Wachsmuth, Charles & Springer, Frank; The North American Crinoidea Camerata. Harvard Museum Comparative Zoology, Memoir 20 & 21, 1897. Small folio, three volumes. Volume one, pp. 360, text illustrations. Volume two, pp. 360-837, text illustrations. Volume 3, atlas, 83 plates and corresponding text pages.
The set is complete and in the original title wraps with each volume in the original stiff boards with paper cover labels, string ties and black cloth spines. The covers on the atlas have been re-backed, a very minor damp margin on lower edge of one text volume at beginning, over all a very good set with the atlas volume inscribed to American geologist Edward M. Shepard from Springer.
Wachsmuth (1829-1896) was a self educated invertebrate paleontologist who immigrated from Germany to America for health reasons and spent the remainder of his life collecting and studying crinoids. Springer (1848-1924) an American attorney was also a self educated paleontologist who devoted his free time to studying crinoids especially from his home state of New Mexico. With the encouragement of Louis Agassiz the two collaborated on the above work which took over 20 years to research and publish. Once Agassiz saw the extent and importance of the work he arranged for its publication by the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The work begins with a historical background on the study of crinoids. The bulk of the work is devoted to a morphological and then a systematic description of all the known North American species of the Camerata. The exquisitely detailed plates supplement the work.