Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Copies of digital files may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
Joseph R. Geraci (1938-2015) was a veterinarian and professor who specialized in marine mammal medicine and aquatic wildlife conservation. His papers contain research notes, lectures, photographs and slides, reports, audiovisual materials, and books related to his studies and analyses of marine mammals. Materials range in date from 1854 to 2012.
Dr. Joseph R. Geraci (1938-2015) was a scientist, veterinarian, and a leading expert in marine mammal medicine and aquatic wildlife conservation. He was a professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada from 1973 to 1995 and a clinical professor at Tufts University from 1994 to 1996. In 1997 he became the National Aquarium in Baltimore's deputy executive director, which was a position he held until 2005. From 2005 to 2006 Geraci was the president of the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut. Geraci was often asked to investigate and advise on issues related to marine mammal health for government agencies in the United States, Canada, Spain, and Brazil.
Joseph R. Geraci was born January 16, 1938 in Lawrence, Massachussetts. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Suffolk University in Boston in 1959. He then earned a V.M.D. from the Universtiy of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine in 1963. Between 1964-1966 Geraci studied ichthyology at New York University and then went on to receive a doctorate in 1970 from McGill University in Montreal, Canada at its Institute of Oceanography. Geraci also worked as an associate curator at the New York Aquarium from 1965 to 1966 and a curator and pathologist at the Montreal Aquarium from 1966 to 1969.
Geraci worked as a professor, first in the Department of Zoology at the University of Guelph from 1973 to 1978 and then in the Department of Pathology at the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College from 1978 to 1995 where he directed its marine mammal program. When he was appointed to be the National Aquarium in Baltimore's deputy executive director in 1997 he helped guide the aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Program to care for numerous stranded animals and help return many of them to their natural habitats. Geraci wrote and co-wrote over 120 journal articles, 21 book chapters, and seven books, including a handbook for veterinary students called Marine Mammal Care.
Besides his work in universities and aquariums, Geraci was also the founding editor of the journal, Marine Mammal Science, a founding member of the International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine and the Society for Marine Mammalogy, and on the founding board of the National Marine Life Center in Bourne, Massachusetts. Geraci compiled numerous government-contracted reports about marine mammal health and led investigations of mass marine mammal deaths in Canda, the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. In 2010 he was appointed to the National Academy of Science's Committee to study the effects on marine mammals of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Joseph R. Geraci died at the age of 77 in 2015 from cancer.
The Joseph R. Geraci Papers collection, 1854-2011, contains research notes and material, lectures, photographs, photo slides and negatives, reports, manuals, audiovisual material, and books relating to Joseph R. Geraci's work in marine mammal medicine and aquatic wildlife conservation. The collection also includes documents from the National Marine Life Center. While the collection contains material produced as early as 1854 and as late as 2010, most of the items are from the 1960s through the 1990s. The majority of the collection is photographic materials.
This collection is arranged in six series: Research and Professional Materials, Slides and Photographs, Reports and Publications, Audiovisual Material and Born Digital Materials, Correspondence, and Books
The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries’ “Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain,” the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy’s "Is It Protected by Copyright?," and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.
The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.
[Identification of item], Joseph R. Geraci Papers, MC 00663, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Gift of Brent Whitaker, February 2019 (Accession no. 2019.0058) and gift of Laurie Allen, August 2019 (Accession no. 2019.0225), and February 2023 (Accession no. 2023.0024).
Processed by: Samantha Thorne, Phillip MacDonald, and Hannah Chapman, 2020 August. Addition processed by Frances Fleming, May 2023.
The collection is organized into six principal series:
The Research and Professional Activities series, 1854-2006, contains notes and copies of articles related to Joseph R. Geraci’s marine mammal research. There are also lecture notes, experiment notes, a book manuscript, scrapbooks, personal planners, news clippings covering Geraci's career, and a curriculum vitae (box 3, folder 2). The majority of the research notes summarize information of interest from articles that Geraci read, or compiled data found in multiple articles. Much of the notes are undated, and container dates are derived from article publication dates, some of which are much earlier than Geraci’s lifetime. Most of the research materials were likely created during the 1960s to the 1990s.
The development of the National Marine Life Center is another notable topic found in this series. These materials include meeting minutes, diary notes, news clippings, correspondence, and proposals.
This series is arranged alphabetically.
Contains photos, news clippings, correspondence, and printed pamphlets.
Primarily contains news clippings, newsprint, and University of Guelph periodicals.
Most articles pertain to the sudden epidemic of dolphin deaths in the 1980s that Gerci linked to red tide.
The Photographic Materials series, 1964-2005, contains photographs, photo slides, and photo negatives of Joseph R. Geraci's work and research in marine mammal medicine. This includes photographic materials of marine mammal anatomy, disease studies, and oil effects studies especially for cetaceans and pinnipeds. This series also includes photos from Geraci's travels later in his life. The photos were taken at a variety of places including Maine, Virginia Beach, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, and the Bahamas. These photographic materials make up the majority of the Joseph R. Geraci Papers collection.
This series is arranged alphabetically.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Photographs by Micheal Geraci
Included is 1 JPEG image of Jay Sweeney, Bill Medway, and Joseph Geraci.
Files are arranged as received.
Access to digital copies will be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
File count of digital media may exclude system files; hidden, deleted, or excluded files; and duplicate files.
This is a printout of the digital image described above. Image is of Jay Sweeney, Bill Medway, and Joseph Geraci.
This is one of Joseph R. Geraci's original metal boxes in which he organized and stored photograph slides. This box contains slides of personal photographs including photos of trips and excursions, pets, and a wedding. The photographs were taken in various locations including Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, Boston, Salisbury Beach, Rockaway Beach, Marblehead, Massachusetts, and the Merrimack River.
This photo was found among the newspaper clippings it was accessioned with (2023-0024), so it may be related to news coverage of Geraci's work on red-tide related dolphin deaths.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
This is one of three sets of slides that came in different slide boxes. The boxes all had the same title, but their contents are not identical, and each contained a different range of dates.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
This is one of three sets of slides that came in different slide boxes. The boxes all had the same title, but their contents are not identical, and each contained a different range of dates.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Some of these cards have dates that predate Geraci's life (1909, 1923), making it likely that they were collector's items, not personal correspondence.
This photo came from a folder full of convocation materials, but did not look related to the other materials.
These photos did not come in an envelope. This folder contains the photos left over after processing the accession carton.
The envelope these photos came in included the notes "G7 Herschell; 1985 Whales above the ground; NEA disseration"
Only John, Cheryl, Scott, and Bill were named title of the envelope that contained this photo, but there are more individuals depicted.
The envelope that originally contained this photo set was labelled "Brian + Catherine Naylor," but the individual photos do not directly identify these individuals.
The enevelope these photos came from dated them to 2004, but they appear to depict the same trip as the other set of Connemara travel photos, which was dated to 2003.
The envelope that originally contained these photos mentioned Maurizio, his helicopter buddy, and wife, but these people are not identified on the photos themselves.
The envelope that contained these photos included "LKA Jo So" in the title. This is assumed to be an abbreviation.
Because many negatives in this collection relate to biology, it is likely that these negatives may display magnified cells.
The International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine records that Jay Sweeney received the William Medway award in 2002, but the original envelope listed the date as "1998?"
The Reports and Publications series, 1914-2002, contains official reports about marine life care prepared for agencies such as the U.S. Department of the Interior, the World Wildlife Fund Canada, and the Marine Mammal Commission. It also includes conference proceedings, journal articles, dissertations, field guides, and manuals, including first and second edition copies of Joseph R. Geraci's Marine Mammal Care. While the series spans 1914 to 2002, most of the materials were published during the 1970s to the 1990s.
This series is arranged alphabetically by title.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
The Audiovisual and Born-Digital Materials series, 1971-2010, contains videotapes, film, CDs, DVDs, and audiocassettes about marine wildlife and conservation topics. The majority of the series is VHS tapes produced in the 1990s. The series also includes a CD with an interview with Joseph R. Geraci from 2010, a CD with a digital copy of a field guide for marine mammal strandings that Geraci co-wrote, and a DVD that celebrates Geraci's life.
Materials in this series may be related to materials in other series in this collection.
This series is arranged alphabetically by title. Digital files are arranged as received.
This series contains digital media. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advance notice beyond the usual 48 hours. Pending staff review and approval, access will be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request. Access may be restricted.
File count of digital media may exclude system files; hidden, deleted, or excluded files; and duplicate files.
VHS; 45 minutes
Included are 23 MPEG video files and 24 DVD backup files.
Access to digital copies will be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
Super 8mm film reel
VHS; 8.5 minutes
VHS; 19 minutes
8mm film reel; approximately 45-50 feet
Microcassette
VHS
CD-ROM
VHS
VHS; runtime: 0:30:15
VHS (2 copies); runtime: 0:15:50
VHS; runtime: 0:16:49
VHS; approx. runtime: 35 minutes
VHS
VHS (2 copies)
VHS; 7 minutes
Super 8mm film reel
VHS
VHS
VHS; 8.5 minutes
VHS; 60 minutes
VHS; runtime: 0:11:16
VHS
VHS; TRT 15:50
1/4 inch audio tape (reel-to-reel).
1/4 inch audio tape (reel-to-reel).
The original boxes also included the note: "Mr Geraci, U of C, Guelph."
Super 8 Cartridge, Kodachrome II, 50 ft.
1/4 inch audio tape (reel-to-reel).
1/4 inch audio tape (reel-to-reel).
16mm film roll.
This note was found folded and tucked inside the box containing the Inia Feeding Film tape. It was likely the letter that accompanied the film in the mail.
VHS Tape
Note on back of the box adds that the recording includes a "conversation with Edward Walters, Canadian press correspondent from St John's Nfld, re sealing history, etc."
1/4 inch audio tape (reel-to-reel).
1/4 inch audio tape (reel-to-reel).
DVD
The back of the CD's case describes this as an updated, digital version of Geraci's book _Marine Mammals Ashore: A Field Guide for Stranding._ The case also indicates that NOAA and the National Aquarium in Baltimore were sponsors.
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
The correspondance series, 1972-1988, contains several letters and cards, unrelated to Joseph R. Geraci's research. Other correspondance pertaining specifically to research projects may be housed with related materials.
This series is arranged alphabetically.
All materials in this folder were found together in the "Green Scrapbook, Primarily University of Guelph Materials" listed under the "Research and Professional Materials" series.
The Books series, 1944-2011, is comprised of published books about marine life and veterinary medicine. The series includes books from the United States, Ukraine, Japan, Israel, New Zealand, Great Britain, and Canada.
This series is arranged alphabetically by author.
Ph.D. Thesis.
Appears to be self-published.
Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Copies of digital files may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
For more information contact us via mail, phone, or our web form.
Mailing address:
Special Collections Research Center
Box 7111
Raleigh, NC, 27695-7111
Phone: (919) 515-2273
[Identification of item], Joseph R. Geraci Papers, MC 00663, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries’ “Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain,” the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy’s "Is It Protected by Copyright?," and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.
The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.