History of Bergey's Manual and the Trust

The first edition of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology was initiated by action of the Society of American Bacteriologists (now called the American Society for Microbiology) by appointment of an Editorial Board consisting of David H. Bergey (Chairman, pictured below), Francis C. Harrison, Robert S. Breed, Bernard W. Hammer and Frank M. Huntoon. This Board, under the auspices of the Society of American Bacteriologists who, then as now, published the Journal of Bacteriology as a service to science, brought the first edition of the Manual into print in 1923. The Board, with some changes in membership and Dr Bergey as Chairman, published a second edition of the Manual in 1925 and a third edition in 1930.

In 1934, during preparation of the fourth edition, Dr Bergey requested that the Society of American Bacteriologists make available the royalties paid to the Treasurer of the Society from the sale of the earlier editions to defray the expense of preparing the fourth edition for publication. The Society made such provision, but the use of the Society's fiscal machinery proved cumbersome, both to the Society and the Editorial Board. Subsequently, it was agreed by the Society and Dr Bergey that the Society would transfer to Dr Bergey all of its rights, title and interest in the Manual and that Dr Bergey would, in turn, create an educational trust to which all rights would be transferred.

Dr Bergey was then the nominal owner of the Manual and he executed a Trust Indenture on January 2, 1936, designating David H. Bergey, Robert S. Breed and Everitt G. D. Murray as the initial trustees, and transferring to the Trustees and their successors the ownership of the Manual, its copyrights and the right to receive the income arising from its publication. The Trust is a nonprofit organization and its income is used solely for the purpose of preparing, editing and publishing revisions and successive editions of the Manual and any supplementary publications, as well as providing for any research that may be necessary or desirable in such activities.

David H. BergeyRobert Stanley Breed, 1877-1956Everitt G. D. Murray, 1890-1964
David Henricks Bergey, Robert Stanley Breed and Everitt G.D. Murray

Since the creation of the Trust, the Trustees have published, successively, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth editions of the Manual (dated 1934, 1939, 1948, 1957, 1974 and 1994, respectively). In 1977 the Trust published an abbreviated version of the eighth edition, called The Shorter Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology; this contained the outline classification of the bacteria, the descriptions of all genera and higher taxa, all of the keys and tables for the diagnosis of species, all of the illustrations and two of the introductory chapters; however, it did not contain the detailed species descriptions, most of the taxonomic comments, the etymology of names or references to authors.

Other ventures in producing books to assist those engaged in bacteriology and bacterial taxonomy in particular include the Index Bergeyana (1966), a Supplement to Index Bergeyana (1981), and a planned future volume bringing the lists of published names up to date. The Trust is presently publishing the second edition of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, which has a much broader scope than the previous publications and is intended to act as the amplified source for revision of the determinative Manual.

Through the years the Manual has become a widely used international reference work for bacterial taxonomy. Similarly, the Bergey's Manual Trust has become international in its composition, in the location of its meetings and in the breadth of its consultations. In addition to its publication activities, the Trust attempts to foster and support various aspects of taxonomic research. One of the ways in which it does this is by recognizing those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to bacterial taxonomy, through its periodic presentation of the Bergey Award, an effort jointly supported by funds from the Trust and Williams & Wilkins (now Lippincott William & Wilkins)(1979-1998) and Springer-Verlag (1999-present).

A fuller account of the history and development of the Trust and the Manuals is printed in Vol. 2A of the Second Edition of the Systematics.


The Board of Trustees

James T. Staley, Chair
Department of Microbiology
University of Washington 357242
Seattle, WA 98195
USA
jstaley @ u.washington.edu

Michael Goodfellow, Vice-Chair
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
King George VI Building
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
United Kingdom
m.goodfellow @ ncl.ac.uk

William B. Whitman, Treasurer
Department of Microbiology
527 Biological Sciences Bldg.
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-2605
USA
whitman @ uga.edu

Frederick Rainey, Secretary
Department of Biological Sciences
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
USA
frainey @ lsu.edu

Paul De Vos
Vakgroep BFM WE10V
Laboratorium voor Microbiologie
Universiteit Gent, K L Ledeganckstraat 35
B-9000 Gent
Belguim
Paul.DeVos @ UGent.be

Peter Kämpfer
Institut für Angewandte Mikrobiologie
Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32 (IFZ)
D-35392 Giessen
Germany
Peter.Kaempfer @ agrar.uni-giessen.de

Karl Heinz Schleifer
Lehrstuhl fur Mikrobiologie
Technische Universitat Muenchen
Am Hochanger 4
D-85350 Freising
Germany
schleifer @ mikro.biologie.tu-muenchen.de


Former members of the Board of Trustees


Photographs from Trust Meetings

Please click here for photos from the 2007 meeting in Athens, GA

November 1960 at Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
Bergey's Manual Trustees, November 1960
Left to Right: G. Edsall, R.E. Buchanan, C.F. Niven, Jr, N.R. Smith and E.G.D. Murray
September 1985 at Stamford, UK
Bergey's Manual Trustees, September 1985
Left to Right: D. Brenner, P. Sneath, N. Krieg, J. Holt, J. Moulder, N. Pfennig, J. Staley, S. Williams, M. Bryant and R. Murray.
August 1997 at Sun River, OR, USA
Bergey's Manual Trustees, August 1997
Left to Right: J. Staley, S. Williams, G. Garrity, J. Holt, K. Schleifer, D. Brenner, N. Krieg, R. Castenholz, D. Boone and P. Sneath.

The Bergey Award

The Bergey Award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to bacterial taxonomy.

Awardees:


The Bergey Medal

The Bergey Medal is given in recognition of life-long contributions to the field of systematic bacteriology.

Bergey Medal front view Bergey Medal rear view

Recipients: