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.