John Burroughs Medal
Encyclopedia
The John Burroughs Medal, named for nature writer John Burroughs
(1837–1921), is awarded each year in April by the John Burroughs Association
to the author of a book that the association has judged to be distinguished in the field of natural history
.
John Burroughs
John Burroughs was an American naturalist and essayist important in the evolution of the U.S. conservation movement. According to biographers at the American Memory project at the Library of Congress,...
(1837–1921), is awarded each year in April by the John Burroughs Association
John Burroughs Association
The John Burroughs Association was founded in 1921 to commemorate the life and works of author/naturalist John Burroughs . Administered out of offices at the American Museum of Natural History, the Association owns the John Burroughs Sanctuary at West Park, in the town of Esopus, New York...
to the author of a book that the association has judged to be distinguished in the field of natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
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List of recipients of the John Burroughs Medal
- 1926 - William BeebeWilliam BeebeWilliam Beebe, born Charles William Beebe was an American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author...
, Pheasants of the World - 1927 - Ernest Thompson SetonErnest Thompson SetonErnest Thompson Seton was a Scots-Canadian who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America . Seton also influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting...
, Lives of Game Animals - 1928 - John Russell McCarthy, Nature Poems
- 1929 - Frank M. Chapman, Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America (published 1906)
- 1930 - Archibald RutledgeArchibald RutledgeArchibald Hamilton Rutledge was an American poet and educator, the first South Carolina poet laureate from 1934 to 1973. He wrote over 50 books and many poems, usually about his hunting and life experiences in South Carolina.-Biography:...
, Peace in the Heart - 1931 - no award
- 1932 - Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Voyage: A Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition ISBN 0-8165-0880-1
- 1933 - Oliver P. Medsker, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter (set)
- 1934 - W.W. Christman, Wild Pasture Pine
- 1935 - no award
- 1936 - Charles Crawford Gorst, Recordings of Bird Calls
- 1937 - no award
- 1938 - Robert Cushman MurphyRobert Cushman MurphyRobert Cushman Murphy was an American ornithologist and former Lamont curator of birds for the American Museum of Natural History....
, Oceanic Birds of South America - 1939 - T. Gilbert PearsonThomas Gilbert PearsonThomas Gilbert Pearson , usually known as T. Gilbert Pearson, was an American conservationist and one of the first faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was a founder of the National Association of Audubon Societies, which became the National Audubon...
, Adventures in Bird Protection - 1940 - Arthur Cleveland BentArthur Cleveland BentArthur Cleveland Bent was an American ornithologist. He is notable for his encyclopedic 21-volume work, Life Histories of North American Birds, published 1919-1968 and completed posthumously....
, Life Histories of North American Birds (18 title series, United States Government Printing Office) - 1941 - Louis J. Halle, Jr., Birds Against Men
- 1942 - Edward A. ArmstrongEdward Allworthy ArmstrongEdward Allworthy Armstrong was a British ornithologist and Church of England clergyman.Armstrong was the author of a number of ornithological books, including Bird display: an introduction to the study of bird psychology , The Wren and The study of bird song...
, Birds of the Grey Wind - 1943 - Edwin Way TealeEdwin Way TealeEdwin Way Teale was an American naturalist, photographer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. Teale's works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930 - 1980...
, Near Horizons: The Story of an Insect Garden - 1944 - no award
- 1945 - Rutherford Platt, This Green World ISBN 0-396-09188-1
- 1946 - Florence Page Jaques and Francis Lee JaquesFrancis Lee JaquesFrancis Lee Jaques was an American wildlife painter.Francis Lee Jaques hunted and trapped with his father and connected with editors and writers from major hunting magazines. While still a teenager, Lee paid ten dollars to buy a taxidermy shop in Aitkin. He toughed out a few winters scarcely...
(illustrator), Snowshoe Country ISBN 0-87351-236-7 - 1947 - no award
- 1948 - Theodora Stanwell-Fletcher, Driftwood Valley ISBN 0-87071-524-0
- 1949 - Helen G. Cruickshank, Flight Into Sunshine: Bird Experiences in Florida
- 1950 - Roger Tory PetersonRoger Tory PetersonRoger Tory Peterson , was an American naturalist, ornithologist, artist, and educator, and held to be one of the founding inspirations for the 20th century environmental movement.-Background:...
, Birds Over America ISBN 0-396-08269-6 - 1951 - no award
- 1952 - Rachel CarsonRachel CarsonRachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
, The Sea Around UsThe Sea Around UsThe Sea Around Us is a prize-winning 1951 bestseller by Rachel Carson about oceanography, marine biology and the ecosystem within and around the world's oceans and seas. It is the second book Carson wrote, following the well-reviewed but poor-selling Under the Sea Wind , and is the book that...
ISBN 0-451-61873-4 - 1953 - Gilbert KlingelGilbert KlingelGilbert Klingel was a naturalist, boat-builder, and adventurer, author, and contributor to the Baltimore Sun, for a time affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and a long time member of the Maryland Natural History Society...
, The Bay ISBN 0-8018-2536-9 - 1954 - Joseph Wood KrutchJoseph Wood KrutchJoseph Wood Krutch was an American writer, critic, and naturalist.Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he initially studied at the University of Tennessee and received a masters degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University. After serving in the army in 1918, he travelled in Europe for a year with friend...
, The Desert Year ISBN 0-8165-0923-9 - 1955 - Wallace Byron Grange and Olaus J. MurieOlaus MurieOlaus Murie , called the "father of modern elk management", was a naturalist, author, and wildlife biologist who did groundbreaking field research on a variety of large northern mammals. He also served as president of The Wilderness Society, The Wildlife Society, and as director of the Izaak Walton...
(illustrator), Those of the Forest ISBN 1-55971-083-7 - 1956 - Guy MurchieGuy MurchieGuy Murchie , the son of Ethel A. and Guy Murchie Sr., was a Chicago Tribune photographer, staff artist and reporter, who had served as a war correspondent in England and Iceland from 1940 to 1942. He was briefly married to Barbara Cooney , with whom he shared two children...
, Song of the Sky - 1957 - Archie Fairly Carr, The Windward Road: Adventures of a Naturalist on Remote Caribbean Shores ISBN 0-8130-0639-2
- 1958 - Robert Porter Allen, On the Trail of the Vanishing Birds
- 1959 - no award
- 1960 - John Kieran, A Natural History of New York City ISBN 0-8232-1086-3
- 1961 - Loren EiseleyLoren EiseleyLoren Eiseley was an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer, who taught and published books from the 1950s through the 1970s. During this period he received more than 36 honorary degrees and was a fellow of many distinguished professional societies...
, The Firmament of Time ISBN 0-8032-6739-8 - 1962 - George Miksch SuttonGeorge Miksch SuttonGeorge Miksch Sutton was an American ornithologist and bird artist. He published numerous technical papers in ornithology as well as more popular works illustrated with his own art. His early artistic work was inspired and tutored by Louis Agassiz Fuertes...
, Iceland Summer: Adventures of a Bird Painter ISBN 0-8061-0491-0 - 1963 - Adolph MurieAdolph MurieAdolph Murie , the first scientist to study wolves in their natural habitat, was a naturalist, author, and wildlife biologist who pioneered field research on wolves, bears, and other mammals and birds in Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska...
, A Naturalist in Alaska ISBN 0-8165-1168-3 - 1964 - John Hay, The Great Beach: A Naturalist Explores the Frontier Between Land and Sea on the Outer Reaches of Cape Cod ISBN 0-345-02255-6
- 1965 - Paul Brooks, Roadless Area ISBN 0-345-25276-4
- 1966 - Louis DarlingLouis DarlingLouis Darling, Jr. was an American illustrator, author, and environmentalist. He is best known for his illustrations for the original editions of Silent Spring and the Henry Huggins series.-Biography:...
, The Gull's Way ISBN 0-688-21366-9 - 1967 - Charlton Ogburn, Jr., The Winter Beach ISBN 0-688-09418-X
- 1968 - Hal BorlandHal BorlandHal Borland was a well-known American author and journalist. In addition to writing several novels and books about the outdoors, he wrote "outdoor editorials" for The New York Times for more than 30 years, from 1941 to 1978.-Early life and education:Hal Borland was born on the plains in Sterling,...
, Hill Country Harvest - 1969 - Louise de Kiriline LawrenceLouise de Kiriline LawrenceLouise de Kiriline Lawrence was an internationally renowned naturalist, author and nurse. She was the most prolific contributor to the National Audubon Society magazine Audubon.- Publications :...
, The Lovely and the Wild ISBN 0-920474-43-8 - 1970 - Victor B. Scheffer, The Year of the Whale
- 1971 - John K. Terres, From Laurel Hill to Siler's Bog ISBN 0-8078-4426-8
- 1972 - Robert S. Arbib, The Lord's Woods: The Passing of an American Woodland ISBN 0-393-08639-9
- 1973 - Elizabeth BarlowElizabeth Barlow RogersElizabeth Barlow Rogers is a landscape designer, landscape preservationist and writer, whose lasting memorial is the revitalization of Central Park, New York, under her guidance as the first Central Park Administrator, and through the Central Park Conservancy, a private not-for-profit corporation...
, The Forests and Wetlands of New York City - 1974 - Sigurd F. OlsonSigurd F. OlsonSigurd F. Olson was an American author, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario...
, Wilderness Days ISBN 0-394-47155-5 - 1975 - no award
- 1976 - Ann Haymond ZwingerAnn ZwingerAnn Haymond Zwinger is author of many highly-regarded natural histories noted for comprehensive detail and lyrical prose.-History:Ann Haymond Zwinger was born 1925 March 12 in Muncie, Indiana, the daughter of William and Ann Haymond....
, Run, River, Run ISBN 0-06-014824-1 - 1977 - Aldo LeopoldAldo LeopoldAldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
, A Sand County AlmanacA Sand County AlmanacA Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There is a 1949 non-fiction book by American ecologist, forester, and environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Describing the land around the author's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin, the collection of essays advocate Leopold's idea of a "land ethic", or a...
ISBN 0-915024-15-2 - 1978 - Ruth Kirk, The American Southwest Desert ISBN 0-395-17209-8
- 1979 - Barry LopezBarry LopezBarry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns.-Biography:...
, Of Wolves and Men ISBN 0-7432-4936-4 - 1980 - no award
- 1981 - Mary Durant and Michael Harwood, On the Road with John James Audubon ISBN 0-396-07740-4
- 1982 - Peter MatthiessenPeter MatthiessenPeter Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award-winning American novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist...
, Sand Rivers ISBN 0-906053-22-6 - 1983 - Alexander F. Skutch, A Naturalist on a Tropical Farm ISBN 0-520-03802-9
- 1984 - David Rains WallaceDavid Rains WallaceDavid Rains Wallace is an author of more than sixteen books on conservation and natural history, including The Monkey's Bridge and The Klamath Knot . He has written articles for the National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and other groups...
, The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution ISBN 0-520-23659-9 - 1985 - Mark Owens and Delia Owens, Cry of the Kalahari ISBN 0-395-64780-0
- 1986 - Gary Paul NabhanGary Paul NabhanGary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, and writer whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement....
, Gathering the Desert ISBN 0-8165-0935-2 - 1987 - Robert Michael PyleRobert Michael PyleRobert Michael Pyle is a lepidopterist and author who has published twelve books and hundreds of papers, essays, stories and poems. He has a Ph.D. from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He founded the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in 1974...
, Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land ISBN 0-684-18321-8 - 1988 - Tom HortonTom HortonDr. Thomas "Tom" Horton, Sr. is a fictional character on the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives. He was played by Macdonald Carey from 1965 until his death in 1994.-Storylines:...
and Charles R. Hazard (illustrator), Bay Country ISBN 0-8018-3525-9 - 1989 - Lawrence Kilham, On Watching Birds ISBN 0-930031-14-8
- 1990 - John McPheeJohn McPheeJohn Angus McPhee is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, widely considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction....
, The Control of Nature ISBN 0-374-12890-1 - 1991 - Richard NelsonRichard Nelson (author)Richard K. Nelson is a cultural anthropologist and writer whose work has focused primarily on the indigenous cultures of Alaska and, more generally, the relationships between people and nature.He is the host to a public radio series called Encounters aired nationally.Nelson was born and raised in...
, The Island Within ISBN 0-86547-404-4 - 1992 - Kenneth S. Norris, Dolphin Days: The Life and Times of the Spinner Dolphin ISBN 0-393-02945-X
- 1993 - Vincent DethierVincent DethierVincent Gaston Dethier was an American physiologist and entomologist. Considered a leading expert in his field, he was a pioneer in the study of insect-plant interactions and wrote over 170 academic papers and 15 science books. From 1975 until his death, he was the Gilbert L...
, Crickets and Katydids, Concerts and Solos ISBN 0-674-17577-8 - 1994 - David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica ISBN 0-436-20049-X
- 1995 - Craig PackerCraig PackerDr. Craig Packer is an ecologist. His research interests include ecology of infectious diseases, ecosystem processes in African Savannahs, and conservation strategies for mitigating problem-animal conflicts. Packer is currently the director of the Lion Research Center and co-founder of Savannahs...
, Into Africa ISBN 0-226-64429-4 - 1996 - Bill Green, Water, Ice and Stone:Science and Memory on the Antarctic Lakes ISBN 0-517-58759-9
- 1997 - David QuammenDavid QuammenDavid Quammen is a science, nature and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Outside, Harper's, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Book Review....
, The Song Of The Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction ISBN 0-684-80083-7 - 1998 - John AlcockJohn Alcock (behavioral ecologist)John Alcock is an American behavioral ecologist and author. He is currently the Emeritus' Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. His research interests include the evolution of diversity in insect populations, studying the adaptive value of different ways in which...
, In a Desert Garden:Love and Death Among the Insects ISBN 0-8165-1970-6 - 1999 - Jan DeBlieuJan DeBlieuJan DeBlieu is an American writer whose work often focuses on how people are shaped by the landscapes in which they live. Her own writing has been influenced by her adopted home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina....
, Wind: How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land ISBN 0-395-78033-0 - 2000 - Bernd HeinrichBernd HeinrichBernd Heinrich, Ph.D , is a professor emeritus in the biology department at the University of Vermont and is the author of a number of books about nature writing, behavior, biology, ecology, and evolution. Heinrich has made major contributions to the study of insect physiology and behavior, as...
, Mind Of the Raven ISBN 0-06-017447-1 - 2001 - David M. Carroll, Swampwalker's Journal ISBN 0-395-64725-8
- 2002 - Ken LambertonKen LambertonKenneth J. Lamberton is an American writer and former teacher. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Lamberton attended the University of Arizona, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. He was working as a science teacher in Mesa, Arizona in...
, Wilderness and Razor Wire ISBN 1-56279-116-8 - 2003 - Carl SafinaCarl SafinaCarl Safina is president and co-founder of the , and author of several writings on marine ecology and the ocean, including the award winning and .-Biography:...
, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival ISBN 0-8050-6228-9 - 2004 - Ted Levin, Liquid Land: A Journey Through The Florida Everglades ISBN 0-8203-2512-0
- 2005 - Robin Wall KimmererRobin Wall KimmererDr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is Associate Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry . She is the author of numerous scientific articles, and the book Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses...
, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses ISBN 0-87071-499-6 - 2006 - Donald Kroodsma, The Singing Life of Birds ISBN 0-618-40568-2
- 2007 - Ellen MeloyEllen MeloyEllen Meloy was an American nature writer.-Life:She graduated from Goucher College with a degree in art, and from the University of Montana with a master's degree in environmental studies...
, Eating Stone: Imagination And The Loss Of The Wild ISBN 0-375-42216-1 - 2008 - Julia Whitty, The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific ISBN 0-618-19716-8
- 2009 - Franklin Burroughs, Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay ISBN 0-884-48282-0
- 2010 - Michael Welland, Sand: The Never-Ending Story ISBN 0-520-26597-1