Voyage to Inner Space

Specimens in the collections are beautiful, diverse, and usually dried out or suspended in jars of alcohol. It's rare to come across a live specimen in a museum. Many features—color, iridescence, full shape—are partially sacrificed in their preservation. In this way, images can seem closer to life than the physically preserved specimens themselves.

The images below are from kodachrome slides of specimen images that were formerly part of the George M. Gray Museum of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Most of the photos were taken during the 1960s, when some of the first equipment for underwater photography really began to advance for use in research. Lighting was a challenge, but could be captured by using flash and taking photos from a close distance. The remaining darkness that surrounds specimens in the images holds a certain solitude that one might expect to find in outer space. Earth's inner space, with all its marine aliens, exists with the same awe, revulsion, and fascination that we have imagining life in other places.

The Gray Museum's entire non-plant collection was transferred to the Peabody in 1994. The slim cardboard boxes of kodachrome slides are now shelved in the IZ archives: Accn. No. 7830. All images are of New England invertebrates (specimen information at bottom of page).

1. Tubularia couthouyi Agassiz, 5.0x, MBL Sea Table, Woods Hole, MA. 31 January 1966
2. Polymastia robusta Verrill, "fingers" 3cm long, 7mi off Chatham, MA. 30 October 1964
3. " 6cm across
4. Gonionemus vertens A. Agassiz, Great Harbor, Woods Hole, MA. Photo by W. Amos. 16 July 1965
5. "
6. "
7. Hydractinia echinata Fleming, 0.7x, Barnstable Harbor, MA. 26 July 1966
8. "
9. Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Desor), off Fisheries Jetty, Woods Hole, MA. 27 August 1965
10. Halcampa duodecimcirrata (Sars), MBL, Woods Hole, MA. Photo by P.A. Shave. March 1967
11. Ceriantheopsis americanus (Verrill), 0.7x, Buzzards Bay, MA. 30 June 1966
12. " 5.0x
13. Haloclava producta Stimpson, Photo by G.G. Lower. (date n/a)
14. Metridium senile Linnaeus, 0.4x, Sandwich Jetty, MA. 4 June 1965
15. Metridium senile Linnaeus, Crab Ledge, off Chatham, MA. Photo by P.J. Oldham. 30 September 1969
16. Stylochus zebra (Verrill), Waquoit Bay, MA. Photo by W. Amos. 26 August 1965
17. Buccinum undatum Linnaeus, shell repair, Quoddy Head, Lubec, ME. Photo by P.J. Oldham. 18 August 1970
18. Buccinum undatum Linnaeus, Photo by P.A. Shave. March 1967
19. Colus stimpsoni (Mörch), Crab Ledge, off Chatham, MA. Photo by P.J. Oldham. 30 September 1969
20. Placopecten magellanicus (Gmelin), Photo by P.A. Shave. March 1967
21. "
22. Cadlina laevis (Linnaeus), Waquoit Bay, MA. Photo by: W. Amos. 15 June 1965
23. Ancula gibbosa (Risso), 5.0x, Sandwich Jetty, Cape Cod Canal, MA. 6 December 1965.
24. Coryphella pellucida (Alder & Hancock), 0.3x, Quicks Hole, Vineyard Sound, MA. 22 April 1965
25. Coryphella gracilis (Alder & Hancock), 3x, Cape Cod Canal, MA. 23 March 1966
26. Coryphella verrucosa rufibranchialis (Johnston), Cape Cod Canal, Sandwich, MA. 23 October 1966
27. Eteone trilineata Webster & Benedict, 1.5x, adult with eggs, Cape Cod Bay, MA. 7 February 1966
28. Autolytus prolifer (Müller), 5.0x, female with eggs, Great Harbor, Woods Hole, MA. 7 June 1966
29. Cirratulus grandis Verrill, about 15cm extended. June 1968
30. Loligo pealeii LeSueur, Photo by P.J. Oldham. August 1969