Talk:Walter Norman Koelz

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Page scope

Walter Norman Koelz is a biography of a specimen collector. Its specimen table lists the accession records whose collector field resolves to this page through the redirect W. N. Koelz.

Data verification

Record source conflicts, label readings and unresolved identifications here. Keep narrative content on the article.

Discussion

Source conflicts on dates

Start at Urusvati. Bartlett (1957) dates Koelz's connection with the institute to 1929–1932 and his travels with Rup Chand to 1929. The institute's report for 1929–30 records his arrival at Naggar on 28 May 1930, and the Bentley finding aid gives May 1930. The article follows the report.
Bureau of Fisheries. Bartlett says Koelz was with the Bureau until 1925. The Bentley finding aid says he resigned a government appointment in 1927, and the Smithsonian Institution Archives record (RU 7274) gives 1919–1927 and again 1930. The article gives no end date.
Department of Agriculture. Bartlett gives 1934–41, the Bentley finding aid "by January 1936" and the Smithsonian record 1935–41. USDA Inventory No. 120 already lists seed "presented by Dr. Walter Koelz, University of Michigan" received on 5 September 1934. The article says "from the mid-1930s".
Iran. Bartlett gives 1940–1946; the Bentley finding aid gives December 1939 to January 1946. The article follows the finding aid. The published diary covers 1939–1941.
Bird collection. The Bentley finding aid gives more than 50,000 specimens; Bartlett gave 55,000 in 1957. The article cites the finding aid.

The melon

Erlanson, as quoted by Bartlett, names no disease, year or accession number for the Calcutta melon. USDA Inventory No. 131 lists melon seed that Koelz collected at Calcutta on 2 April 1937 (P.I. 124111–124113), and GRIN keeps P.I. 124111 and 124112 as differential lines, but no source consulted ties Erlanson's account to those numbers. The Bentley finding aid dates the rescue of the California crop to the 1950s. The article reports Erlanson and the Meyer Medal without naming an accession.

Koelz 1979

Only the first page of "Notes on the ethnobotany of Lahul" was read; the rest is behind the publisher's paywall. The article cites the paper for page 1 only. The paper may contain an entry for cannabis that has not been consulted.

Unconsulted works

Two works about Koelz were not available: Carla M. Sinopoli's The Himalayan Journey of Walter N. Koelz (2013) and Carolyn Copeland's biographical introduction to Persian Diary, 1939–1941 (1983). Notes compiled when the page was created, 16 September 2026.