Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition to the Tropical Pacific, in Charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer "Albatross" from August, 1899, to March, 1900, Commander Jefferson F Moser, U. S. N., Commanding. III. Medusae, TOGETHER WITH 4 additional monographs on medusae by A. G. Mayer by Mayer, Alfred Goldsborough and Agassiz, Alexander - 1894 - 1906

Cambridge, MA: Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1894 - 1906. First edition.

1894-1906 FIVE MONOGRAPHS ON MEDUSAE WITH SUPERB PLATES BY PIONEERING EXPERT IN THE BIOLOGY (AND BEAUTY) OF JELLYFISH. 5 monographs on medusae in printed paper covers: 1) A. Agassiz and A. G. Mayer. Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition to the Tropical Pacific, in Charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer "Albatross" from August, 1899, to March, 1900, Commander Jefferson F Moser, U. S. N., Commanding. III. Medusae, [ii], (139-) - 175, 13 color lithographed plates, 1 large folding color map, 1902; 2) A. G. Mayer. Memoirs of Natural Sciences Vol. I No. 1. Medusae of the Bahamas, 33 pp, 7 heliotype plates, 1904; 3) A. G. Mayer. Cruise of the Steam Yacht "Wild Duck" in the Bahamas, January to April, 1893, in Charge of Alexander Agassiz. III. An Account of Some Medusae Obtained in the Bahamas. [ii], (235-) - 242, 3 color lithographic plates, 1894; 4) A. G. Mayer. The Variations of a Newly Arisen Species of Medusa. Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences Science Bulletin Vol I, No. 1. 27 pp, 2 lithographic plates, April, 1901; 5) A. G. Mayer. Rhythmical Pulsation in Scyphomedusae, Carnegie Institution, Washington, 62 pp, 36 figures, 2 photographic plates, 1906. Light surface wear, corners bumped, small institutional handstamps and/or notations to some covers, texts and plates unmarked and very good.

ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYER (1868-1922) ) was an American marine biologist and zoologist of German descent whose fascination with medusae (jellyfish) marked a turning point for biology. Mayor's most recognized work originated from his work as a successful marine biologist. He published his first book about jellyfish in 1910 titled Medusae of the World, which documented his many studies of species of jellyfish around the world (see copies of this scarce book on this website). He studied under Alexander Agassiz, and together they explored the medusae of the Pacific aboard the Albatross, leading Mayer to publish many new species (examples offere here). In 1907 Mayor founded the Tortugas Laboratory on Garden Key (today Fort Jefferson National Monument), maintained by the Carnegie Institution for Science, where each summer marine biologists studied the life of the coral reef.

ALEXANDER AGASSIZ (1835 – 1910), son of Louis Agassiz was an American scientist and engineer. Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and immigrated to the United States with his father, Louis, in 1849. He graduated from Harvard University in 1855, subsequently studying engineering and chemistry, and taking the degree of bachelor of science at the Lawrence scientific school of the same institution in 1857; and in 1859 became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey. Thenceforward he became a specialist in marine ichthyology. Agassiz was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1862 Up until the summer of 1866, Agassiz worked as an assistant in the museum of natural history that his father founded at Harvard. In 1875, he surveyed Lake Titicaca, Peru, examined the copper mines of Peru and Chile, and made a collection of Peruvian antiquities for the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), of which he was first curator from 1874 to 1885 and then director until his death in 1910. Between 1877 and 1880 he took part in the three dredging expeditions of the steamer Blake of the Coast Survey, and presented a full account of them in two volumes (1888). In 1896 Agassiz visited Fiji and Queensland and inspected the Great Barrier Reef, publishing a paper on the subject in 1898.