Robert C. Speed (1933-2003) Papers

The Robert C. Speed Papers are arranged in 48 boxes (37 standard archival boxes, 1 legal size archival box, 5 drop front flat boxes, and 5 rolled map boxes).  The collection is organized into six series: Teaching Files, Nevada Files, Barbados Files, Caribbean Files (Non-Barbados), Citations, and Maps. The bulk of the collection consists of field notes, data sets, and drafts for the creation of geologic maps and publications, many of which are included here.  There is also a significant amount of material relating to teaching and student research.  Much of the correspondence is with other geologists concerning research, mapmaking, and joint publications.

The Teaching Files are contained in 3 boxes. They contain lecture notes, transparencies, and some syllabus information. Almost none of the files contain references to date or year, although the course titles and numbers can be cross-referenced with historical course catalogs in the Archives.

The 13 boxes of Nevada Files span the years 1953-2005 and contain correspondence, field notes, maps, annotated aerial photographs, manuscripts, student material, and publications by Speed and others. The order present in the accessions was largely retained, with some of the Nevada publications arranged at the end of the series. Correspondence, manuscripts, and publications located in the midst of field notes were left in those locations, since they evidently referred to surrounding materials in an interrelated fashion.

The Barbados Files fill 13 boxes (12 regular boxes, and one legal-sized box of Oversized Barbados Files at the end of the collection) and span the dates of 1848-2002.  This series contains correspondence, field notes, maps, photographs, manuscripts, student material, and publications by Speed and others. The basic structure and arrangement present in the accessions was retained.  Most correspondence, field notes, and publications are arranged together, except when situated in the midst of other material.  The bulk of the series consists of research material focused on the authoring of original maps.

The 7 boxes of Caribbean Files (Non-Barbados) cover mostly St. Croix, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela, along with some general material on the geology of the Caribbean area.  The structure and content of this series is consistent with the rest of the collection: correspondence, field notes, maps, photographs, manuscripts, student material, and publications by Speed and others, arranged in essentially the order in which it was accessioned.

The 2 boxes of Citations consist of publications that reference works by Robert Speed on the areas of Barbados, the Caribbean, and Nevada.

The Maps series fills 5 flat boxes and 4 long, rolled-material boxes.  The series contains reference maps; drafts and sections of original maps; and completed/published maps by Speed. They are predominantly undated. Many of the Nevada materials were photographed digitally by geologist Christopher Henry of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in the fall of 2008 and are viewable as TIFs on DVDs 157-160 in the University Archives' DVD collection (Accession #08-166, Series 11) under the title of, "Robert Speed Nevada Geologic Maps."  While visiting the Archives, Christopher Henry graciously created formal descriptions of each Nevada map for the Finding Aid.