Robert J. Behnke papers, 1957-2000

The Robert J. Behnke papers include an array of created and collected material representing his many years as a consultant with experts, students and interested parties on his specialty of studying the trout and salmonid families of fishes. The first series of the collection consists of general research topical files containing information about genetics, water conditions (limnology), management of fisheries and conservation challenges for fish populations, on the locations of many species of fishes around the world with concentration on the Northwest regions of the U.S. and research about the various specific species within his specialty. The second series consists of focused research, based on Behnke's publications, teaching, and consulting work. These topical files pertain to published and unpublished books and papers, professional and personal correspondence, reprinted articles of a wide variety of studies, drafts of manuscripts, photocopied or original articles and newspaper clippings, legal papers related to his consulting work with fishery and water issues, reports and studies by universities, fish and wildlife agencies and other related groups. He participated in symposia on fishes, and retained student papers and theses of interest to him. Also present are materials from his teaching classes in various aspects of fish species and environment. There are photos, maps, diagrams for use in published works, memorabilia, and papers related to organizations and societies for which he had membership.

Dr. Behnke's method of retaining many of his research papers depended on their placement in topically labeled envelopes, with a wide variety of photocopied journal articles, correspondence, notes, and other materials all retained together. In the processing of his papers, the retention of those envelope contents was considered a priority, making a division of materials based on document type impractical. Therefore, although there are folders of "correspondence" per se, many other letters can be found within the contents of topically labeled folders as well. Behnke also retained much of his correspondence in the envelopes they came in with notes of interest written upon the outside of those envelopes, necessitating the retention of both. Photocopied journal articles and journal offprints were also retained within the collection, although some, which bore no significant marginalia, were discarded if they were found to be readily available in the Montana State University Trout and Salmonid print collection or in online journal sources. In those discard cases, the photocopied title page, with citation information, was retained in the pertinent subject folder for research convenience.