scholarly journals Mancala in Surinamese Maroon Communities: The Expedition of Melville J. Herskovits

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Akane Okoshi ◽  
Alex de Voogt
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
American Museum ◽  
History Of

Abstract The American Museum of Natural History (amnh) has three mancala game boards in their collection that are connected with Suriname, formerly Dutch Guyana. One of these samples is exhibited in the amnh African Peoples Hall as part of a section on African Slavery and Diaspora. The games of Suriname were described by Melville J. Herskovits in an article dating to 1929, but the relation of these three boards with Herskovits has remained unclear. With the help of the Herskovits archives, the archival records of amnh and recent research on Surinamese Maroon communities, the history of these three boards is shown to be intimately linked with Herskovits’ broader intellectual project.

Ceratopsia increase: history and trends

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dodson
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Taxonomic History ◽  
Peking University ◽  
History Of

The taxonomic history of the Ceratopsia began in 1876 with the description of Monoclonius crassus Cope followed in 1889 by Triceratops horridus Marsh. After a peak of discovery and description in the 1910s and 1920s resulting from the Canadian dinosaur rush in the province of Alberta and the Central Asiatic Expeditions to Mongolia of the American Museum of Natural History, the study of ceratopsians declined to a low level until the 1990s, when discoveries in China, Montana, Utah, Alberta, and elsewhere, abetted by increased biostratigraphic and phylogenetic precision, led to an unprecedented resurgence of activity. Even Richard C. Fox, along with colleagues from Peking University, joined in the activity, by naming Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis. To place the activity in historical perspective, half of all known ceratopsians have been described since 2003. Despite important finds of basal ceratopsians in China, Mongolia, and Korea, North America continues to dominate ceratopsian, especially ceratopsid, diversity.

Henry Fairfield Osborn and Jurassic Dinosaur Reconnaissance in the San Juan Basin, Along the Colorado-Utah Border, 1893-1900

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Brinkman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
San Juan ◽  
Eastern Slope ◽  
American Museum ◽  
San Juan Basin ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn, vertebrate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, did virtually all of his fieldwork by proxy. Working mostly from his New York office, he detailed a score of fieldworkers to locate and claim fossil localities in advance of collectors from rival museums. This history of a long-forgotten Jurassic dinosaur reconnaissance in the San Juan Basin, which was materially unsuccessful, explores how Osborn found and evaluated potential new field localities. He was relentless in pursuit of fossils, especially in the face of worthy competition. He received his first unsolicited tip about fossils along the Colorado-Utah border in 1893. A collector sent to scout the locality found Jurassic dinosaurs in poor condition and left them behind. Following a second tip about fossils in the same region in 1899—at the height of the second Jurassic dinosaur rush—Osborn sent two more expeditions to search the area. Both of these parties returned empty-handed also. Reliable locality data regarding the presence of typical Jurassic vertebrates would have been very useful to geologists like Whitman Cross, who was then attempting to correlate beds west of the Rockies with better-known strata on the eastern slope. But, in order to maintain a competitive advantage, Osborn kept this locality data to himself.

scholarly journals History of the natural history of Sable Island

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Ian A. McLaren
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
New England ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
American Museum ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biological Sampling ◽  
Extensive Collection ◽  
Modern Treatment

Documenting of natural history flourished with exploration of remote parts of North America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but the earliest published observations on the biota of Sable Island, along with casual observations in the journals of successive superintendents are vague, and emphasize exploitability. John Gilpin’s 1854 and 1855 visits were the first by a knowledgeable naturalist. His published 1859 “lecture” includes sketchy descriptions of the flora, birds, pinnipeds, and a list of collected marine molluscs. Reflecting growth of ‘cabinet’ natural history in New England, J. W. Maynard in 1868 collected a migrant sparrow in coastal Massachusetts, soon named Ipswich Sparrow and recognized as nesting on Sable Island. This persuaded New York naturalist Jonathan Dwight to visit the island in June-July1894 and produce a substantial monograph on the sparrow. He in turn encouraged Superintendent Bouteiller’s family to send him many bird specimens, some very unusual, now in the American Museum of Natural History. Dominion Botanist John Macoun made the first extensive collection of the island’s plants in 1899, but only wrote a casual account of the biota. He possibly also promoted the futile tree-planting experiment in May 1901 directed by William Saunders, whose son, W. E., published some observations on the island’s birds, and further encouraged the Bouteillers to make and publish systematic bird observations, 1901-1907. This account closes with Harold St. John’s 1913 stay on the island and his first truly modern treatment of the island’s flora in 1921. Little more was added before modern biological research was initiated, arguably with censuses and biological sampling of seals in the early 1960s.  

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