The Bingham Oceanographic Collection traces its roots to New York City,
where in 1925 Harry Payne Bingham privately founded what was to become
an important institute for oceanographic research. In 1927 the Bingham
collections were transferred to a new home at Yale, where they were
administered as an independent unit until 1959. In that year the BOC was
incorporated into the collections of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology and the Division of Vertebrate Zoology (ichythology).
The Bingham Oceanographic Collection focused its early research
efforts primarily on the Caribbean. From this material many new species
of fish were described by A.E. Parr and various invertebrates were ultimately described by M.D. Burkenroad (peneid shrimp) and Grace E. Pickford
(flatworms, vampyromorph cephalopods, octopods) and others. The BOC
also sponsored a wide range of expeditions to conduct basic
oceanographic research. Some of these were jointly sponsored by the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution using that organization’s research
vessel, the R/V Atlantis. Many of the scientific results of the BOC were chronicled in the Bulletin of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection.