RS CORWIN AT THE US BUREAU OF FISHERIES & MILWAUKEE PUBLIC 
MUSEUM

Joan P. Jass
Invertebrate Section, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee WI 53233

Roy S. Corwin did research on the "propagation of freshwater mussels for pearl button 
purposes" while working for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries from 1917-1921 out of the 
Fairport IA and Homer MN Stations.  This work was the basis for two articles on raising 
freshwater mussels in enclosures, published in the 1920 Transactions of the American 
Fisheries Society.  The following year Corwin joined the Milwaukee Public Museum 
(MPM) staff and donated to MPM specimens related to his former Mississippi River 
work:  1) perforated shells from Lake Pepin fishermen, 2) several lots collected by John 
M. Holzinger, and 3) a set of 22 examples of principal species used in the pearl button 
industry.  In 1925 MPM staff members conducted fieldwork to prepare for the creation of 
a Mississippi River Fishery habitat diorama.  The museum crew received the cooperation 
and assistance of the Bureau of Fisheries in securing materials for this exhibit.  Activities 
of fishery workers were documented on motion picture film, including that of 
commercial clammers near "Stram's Point" in the vicinity of Lynxville, Wisconsin.  The 
short film from this work has now been re-discovered and is maintained in the museum's 
Photo Archives along with still photographs taken by MPM zoologist T.E.B. Pope during 
this fieldwork, providing documentation of historic Mississippi River fisheries and 
fisheries research.

Keywords: Roy S. Corwin, Mississippi River, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, Milwaukee 
Public Museum, pearl button industry