Practising taxonomy: Joel Asaph Allen and species-making (W. T. Stearn Prize 2017)

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-212
Author(s):  
Aaron Van Neste
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Zoological Nomenclature ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Public Displays ◽  
Specimen Collection ◽  
As Species ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Theoretical Issues

This article uses Joel Asaph Allen (1838–1921), naturalist and curator at New York's American Museum of Natural History (1885–1921), and the naturalists, collectors and other actors in his orbit to explore how taxonomists handled the concept of species during the field's acceptance and incorporation of evolutionary theory. The work of taxonomy can be characterized as “species-making”, the practice of defining and demarcating of species through examining collections of specimens. Allen occupied a liminal space between what could be called the theoreticians and the technicians of systematics. As the curator of major collecting and research enterprises in the United States, Allen was intimately involved in the practical details of specimen collection, including conducting and arranging field expeditions, describing bird skins and other specimen collections, arranging public displays, and securing patronage. At the same time, he published widely on theoretical issues such as zoological nomenclature and the definition of subspecies, expanded the study of biogeography, and helped professionalize zoology. This essay aims to illustrate how the multifarious threads of specimen collecting, taxonomy and professionalization interweave within the life of a single individual to present one facet of the nineteenth-century natural history: the normal taxonomist.

Bringing the Real World of Science to Children: A Partnership of the American Museum of Natural History and the City University of New York

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G Picciano ◽  
Robert V. Steiner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Development Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Museum ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American children surely have access to buildings and classrooms. However, because of a complex and competitive system of shared policymaking among national, state, and local governments, not all schools are created equal nor are equal education opportunities available for the poor, minorities, and underprivileged. One manifestation of this inequity is the lack of qualified teachers in many urban and rural schools to teach certain subjects such as science, mathematics, and technology. The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership model between two major institutions (The American Museum of Natural History and The City University of New York) and the program designed to improve the way teachers are trained and children are taught and introduced to the world of science. These two institutions have partnered on various projects over the years to expand educational opportunity especially in the teaching of science. One of the more successful projects is Seminars on Science (SoS), an online teacher education and professional development program, that connects teachers across the United States and around the world to cutting-edge research and provides them with powerful classroom resources. This article provides the institutional perspectives, the challenges and the strategies that fostered this partnership.

William Diller Matthew, 1871 - 1930

1932 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-74 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
The United States ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Vertebrate Palaeontology

William Diller Matthew was the eldest child of Dr. G. E. Matthew, of New Brunswick, an amateur geologist, who, by his great collections and excellent papers, added much to our knowledge of that part of Canada. Dr. Matthew was born on February 19,1871, in St. John, New Brunswick ; throughout his life he retained an interest in this town, visiting it yearly, except when abroad, and retaining his Canadian nationality during nearly forty years’ residence in the United States. Dr. Matthew was introduced to geological methods by his father, and sent at first to the small University of Halifax, whence in 1892 he proceeded to Columbia University as a graduate-student, there studying geology, mineralogy and metallurgy. He graduated Ph.D. in 1895. In that year he was selected by Professor H. F. Osborn, whose classes he had attended, as assistant in the department of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. In this department he worked for thirty-two years, finally becoming Curator-in-chief of the division of geology, mineralogy and palaeontology.

The Arctic ship Danmark

Polar Record ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell-G. Kjaer ◽  
Hilary Foxworthy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural History ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Main Task ◽  
World War ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
Southwest Greenland

The steam barque Danmark, used on Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen's expedition to northeast Greenland (1906–08), was originally a Scottish whaler named Sir Colin Campbell, built in 1855 in Sunderland. After nine years of whaling out of Peterhead, in 1865 Sir Colin Campbell started the transportation of cryolite from the mines of Ivigtut in southwest Greenland to the United States and several European ports. This trade lasted for 103 years, until 1968. In the early 1870s, the ship was sold to Norwegian owners, renamed Magdalena, fitted with a steam-engine, and used as part of the Tønsberg sealing fleet. In 1894 she was the ship in which Roald Amundsen made his first voyage to the Arctic. In 1905 Magdalena was chartered by the estate of William Ziegler for a relief expedition to Bass Rock, northeast Greenland, to search for members of the Fiala-Ziegler expedition. The next year she was sold to the Danmark-Expedition and renamed Danmark. The main task for the expedition was to survey the coast from 77°N to Independence Bay, an area that was completely unknown. In addition to geographical exploration, much ethnographical, ornithological, zoological, hydrographical, meteorological, and botanical work was carried out on the expedition. In 1909, Danmark was sold to the mining company Grønlandske Minedrifts Aktieselskab of Copenhagen. She made voyages every year to Greenland, returning with copper and graphite. In 1916 she was chartered by the American Museum of Natural History to bring home the members of the Crocker Land Expedition. When in December 1917 she returned to Denmark, her captain did not know that, in their two years' absence, the coastal signals had been changed due to conditions in World War I. Danmark grounded off Høganes, Sweden; condemned, she was sold to a breaker's yard, and her masts, sails, engine, and other fittings were sold at auction the following year.

STUDIES IN NEW WORLD PLECIA (DIPTERA, BIBIONIDAE) PART II

1942 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
D. Elmo Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
New World ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Of Kansas ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Cornell University ◽  
State College ◽  
Comparative Zoology ◽  
The University

The species discussed below have been received from the United States National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, Cambridge Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cornell University, Michigan State College, British Museum of Natural History, and Deutsches Entomologisches Institute, or are in the Snow Entomological Collection at the University of Kansas. The writer is very grateful to these institutions for the privilege of studying this material. These species will be keyed and figured in a forthcoming revision of the New World Plecia.

scholarly journals Selection of a lectotype for Brachycrus laticeps mooki Schultz and Falkenbach (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Merycoidodontidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4323 (3) ◽  
pp. 415
Author(s):  
BRYN J. MADER
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Catalog Number ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Specimen Number

In 1968 Schultz and Falkenbach described a new oreodont subspecies, Brachycrus laticeps mooki, from a locality 11 km (7 miles) southeast of Fort Logan, Meagher County, Montana. As a holotype for this new taxon, Schultz and Falkenbach (1968:369) designated both American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) specimen number 21321 (a skull) and AMNH 21322 (a left ramus). Although the citation of two separate catalog numbers as a holotype is highly unusual, Schultz and Falkenbach believed that the specimens cataloged under both numbers represent only a single individual. The use of the term ‘holotype’ was appropriate, therefore, although it would have been more common practice to place elements believed to represent a single individual under a single catalog number. Schultz and Falkenbach did not give a justification for their opinion that AMNH 21321 and AMNH 21322 represent the same individual, although they stated this belief in two publications (1941 and 1968). 

Manly Civilization in China: Harry R. Caldwell, the ‘Blue Tiger’, and the American Museum of Natural History

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (05) ◽  
pp. 1381-1414
Author(s):  
YING-KIT CHAN
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Home Town ◽  
Specimen Collection

AbstractThis article examines the transplantation of America's ‘manly’ civilization to 1920s Fujian, China, through the experiences of Harry R. Caldwell (1876–1970), a Methodist missionary whose hunting was central to his social evangelism. With his rifle, Caldwell protected Chinese villagers from man-eating tigers, taught them how to hunt tigers effectively, and enabled them to reconceptualize their relationships with tigers and nature. By engaging the American Museum of Natural History in his specimen collection and hunt for the mythical ‘Blue Tiger’, Caldwell introduced an economy of natural expeditions to the villagers who were hired to support the hunt. This article argues that Caldwell's experiences as both a missionary and a hunter in Fujian was an extension, or negotiation, of his rugged masculinity, which was fostered in his Tennessee home town. He identified as both a Christian and a hunter, and he did not see these parts of himself as distinct. A comparison between Caldwell and his contemporary, the British naturalist Arthur de Carle Sowerby (1885–1954), accentuates America's rugged masculinity by suggesting different national approaches to hunting and the growing professionalization of the naturalist.

scholarly journals Bringing the Real World of Science to Children: A Partnership of the American Museum of Natural History and the City University of New York

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G. Picciano ◽  
Robert V. Steiner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Development Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Museum ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American children surely have access to buildings and classrooms. However, because of a complex and competitive system of shared policymaking among national, state, and local governments, not all schools are created equal nor are equal education opportunities available for the poor, minorities, and underprivileged. One manifestation of this inequity is the lack of qualified teachers in many urban and rural schools to teach certain subjects such as science, mathematics, and technology.The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership model between two major institutions (The American Museum of Natural History and The City University of New York) and the program designed to improve the way teachers are trained and children are taught and introduced to the world of science. These two institutions have partnered on various projects over the years to expand educational opportunity especially in the teaching of science. One of the more successful projects is Seminars on Science (SoS), an online teacher education and professional development program, that connects teachers across the United States and around the world to cutting-edge research and provides them with powerful classroom resources. This article provides the institutional perspectives, the challenges and the strategies that fostered this partnership.

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