Legacy of Hans G. Kugler (1893-1986)

During his 45 years of professional life as a petroleum geologist in Trinidad and Venezuela Hans G. Kugler ha left behind a tremendous legacy consisting of fossil-, microfossil-, and rock collections from Trinidad, Venezuela, and Caribbean islands. These collections are accompanied by a unique archive of documents that trace in great detail research of Kugler and his team on the geology of Trinidad and Venezuela during the 1920ies through 1959. Kugler's team included micropaleontological like Hans Bolli, Jean-Pierre Beckmann, John Saunders, Paul Brönnimann, Hans Herman Renz, Robert M. Staunforth and many others.

Hans Kugler's archive consists of now 80++ archival boxes with professional correspondence, notes, sampling lists, (private) reports, conference reports, maps, geological sections, stratigraphic charts, well-logs, collections of fotos from outcrops and aerial fotography, and an extended library of geological, paleontological, and petroleum geology reprints, journals and books from the Caribbean area. Next to this boxed archive there is a map archive holding geological, topographic and cadastral maps on various scales, mainly about Trinidad, but also from Venezuela and various islands of the Caribbean arc. Furthermore, there are collections of fotos (prints, negatives, diapositives) showing outcrops, structural geology and sedimentological structures, type localities, but also impressions from the landscape and flora and fauna from Trinidad. Kugler filled a 65 fieldbooks, where his observations, samling and fotographs are systematically recorded.

Manuscript versions exist to George Higgins (1996) book "History of Trinidad Oil". Notably, the archive also contains original notes and text versions to chapters of Hans Kugler's manuscript on the "Treatise of the Geology of Trinidad", that was in part published post mortem by the Natural History Museum in Basel.

The Basel convolute is probably worldwide the most complete of Hans Kugler's works in the Caribbean area. Both, collections and information given in his archive are initimately linked and together they form a unique resource for future investigations on the stratigraphy and the geological history of Trinidad and Venezuela.

Hans Kugler's archive is currently distributed in various places in the museum:

• Geo-Archive room (Boxes 1-83 to Trinidad and Venezuela; field books, diapositive slides);
• K3 collection cellar (various reports and manuscripts, parts of foto collection, parts of maps, geological reprints collection);
• Attic of the museum (micropaleontological hand-library);
• Maps archive (geological and topographic maps);
• Room 13/-102 (Weisser Bär) (Metal cabinet "Foto archive J.B. Saunders & H.G. Kugler).

Archive Hans G. Kugler in the Geo-Archive Room:

(Boxes 1-83; field books, diapositive slides).

 

Standort

 

Archival boxes 1 through 83 (ex Banana Boxes 1-6), comprising

• Reports Trinidad, West Indies, Venezuela (ex Banana box 1).
• Manuscript texts Treatise on the Geology of Trinidad, mainly reports (ex banana box 2).
• Reports Trinidad, West Indies, Venezuela, formation descriptions (ex banana box 3).
• Kugler's original type written manuscript to the "Treatise on the Geology of Trinidad". Formation descriptions (ex Banana box 4).
• Printed scans of Kugler's original version of the Treatise. Keep for better readability than the original (ex Boxes 4' and 4'').
• Kugler's early reports and Trinidad formation descriptions (ex Banana Box 5),
• Geologigal Spot Maps of Trinidad, private reports and hand-written notes on the geology of Trinidad, Early stratigraphic files of H.G. Kugler. Various sample lists with Kugler numbers from various localities and type localities in Trinidad. See late publication of Detailed geological Maps and sections of Trinidad (ex Banana Box 6).
• Standort Field books of H.G. Kugler. (ex Box 10).

Archive Hans G. Kugler in the K3 collection cellar:

(various reports and manuscripts, parts of foto collection, parts of maps, geological reprints collection) [ex office J.B. Saunders].

Standort

• Card catalogue used for compilation of the literature references in Kugler's Treatise on the Geology of Trinidad (2001, edited by H.M. Bolli and M. Knappertsbusch). Part 1 was received from H.M. Bolli on 7.6.1999. Part 2 was an additional catalogue with literature references cited in the Treatise (Box 7).
• Trinidad photo collection. These pictures were found by M. Knappertsbusch (18.7.2000) in John B. Saunder's ex-office and most probably are early pictures taken by H.G. Kugler at various places in Trinidad. The pictures are now sorted in the alphabetical register in approximately the same order as they were originally found when hold together by rubber bands. The accompanied type-writte lists were together with these fotos, but there was no obvious ordering in these pictures. Some pictures show old type localities for planktonic foraminifers, others show H.G. Kugler and other stratigraphic pioneers in the field, and many show outcrops of famous geological formations Trinidad. The hand-written list summarizes the localities (sometimes noted on the back-side of the pictures) in the register. See private report J.E. Kennedy (1964c) on photos from Soldado well 114. This photo-collection is currently being digitized and referenced with an electronic index (work in progress by 15 July 2014). (Box 8).
• Registration cards for hand library of H.G. Kugler, with Kugler numbering system. All cards that were found in ex-office of J.B. Saunders were integrated in this register. (Box 9). Standort
• Geological Conference Reports and files (Box 11).
• Dissertations Caribbean area. Various authors from 1955-1967, including areas in Venezuela, Virgin Islands, Isla of Margarita, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Columbia, Guatemala). (Box 12).
• Unpublished reports # 1 to 24 of H.G.Kugler on the Geology of Barbados. Information given in these reports is relevant the Barbados collections of J.B. Saunders and A. Senn. (Box 13).
• Bibliographic card catalogue of A. Senn or ? H.G. Kugler, with references to the geology of Trinidad and Venezuela. 7.6.2005 Ex archive behind "Gygi Room". (Box 14).
• A wooden box containing a card catalogue with short descriptions of Trinidad and Venezuela Formations in alphabetical order, some with outcrop drawings or detailed descriptions of Kugler sampling localities. (Box 15).
• History of Trinidad Oil (ex office J.B. Saunders): See Archive John B. Saunders.
• Hand-library H.G. Kugler (ex office J.B. Saunders). Mainly geology, paleontology, and petroleum geology reprints, distributed in smaller archive boxes with yellow back side, e.g.,
  • Collection of H.G. Kugler's separata, No. 1-2983. For register cards see Box 9. Note: all micropaleontological literature were extracted from this collection and integrated in the general micropaleontology separata collection, which is now in office Weisser Bär 105 (M. Knappertsbusch). Many of these papers may contain special reference to materials collected by H.G. Kugler and which is held at the NMB, but which is not finally curated. Of the extracted references a xerox copy of the front cover was made and deposited in two folders alongside to H.G. Kugler's hand library (in order to maintain integrity). The two folders are entitled "Titel + No vom Mikropal. Referenzen. . .).
  • Hand library - Flora and Fauna of Trinidad.
  • Hand library - miscellaneous literature on the geology of Venezuela, Trinidad, Caribbean, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Columbia.
  • Hand library - Publications authored by H.G. Kugler.
  • Hand library - on the person of H.G. Kugler.
  • Appendix A to hand-library of H.G. Kugler: Reprints collection of Ken Barr (3 boxes (I to III), containing papers on the paleontology and petroleum geology of Trinidad (I), and general and paleoceanographic papers about Caribbean area and the Atlantic (II) and (III).

Archive Hans G. Kugler in the Attic of the museum:

(micropaleontological hand-library).

Micropaleontological reprints in the former hand library of Hans Kugler are separately kept alongside the other micropaleontological working- and hand libraries from various former workers at the NMB in the Attic of the museum.

Archive Hans G. Kugler in the Maps archive:

(geological and topographic maps from Trinidad, Venezuela, and other Caribbean areas).

[ex office J.B. Saunders].

Standort: Lista-units in the "Jurakeller, Room 1/-102".

Trinidad:

A larger number of cadastral sheets of the government of Trinidad are deposited at the NMB, which were used by H.G. Kugler for geological mapping and sample location. On these sheets many of H.G. Kugler and J.B. Saunders samples are indicated. These maps are deposited in Lista-unit 16 in the maps archive in the "Jurakelle, Room 1/-102".

Next to these maps are also deposited the various original sheets of the geological map of Trinidad, which were hand colored and produced by H. Kugler.

 

Additional geological, topographic, and cadastral sheets from Trinidad, together with large format aerial photographs (scale 1:2500) from selected Trinidad areas are deposited in the maps archive in the "Jurakelle, Room 1/-102", in Lista unit 15).

 

 

Venezuela:

(deposited in the Lista-units in the "Jurakelle, Room 1/-102") (ex office J.B. Saunders).

 

Hans G. Kugler was also very actively prospecting in Venezuela. The NMB holds and curates a large fundus of geological reports, geological and topographic maps including sampling and spot-maps, geological sections, and geological sketches from various areas in Venezuela, see the maps archive in the Jurakeller, Room 1/-102 (for example in Lista unit 16). For a survey of areas included see the PhD thesis of Hunter, V.F. (1979). The biostratigraphy and geological definition of the Mid-Tertiary stratigraphic unit of northern Venezuela and adjacent areas. Another useful compendium for local stratigraphic nomenclature in Northern and Northeastern Venezuela is the stratigraphic lexicon available under http://www.pdvsa.com/lexico/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archive Hans G. Kugler in Room 13/-102 (Weisser Bär)

(Metal cabinet "Foto archive J.B. Saunders & H.G. Kugler).

 

Standort2 (metal-cabinet).

With the John Saunders legacy shipment from 23 novembere 2018 an extended set of printed black & white fotographs and a large number of color diapositives arrived NMB showing a wide range of sujets including outcrop photographs during geological excursions, aerial fotographs, birds and plants, historical fotographs, but also fotos from Hans G. Kugler and other friends & collaborators of John Saunders while living in Trinidad during the 1950-1960ies. They add great value to the documentation of the history of industrial petroleum exploration in Trinidad and the Caribbean islands during those times.