Papers of Earl Murray, Scripps Institution of Oceanography staff research associate and expert deep diver. The collection consists of material from the U.S. Navy's SeaLab II project including Murray's journals and logs, papers relating to his diving and consulting career, photographs and slides, and one original film.
Earl Murray Papers, 1951-1982 (MSS 772)
Extent: 1.4 Linear feet (2 archives boxes and 1 film)
Earl Murray (born in 1927 in Alamogordo, New Mexico) was a staff research associate and laboratory technician at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1952-1977. Murray was well-known for his deep diving experience and underwater photography skills. Murray's diving expertise supported numerous expeditions and research programs at Scripps and for the government, including: serving on the University of California SCUBA Safety Board and California state-wide SCUBA boards, 1953-1974; reconnaissance diving and photographing the wreck of the Andrea Doria off Nantucket in 1956; stabilizing buoys during experimental Mohole drilling and the Deep-Sea Drilling Expedition in 1960-1961; participating in the dives of Jacques Cousteau's diving saucer Soucoupe in the submarine canyons off La Jolla and Baja California, Mexico in the 1960s; and serving as an aquanaut with the U.S. Navy's "Man in the Sea" SeaLab II project, living in an underwater habitat for 15 consecutive days at 210 feet. Murray died in 2009 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Papers of Earl Murray, Scripps Institution of Oceanography staff research associate and expert deep diver. Half of the collection consists of material from the U.S. Navy's SeaLab II project, including Murray's journals and logs, a recording of a radio interview with Murray, photographs, and situational reports. The remainder consists of miscellaneous papers relating to his diving and consulting career, including correspondence, drawings for instruments and equipment, contracts, materials on diving off the Southern California coast, photographs, slides, and one original film.
Arranged in three series: 1) SEALAB II; 2) MISCELLANEOUS; and 3) PHOTOGRAPHS, SLIDES AND FILM.