Orphaned

The Hedberg Collection
A collection of South American (Venezuelan) specimens were transferred to TMM after Gulf Oil Company closed one of its paleontological laboratories. Early in his career Hollis Dow Hedberg worked in eastern Venezuela describing both Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphic sections.

The Kemp Collection
Augusta Hasslock Kemp was a high school teacher in Abilene, Texas, collecting fossils from the late 1920’s until the 1960’s . She and her students made extensive collections of Pennsylvanian and Permian specimens mainly, but not exclusively, from Baylor County. After completing her college studies (M.S., 1910) under Samuel Wendell Williston at the University of Chicago, A.H. Kemp moved to Seymour, Texas, and gradually built up this very important collection. She donated her collection of about 5000 specimens to the BEG shortly before her death in 1963. Learn more about her research in the Journal of Paleontology, #31(3). (May, 1957), pp. 591-594.

The Ball Collection
The Oscar M. Ball collection was moved from Texas A&M University to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and thence to TMM in 1979. It is an important collection largely composed of Eocene plant material. O.M. Ball worked on these specimens during the 1930’s publishing several monographs and papers. The collection contains type and figured specimens. View the O.M. Ball Collection catalog.

The ETSU Collection
This collection, formerly held by Joan Echols at East Texas State University( now Texas A&M University–Commerce ), was adopted by Texas Memorial Museum upon Echols’ retirement. The collection includes Mesozoic and Cenozoic vertebrates, now held by the VPL, and Mesozoic invertebrates now held by NPL. One especially important aspect of the invertebrate collection is its beautiful ammonite specimens. Upon her death in 2013, Echols bequeathed her entire collection to the Jackson School of Geosciences.