Charles M. Breder Jr. Collection, 1914-2004
| Mote Marine Laboratory




Dr. Charles M. Breder Jr. was an experimental and behavioral ichthyologist. Dr. Breder’s pioneering research in ichthyology helped draw attention to the west coast of Florida. He was the mentor and long-time friend of Mote’s founder, Dr. Eugenie Clark, who is known world-wide as the “Shark Lady.” He served as interim director of Mote Marine Laboratory in 1967 and spent many years as research associate in residence and member of the board of directors at Mote.
Dr. Breder is known for his work on the reproductive, schooling, and social behaviors of fishes, with a special interest in flying fishes and fish locomotion, as well as the evolution and behavior of blind cave characins (historical name) or characids from Mexico.[1] He was involved in new research and discoveries in bird banding, tarpon tagging, flying fish, fish locomotion, and fish sound recordings. In the mid 1930s Breder developed a method for hatching and growing flying fish larvae, and his research program at the New York Aquarium developed a way to control the progressive acidification of seawater in aquariums.[2]
Dr. Breder published over 160 papers and books over the course of his life, beginning at age 18. By age 21 he had published 15 popular articles and notes and had started his theoretical and experimental studies on fish locomotion.[3] In 1925 the New York Academy of Sciences awarded him the A. Cressy Morrison Prize for his pioneering and penetrating analysis of fish locomotion. Among his achievements he described at least 5 new genera and 23 new species.[4] In 1948 another ichthyologist, Fernández-Yépez, named a new species of belonid, Ichthyacus breederi, in honor of Dr. Breder. (The fish is now called Hyporhamphus brederi). Dr. Breder was affiliated with a variety of organizations throughout his life, including the United States Bureau of Fisheries, the New York Aquarium, the New York Zoological Society, the Lerner Marine Laboratory (Bimini), New York University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory (later Mote Marine Laboratory).
Dr. Breder’s work and papers span much of the 20th century. While his earliest works date from 1914 and his journals go well into the 1970s, the bulk of his papers appear to be from 1920-1945. While an exciting time for scientists, these interwar and World War II years formed a backdrop for the research done by prominent scientists of the day. Operating at the time was the Carnegie Lab in the Dry Tortugas, the Bass Biological Laboratory in Englewood, Florida, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and more. The scientific community shared common work locations and often corresponded. Another Mote Library Special Collection, the Bass Biological Laboratory, contains correspondence that illustrates the level of communication among scientists.
[1] Atz, 1986; Cantillo, 2001.
[2] Atz, pp. 854, 1986.
[3] Clark, 1995.
[4] Atz, pp. 855, 1986.
Author: Erin Manahey
Andros Island (Bahamas)
Bahamas
Battery Park (New York)
Bimini Islands (Bahamas)
bird banding
blue holes (Andros Island, Bahamas)
Breder, Ethel
Cabbage Key (Florida)
Cape Haze Marine Laboratory (Cape Haze, Fla.)
Carnegie Institute of Washington -- Tortugas Laboratory
Charlotte Harbor (Fla.)
Clark, Eugenie
Dry Tortugas (Fla.)
fish locomotion
flying fishes
hatchery
ichthyology
Key West (Fla.)
laboratory
larval fishes
Lerner Marine Laboratory (Bimini, Bahamas)
Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas (Florida)
Mexican blind cave fish
Nassau (Bahamas)
New York Academy of Sciences
New York Aquarium
New York Zoological Society
Osteichthyes
Palmetto Key (Florida)
Sandy Hook (New Jersey)
Sargasso Sea
Seahorse
Statue of Liberty
tarpon
teleosts
United States -- Bureau of Fisheries
West Indies - West Indies, British
Woods Hole (Massachusetts)

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Documents and Files:
"Useppa Inn, Useppa Island". Aerial view of island and surrounding water.
American Society of Icthyologists and Herpetologists
Atlantis Expedition
Atlantis Expedition
Bacon Andros Expedition
Bahamas and Florida
Bas-relief Tombleau de Ti, a Saqqarah
Battery (Park) from S.S. Ft. Hamilton
Breder Reprints and Publications
Breder studying flounder development
C. M. Breder Jr.
C. M. Breder on ship with equipment
C. M. Breder, Jr.
Charles M. Breder Field Journals: Bimini, Bahamas: 1946-1955
Charles M. Breder Jr.
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Bimini, Bahamas: 1946-1955
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Florida, 1958-1959
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Florida, 1959-1960
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Florida, 1960-1961
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Florida, 1963
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Florida, 1963-1964
Charles M. Breder Jr. Field Journals: Florida, Grand Cayman, & Jamaica, 1972-1974
Charles M. Breder Jr. on board the boat "Seahorse" collecting specimens
Charles M. Breder Jr. profile
Charles M. Breder Jr., portrait
Charles M. Breder Jr.: Field Journals:Bimini, Bahamas: 1946-1955
Charles M. Breder Jr.: Florida, 1961-1963
Charles M. Breder Jr.: Personal Bibliography, Personal Chronography, and Lectures, 1915-1978
Charles M. Breder, Jr. : drawings
Dr. C. M. Breder with model prepared by him to illustrate the locomotion of fishes
Drawings
Dry Tortugas
Fish swimming
Florida
Flying fish
Hypothetical Considerations
Key West
Key West
Laboratory, Aquarium and Hatchery at Woods Hole
Life History Data
New Hampshire and New Jersey
New York Aquarium at Battery Park, Manhattan closes its doors, October 1, 1941
Nine fish swimming
Palmetto Key
Palmetto Key, Florida
Pound nets near Sandy Hook
Reprint: “A Preliminary Checklist of Fishes of the central Gulf Coast of Florida, Explanatory Notes.” In MTR A-1967, Cressey, Roger and Sylvia A. Earle. Checklist of Biota: Central Gulf Coast of Florida. Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, 1967.
School of fish swimming
Statue of Liberty
Tender "Triton" which took me ashore British cruiser in background
The Anchorage, Bimini, B.W.I.
Trip to Dry Tortugas
Two men by a hanging shark at a dock. Beryl Chadwick and Oley Farrer
View from Barro Colorado Laboratory, Gatun Lake