the large collection of rare books. Our thanks are dedicated to Dr. Ogilvie for a superb demonstration and to Dr. Hutchinson for making this behind the scene visit possible.

The meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.
St. Petersburg, Russia was the assembly point for the Business meeting of ISHBH in August. Seven members of the Society, including those new members who signed up at the meeting, attended the main venue, the congress of the Societas Europaea Herpetologica. The organizing committee and the Society arranged a well-received workshop on the history of herpetology with four speakers and one poster next to the meeting hall in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The presentations included information about the life and herpetological work of Linnaeus (R. Wahlgren), the history of herpetology at the Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg (N. Ananjeva), the life of Alexander Koenig and his family in St. Petersburg (N. Ivanova), the French confiscation of herpetological collections during the First Republic and Empire (A. Bauer and P. Daszkiewicz), and the 100th anniversary of the birth of two great Russian herpetologists, Sergius Chernov and Paul Terentjev (N. Ananjeva and I. Danilov).

The group had also been invited for a special display of the herpetological collections of the Institute's world famous library. It was a stunning experience. The Library of the Zoological Institute of St. Petersburg holds about 540, 000 items including a wealth of herpetological books of historical significance. On the table were a dozen unique books, among them Christopher Gottwald's atlas (1714) Museum Gottwaldianum with several folded plates of chelonians, known from three copies only, Johann Walbaum's Chelonographia (1782), and both a colored and an uncolored version of Albertus Seba (1734, vol. 1) Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri for the viewers to compare and appreciate the quality of both states of illustration. We thank the librarians, Mrs. Ludmila Grozdilova and Mrs. Julia Dunaeva, and their colleagues for the opportunity given to audience to view part of this remarkable library.

ISHBH's members tour to the Linda Hall Library.

Following the Annual Business Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, USA the delegates and guests had been invited for a pre-arranged study tour to the impressive privately funded Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology. Mr. Bruce Bradley, Librarian for History of Science and Special Operations, welcomed the group at the grandiose entrance to the library building, which is located in the middle of its 15-acre park-like property. The Linda Hall library is one of the world's leading collections of science, engineering, and technology. It holds more than one million volumes, from the fifteenth century to the present. Emphasis has been made on historical collections through fifty years of careful acquisitions.

Mr. Bradley (far left) and staff had, in preparation for our visit, made a special literature search to identify their collection of notable literature of all ages with herpetological significance. The staff had put on open display not only books that focus on herpetology alone but also numerous natural history books in which herpetology forms important parts. The relevant sections had been marked with slips of paper for easy browsing. Books for which the title does not indicate the herpetological contents are otherwise so easily overlooked. Mr. Bradley in his talk introduced the audience of the library and its history as well as some of the books he had laid out. The Linda Hall Library had also prepared a leaflet of the books on display including about 30 titles, most from the 17th and 18th century but also a few from the 19th century.

Of the very early books with substantial sections on herpetology were several editions of Konrad Gesner's mid-sixteenth century work, Historia animalium, including a scarce German abridgement with hand-colored woodcuts that is titled Thierbuch (1563.) Other encyclopedias of similar kind that followed Gesner are also represented in the collection, for example: Ulisse Aldrovandi (1640) Serpentum, et draconum historiae libri duo, Joannes Jonstonus (1652) Libri III. De serpentibus et draconib. The original massive folio by Albert Seba (1734-1765) Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descrptio, et iconibus artificiosissimis expressio had been described in the latest Newsletter & Bulletin, Vol. 3(2), by Aaron Bauer and it attracted naturally extraordinary interest. The books were too many for all to be mentioned here. The conversation that followed in the bus returning to the congress center was all about how rewarding the tour had been. We all thank the Linda Hall Library staff and especially Mr. Bradley for their great gesture in exhibiting the library for us.