More About Us
The Library of Herpetology (LOH) was the dream of Bob Ashley, Director of the Chiricahua Desert museum and President of ECO Wear & Publishing, Inc. Groundbreaking was in 2023, and it was completed in spring 2024. Bob began collecting books at age 14. He was preoccupied with purchasing every book in herpetology that became available to him. In the early 1980s, trying to acquire new books in this field was challenging. But in coming years the number of books published on amphibians and reptiles increased dramatically. And so did Bob’s library.
In the mid-1990s, to sustain his passion, Bob was in the book business: he purchased, traded, and sold books on herpetology, which expanded his base and allowed him to acquire hard-to-obtain titles for his growing collection. By the late 1990s, Bob published his first project, which was a magazine index to the six major reptile magazines being published at that time. In 2001, Bob and Sheri were married and founded the North American Reptile Breeders Conference (NARBC) with business partner, Brian Potter. Similarly, Sheri developed an especially popular line of ball caps with over 180 different wildlife designs, while Bob focused on publishing books. Today, ECO Publishing has over 50 books spanning natural history, herpetology, herpetoculture, anthropology (e.g., Native Americans), and western history. These businesses provided a financial conduit for Bob and Sheri to acquire rare and antiquarian titles in herpetology for the collection that is currently present in LOH.
Many dear friends, fellow bibliophiles, colleagues, and academics have made valuable contributions to LOH, making it among the largest and most valuable collections in the world. The late Chuck Shafer donated his extensive library on herpetology which included many rare and global works on turtles (Chelonia). Other donations are from the late Dr. Ronald Nussbaum, professor emeritus, University of Michigan, late Dr. David Hardy, Sr., and late Dr. Richard Zwiefel, former Director of the Southwestern Research Station, AMNH, Portal, AZ. Many rare and obscure works at LOH are from Manny Rubio and Dr. Kraig Adler, Cornell University. Contributions of books and other materials have come from other individuals, including Dr. Gordon W. Schuett, Dr. Charles F. Smith, and Ms. Theresa Moran. Today, the LOH is a magnificent and free resource intended for established researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and other interested parties.