Student of and eventual successor to Erwin Barbour as Director of the Nebraska State Museum (Morrill Hall), Schultz joined Morrill Hall staff in 1927, earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska in 1931, and succeeded Erwin Barbour as Director of the State Museum in 1941, the same year Schultz received his doctoral degree from the University.
For over five seasons of exploring and collecting, beginning in 1929, Schultz was to lead the famed South Party expedition, which enriched the collections of Morrill Hall and transformed the study of vertebrate paleontology and early man in North America. The South Party eventually also included the young Loren Eiseley and T. Mylan Stout. In 1973, some forty years later, Eiseley dedicated a book of poetry "to the bone hunters of the old South Party... 1931-1933.. and to C. Bertrand Schultz." The digs also cemented the partnership between Schultz and Mylan Stout, who would be life-long scientific collaborators.
Schultz (always working together with his wife, paleontologist Marian Schultz), Erwin Barbour, and T. Mylan Stout are among the most distinguished of American vertebrate paleontologists, founders of modern American vertebrate paleontology.
Schultz published hundreds of scientific articles with his wife and research partner. They studied in over 60 countries. Schultz represented the University for over 35 years in a cooperative paleontologic and geologic research project with the Frick Laboratory of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. During his tenure as the Director of Morrill Hall, Schultz enhanced the fossil collections, saw the opening of the Ralph Mueller planetarium and numerous exhibits at the museum. Schultz helped found and lead the Nebraska Academy of Science.
The Lincoln City Libraries Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors Archive includes the Loren Eiseley--C. Bertrand Schultz correspondence, 1934-1978 in the Nebraska Academy of Sciences Eiseley Donation.
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