Joseph Grinnell
Encyclopedia
Joseph Grinnell was a field biologist and zoologist. He made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as the Grinnell System. He served as the first director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
at the University of California, Berkeley
from the museum's inception in 1908 until his death.
He edited The Condor, a publication of the Cooper Ornithological Club
, from 1906 to 1939, and authored many articles for scientific journals and ornithological magazines. He wrote several books, among them The Distribution of the Birds of California and Animal Life in the Yosemite.
(1788–1885) and George Bird Grinnell
(1849–1938) who founded the Audubon Society.
The Grinnells moved to the Pine Ridge Indian Agency
in 1880.
In 1885 the Grinnell family moved to Pasadena, California
, but the collapse of Southern California's boom forced Dr. Grinnell in 1888 to accept a position at the Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
. The Carlisle Indian school commander was Captain Richard Henry Pratt
, a friend of the Grinnells.
Joseph Grinnell worked in a printing shop in Carlisle and collected his first specimen, a toad, before the family returned to Pasadena two years later.
. The captain obtained permission from the family to take young Grinnell with him. Grinnell sent home bird specimens of the San Francisco Bay area, enroute to Alaska. Captain Pratt completed his assignment and returned home. Grinnell remained in Alaska and continued collecting with the assistance of the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Haines, Alaska
.
Grinnell went on field trips throughout the area, including remote Saint Lazaria Island. An unintended overnight stay on the island enabled him to study storm-petrel
s, an account of which he published in the March 1897 issue of the Nidologist, an early publication of the Cooper Ornithological Club.
Grinnell's expanding collection attracted visitors who were tourists, summer residents and visiting naturalists, including John Muir
, Henry Fairfield Osborn
, and ornithologist Joseph Mailliard. Grinnell returned to Pasadena in the fall of 1897 where he continued field work in the nearby mountains and canyons.
. Grinnell corresponded regularly with his family, the letters were later compiled and edited into the book Gold Hunting in Alaska, published by David C. Cook Publishing Company in 1901.
Grinnell joined the Long Beach and Alaska Mining and Trading Company to Kotzebue Sound
, Alaska. The company landed at Cape Blossom
in Kotzebue Sound in July 1898. Grinnell collected and observed the summer migrant bird life; Gambel's sparrow, barn swallow, and Savannah sparrow, among others. By August, Grinnell had 75 bird specimens preserved, including a Siberian Yellow Wagtail. The miners spent the winter inland on the Kowak River, then returned to the coast that spring.
The company sailed on the Penelope to Cape Nome in July 1899. At Cape Nome, Grinnell's job was amalgamating
the gold using mercury. The gold stampede to the Nome area in the period 1899 - 1900 was Alaska's largest in both amount of gold recovered and population increase. The gold fields yielded more than $57 million from 1898 to 1910. The site is now a National Historic Landmark
, the Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites
.
In Grinnell's letters, he described a chaotic scene as "the entire eight miles there is scarcely one hundred feet without one or more tents on it ... our claims are now covered with beach jumpers and we cannot get them off. Mob law rules."
The Cooper Ornithological Club published Grinnell's field notes in 1900 as Pacific Coast Avifauna, no. 1.
) that autumn, where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1897.
In 1901 Grinnell received his Master's degree from Stanford University
. At Stanford, he met several influential people, among them were Edmund Heller
. Heller would later join an expedition to Peru in 1915 to explore newly discovered ruins of an Incan civilization at Machu Picchu
.
During his time at Stanford Grinnell formed the plan for a list of birds of California. He worked on that project for the next 38 years. He was finishing the third installment to Bibliography of California Ornithology when he died in 1939.
Grinnell supported himself at Stanford by teaching at Palo Alto High School
and working in Stanford's Hopkins Seaside Laboratory
. At Hopkins, Grinnell taught embryology in the summer of 1900 and in the summers of 1901 and 1902, ornithology.
Typhoid fever
interrupted Grinnell's academic track and he returned to Pasadena in 1903 to recover. Grinnell accepted an offer as biology instructor at Throop Polytechnic during this time. Grinnell finished his Stanford Doctorate requirements—essentially by mail—with submission of his thesis An Account of the Mammals and Birds of the Lower Colorado Valley with Especial Reference to the Distributional Problems Presented and received his Doctorate in Zoology on May 19, 1913.
Students of Grinnell's biology class at Throop included Charles Lewis Camp
and Joseph S. Dixon. Charles Camp would become the director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology
. Joseph Dixon would join John Thayer's sponsored expedition in 1913 to Alaska. The Thayer expedition almost perished when their ship became locked in ice 7 nautical miles (13 km) off the coast, east of Point Barrow
until the summer of 1914. Dixon collected specimens during this time, including a new species of gull, Larus thayeri which was named for the expedition's sponsor.
in May 1883. She was one of Grinnell's students at Throop and later his teaching assistant in zoology. Wood received her Bachelor's degree from Throop in 1906. The Grinnells moved to Berkeley in 1908 and in 1913, Hilda earned her Master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley
. She wrote articles for publications in The Condor and the Journal of Mammalogy and was a member of the American Ornithologists' Union and the California Academy of Sciences. Hilda Grinnell authored a 32-page biography entitled Joseph Grinnell: 1877 - 1939 in the January–February 1940 issue of The Condor.
Hilda continued Grinnell's work on The Distribution of the Birds of California; maintained Grinnell's system of bibliographic entries, consulted the catalogs for accuracy, and read proofs and copy with the book's junior author, Alden H. Miller.
, philanthropist
, naturalist and explorer, founded the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
at the University of California (UC) in 1908. Alexander named Grinnell as museum director the same year. She believed that Grinnell was the right choice as director to the point that she was prepared to withdraw the endowment if UC officials objected to Grinnell.
to Alexander, thanking her for her work and financial support. Satisfied of her commitment to research, he sent her a letter outlining specific points on field work that would maximize scientific results from the seven-member expedition.
Alexander returned to California in the summer of 1907. She invited Grinnell to view the Alaska specimens. During the Thanksgiving holiday he met with Alexander at her home. The pair exchanged ideas for a museum on the West Coast that would be on par with the institutions of the eastern United States, such as the Smithsonian Institution
. Alexander and Grinnell believed the fauna and flora of the western territory was fast disappearing as a result of human impact, thus detailed documentation was essential for both posterity and knowledge. This foresight proved useful almost a century later, when researchers at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology would use the Grinnell field notes to compare changes in California fauna.
Grinnell and Alexander differed on where the museum should be located. Grinnell advocated for Stanford while Alexander, impressed by the University of California (UC) paleontology lectures she had attended, determined that the museum would be at UC.
Alexander elaborated on the job requirements in a letter to Grinnell dated September, 1907 after she returned from Alaska: "I should like to see a collection developed (more especially of the California fauna) and would be glad to give what support I could if I could find the right man to take hold; someone interested not only in bringing a collection together but with the larger object in view, namely gathering data in connection with the work that would have direct bearing on the important biological issues of the day. Work systematically and intelligently carried on is the work that counts."
Alexander appointed Grinnell director for one year, although he held that post for the remainder of his life.
He named the museum and in 1909, donated his collection of mammals, also his bound files of The Auk, The Condor and other publications. He gave his entire collection of bird specimens to the museum in 1920. The bird collection numbered more than 8,000.
The relationship between museum director and benefactess was unusual. Grinnell deferred to Alexander's wishes in almost every aspect of the museum's business. Alexander, in turn, expected Grinnell to devote all his time and energy to the enterprise, to continue research and publishing, in addition to the duties of director.
In 1908, Alexander had written to Grinnell asking for a recommendation of someone suitable for the upcoming 1908 expedition. His reply elicited a sharp response from Alexander: "Am rather relieved you could not recommend a lady for our trip, though regret your evident contempt of women as naturalists ... ." Alexander found Louis Kellogg to join the Alaska trip. A subsequent letter from Grinnell was even more frank, "I do hope your discovery [of a companion] proves tractable and industrious. One good test might be to have her string tags [specimen labels] for five hours straight!"
Alexander supported the museum financially; during the ensuing 46 years, she contributed more than $1.5 million.
(or Society), one of the largest non-profit ornithological organizations in the world, named for James G. Cooper, a California naturalist
.
The magazine's first editor was Chester Barlow, a charter member of the club and editor until his death in 1902 at age 28 of tuberculosis.
Joseph Grinnell was listed as editor beginning with the January 1906 issue, replacing Walter K. Fisher. The main office of the magazine moved to Pasadena from Santa Clara, California
when Grinnell, who still lived in Pasadena, became editor.
The Condor published classified ads which listed items to buy, sell or trade for other specimens, collections, guns, cameras or publications. Species and their eggs for sale or exchange included rare birds like the California condor
and Bald Eagle
.
Grinnell also advertised to trade specimens in the magazine; the November 1906 issue contained the ad: "Wanted-will pay cash or good exchange in mammal or bird skins". In the same 1906 issue, Grinnell commented on Thomas Harrison Montgomery's article questioning the scientific benefit of egg collection (Oology
) in Audubon Society's Bird-Lore publication. Grinnell defends the collecting and study of birds' eggs in his editorial "Is Egg-collecting Justifiable?" and includes recreation as one of the values gained. "Then there is the recreative phase which is not to be disparaged; and the pleasure to be derived from this pursuit. We must confess that we have gotten more complete satisfaction, in other words happiness [italics in original], out of one vacation trip into the mountains after rare birds and eggs than out of our two years of University work in embryology!"
Grinnell edited The Condor for 43 years. He was one of the most influential, serving during the magazine's early years of development. As editor, he was democratic in some ways, asking members to vote on possible changes, like using metric units of measurement (the majority vote was no). He implemented "simplified spelling" which used phonetics, and can be seen in early-edition phrases. The magazine under Grinnell's tenure expanded from 175 to 223 current-format pages, and as of 1993, at 1,100 pages per year, is the largest of any major ornithological journal.
Grinnell developed and implemented a detailed protocol for recording field observations. In conjunction with a catalog of captured specimens, a journal was kept, detailed accounts of individual species behaviors were recorded, topographic maps were annotated to show specific localities, and photographs were often taken of collecting sites and animals captured. These materials also documented weather conditions, vegetation types, vocalizations, and other evidence of animal presence in a given locale.
The method has four components:
Grinnell's attention to detail included the type of paper for writing. "The India ink and paper of permanent quality will mean that our notes will be accessible 200 years from now." He added, "we are in the newest part of the new world where the population will be immense in fifty years at most."
The Grinnell System (also Grinnell Method) is the procedure most often used by professional biologists and field naturalists.
in April 1908. In 1910 three months were spent in the field along the Colorado River to study the river's effect as a barrier in the distribution of desert mammals. The Mount Whitney
area, called the Whitney transect, was studied in 1911, the San Jacinto Mountains
in 1913 and from 1914 to 1920, a cross-section of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including Yosemite
was surveyed. The Lassen Peak area was studied by Grinnell, Joseph S. Dixon and Jean M. Linsdale from 1924 to 1929.
The field surveys also provided source material for Game Birds of California (1918) and Fur-bearing Mammals of California (1937).
, across the Sierra Nevada Range to the western edge of the Great Basin
, including Mono Lake
. There were 40 collecting stations, with one to five persons per station. The survey team collected animal specimens by shooting and setting out traps. Observations were recorded for animal behavior including their "workings", meaning nests or burrows. The survey team of eight researchers, including Grinnell and Joseph Dixon, produced more than 2,000 pages of field notes and 700 photographs . The research was published in 1924 as Animal Life in the Yosemite.
The survey of California fauna was a test of Grinnell's theory
that differences between species are driven by ecological and geographical barriers, a new idea in the science of biology of the 1940s. “He was looking at geographic variation and change of characters in space and time. He wanted to understand the kinds of factors that might influence local adaptation and … variation among individuals and within populations. These ideas were unique at the time because they called into question the accepted notion that species are static and unchanging.", noted Jim Patten, Professor Emeritus, in Berkeley Science Review.
Project researchers worked in Yosemite National Park from 2003 to 2006. Using colorfully annotated maps dating from the late 1800s, the biologists revisited about 40 sites. Some sites could not be resurveyed because they are no longer accessible; one example is Lake McClure
, a reservoir constructed in 1926. Lassen National Park was resurveyed in 2006, and the Warner Mountains
in northeast California and south to the White Mountains
in 2007.
The resurvey report's section on birds noted problems in comparing the censuses: "In the original survey there was a large difference in terms of birds observed per unit time between J. Grinnell and T. Storer, with Grinnell having much higher scores than Storer for the same area. Grinnell and Storer counts also had a larger variation among their own censuses for a single site than we did during our survey."
The Yosemite resurvey documented shifts in the geographic ranges of some mammals. The majority of change is to higher elevation by a ratio of 2.5 to 1. A notable alteration in range is shown by the pinyon mouse
(Peromyscus truei), where both the upper and lower range limits have moved upward in elevation. The resurvey biologists documented the pinyon mouse on Mount Lyell
at elevation 10,500 feet. In Grinnell's Animal Life of the Yosemite, the pinyon mouse (or big-eared white-footed mouse) is described as occurring in the Upper Sonoran Zone on the west slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The Upper Sonoran is a life zone
between 1,000 to 3,500 feet above sea level.
In the Yosemite transect, no significant change in avian species abundance was found. Grinnell documented 133 species and the resurvey team reported 140 bird species.
The report's section on amphibians and reptiles noted healthy populations of mountain yellow-legged frog
(Rana muscosa) at Yosemite's Dorothy Lake and breeding populations near Evelyn Lake. This species (or Distinct population segment
) is listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
of Carmel Valley, California.
Grinnell and Tracy L. Storer's article "Animal Life as an Asset to National Parks" in Science on September 15, 1916 and presented two major points. First, national parks could be examples of pristine nature and were valuable to science and the public. Second, parks could be outdoor classrooms for a trained naturalist to offer natural history classes, conduct walks, and other educational activities for park visitors.
The newly created National Park Service
, in the Department of Interior, had no public education programs in 1916, although director designate Stephen Mather had read Grinnell's article in Science. Grinnell was not the only advocate for education in the national parks. A letter from Interior Secretary Franklin Knight Lane
to Director Mather in May 1918, constituted the Service's first administrative policy statement on the concept of the parks as educational media: "The educational, as well as the recreational, use of the national parks should be encouraged in every practicable way." Despite this high-level expression of support, the idea of the park service being in the education business-beyond dispensing basic tourist information-was not widely accepted.
The first official natural history program at Yosemite began in 1920 with Harold Bryant and Loye Holmes Miller as park-employed naturalists. Harold C.Bryant viewed Grinnell as mentor and Bryant went on to help design the interpretive program. He was awarded the Cornelius Armory Pugsley Medal in 1954 for his contributions to parks and conservation.
The new National Park Service agency used predator control agents from the bureau to trap wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions within park boundaries. The agency's first director, Stephen Mather saw his primary responsibility to the new national-park idea as one of building a constituency to support the parks, and feared that if predator populations were not controlled inside park boundaries, they would wander to adjoining private lands to kill livestock. Mather did not want angry ranchers complaining to their congressional representatives that the national parks were bad for the ranching business.
Grinnell, George Melendez Wright
, a student of Grinnell's, and others objected to the predator control policy. Grinnell argued that, "As a rule, predaceous animals should be left unmolested and allowed to retain their primitive relation to the rest of the fauna ... as their number is already kept within proper limits by the available food supply, nothing is to be gained by reducing it still further." But trapping of rare animals for scientific study was an exception, he added "A justifiable exception may be made when specimens are required for scientific purposes by authorized representatives of public institutions, and it should be remarked in this connection that without a scientific investigation of the animal life in the parks, and an extensive collection of specimens, no thorough understanding of the conditions or of the practical problems they involve is possible."
In July 1915, during the Yosemite survey, Charles Lewis Camp
trapped two wolverines, a male and female. The survey results were published in Animal Life of the Yosemite with an entry on wolverine (Gulo lusteus lusteus): "the wolverine is a rare animal anywhere in the Sierra Nevada. Its inclusion here is based upon the capture of two individuals at the head of Lyell Canyon."
The last confirmed California wolverine was killed seven years later by local trapper and miner Albert J. Gardisky in Mono County near Saddlebag Lake on February 22, 1922. This complete specimen is located in the mammal collection at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Since hunting and trapping
had not yet been outlawed in national parks, Grinnell, the museum's director, initially took advantage of the situation, purchasing skins, skeletons and carcasses for the museum.
Trapping was banned in Yosemite National Park by 1925, and in all national parks by 1931.
Grinnell was aware of the possible extirpation
of the wolverine in California by 1937, if not earlier, for he wrote a summary of all documentation, sightings, captures and stories on wolverines in Fur-bearing Mammals of California, with the last known sighting listed at 1924. Grinnell estimated " at the present time (1933) there are at most no more than 15 pairs of wolverine left in the State." He warned that there was a " necessity of a closed season for the wolverine if it was to escape the fate of the grizzly bear."
in Monterey County
for gathering "information which would show the kinds of land vertebrates present within the reserve, frequency of occurrence and relative abundance, habitat, relationship with the physical environment, and the annual cycle of its activity". The research was published in 1935 as "Vertebrate Animals of Point Lobos Reserve".
Point Lobos nearly became a residential development before 1900. Preservationist Alexander McMillan Allen, the Save-the-Redwoods League
environmental group and others began to buy back the residential lots in 1898. By 1933 it was added to the new state park system. In 1960, 750 acres (3 km²) undersea was added which created the first underwater reserve in the nation. The reserve's name is from the offshore rocks at Punta de los Lobos Marinos, or Point of the Sea Wolves.
The ranch became a field research station in 1937, and is the oldest and most productive unit in what is now the University's Natural Land and Water Reserves System, a system of 27
natural areas and biological field stations. Since its inception, Hastings has been managed by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The Hastings Reserve in one of only three fully protected reserves in the North Coast Ranges of California.
in San Bernardino County, Southern California. Grinnell's final specimen was a Black-chinned Sparrow
. In the fall of that year, he took a leave of absence from the university during which he suffered a coronary. During his convalescence, a second coronary occurred. Grinnell died on May 29, 1939 in Berkeley, California at age 62.
The students and staff at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology formed the Grinnell Naturalists Society in 1940 to commemorate and continue the work of Joseph Grinnell. The Society was active from 1940 to 1952. The Bancroft Library maintains the organization's records and the collection is available for research purposes. The collection includes minutes of meetings, correspondence, newsletter file, questionnaire responses and account records.
Joseph Grinnell co-authored several articles with his younger sister, Elizabeth J. Grinnell. Our Feathered Friends was published in 1898 and from 1900 to 1901, five articles were published in the regional magazine Land of Sunshine which was renamed Out West in 1901 and edited by Charles Fletcher Lummis.
XXII, December 1924
"Martha
" when she died in 1914 at the Cincinnati, Ohio zoological gardens.)
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908...
at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
from the museum's inception in 1908 until his death.
He edited The Condor, a publication of the Cooper Ornithological Club
Cooper Ornithological Society
The Cooper Ornithological Society , formerly the Cooper Ornithological Club, was founded in 1893 in California. Its name commemorates James Graham Cooper, an early California biologist. It publishes the ornithological journal The Condor and the monograph series Studies in Avian Biology...
, from 1906 to 1939, and authored many articles for scientific journals and ornithological magazines. He wrote several books, among them The Distribution of the Birds of California and Animal Life in the Yosemite.
Early years
Joseph Grinnell was born February 27, 1877, the first of three children by his father Fordyce Grinnell MD and mother Sarah Elizabeth Pratt. Grinnell's father worked as the physician for the Kiowa, Comanche and Wichita Indian Agency near Fort Sill, Oklahoma. His distant cousins included the Massachusetts politician Joseph GrinnellJoseph Grinnell (politician)
Joseph Grinnell was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, and the brother of Moses Hicks Grinnell.Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Grinnell completed preparatory studies....
(1788–1885) and George Bird Grinnell
George Bird Grinnell
George Bird Grinnell was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student...
(1849–1938) who founded the Audubon Society.
The Grinnells moved to the Pine Ridge Indian Agency
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was established in 1889 in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border...
in 1880.
In 1885 the Grinnell family moved to Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, but the collapse of Southern California's boom forced Dr. Grinnell in 1888 to accept a position at the Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...
. The Carlisle Indian school commander was Captain Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.-Military career:...
, a friend of the Grinnells.
Joseph Grinnell worked in a printing shop in Carlisle and collected his first specimen, a toad, before the family returned to Pasadena two years later.
First Alaska trip
Captain Pratt visited the Grinnells in Pasadena in 1896 while on a new assignment to inspect Indian Schools on the Pacific coast up to AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. The captain obtained permission from the family to take young Grinnell with him. Grinnell sent home bird specimens of the San Francisco Bay area, enroute to Alaska. Captain Pratt completed his assignment and returned home. Grinnell remained in Alaska and continued collecting with the assistance of the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Haines, Alaska
Haines, Alaska
Haines is a census-designated place in Haines Borough, Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the area was 1,811. Haines was formerly a city but no longer has a municipal government...
.
Grinnell went on field trips throughout the area, including remote Saint Lazaria Island. An unintended overnight stay on the island enabled him to study storm-petrel
Storm-petrel
Storm petrels are seabirds in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. These smallest of seabirds feed on planktonic crustaceans and small fish picked from the surface, typically while hovering. The flight is fluttering and sometimes bat-like.Storm petrels have a cosmopolitan...
s, an account of which he published in the March 1897 issue of the Nidologist, an early publication of the Cooper Ornithological Club.
Grinnell's expanding collection attracted visitors who were tourists, summer residents and visiting naturalists, including John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. ForMemRS was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist.-Early life and career:...
, and ornithologist Joseph Mailliard. Grinnell returned to Pasadena in the fall of 1897 where he continued field work in the nearby mountains and canyons.
Second Alaska trip
Grinnell's second visit to the far north began in 1898 on the schooner Penelope. He spent 18 months in Alaska during the Klondike Gold RushKlondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
. Grinnell corresponded regularly with his family, the letters were later compiled and edited into the book Gold Hunting in Alaska, published by David C. Cook Publishing Company in 1901.
Grinnell joined the Long Beach and Alaska Mining and Trading Company to Kotzebue Sound
Kotzebue Sound
Kotzebue Sound is an arm of the Chukchi Sea in the western region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is on the north side of the Seward Peninsula and bounded the east by the Baldwin Peninsula. It is long and wide....
, Alaska. The company landed at Cape Blossom
Cape Blossom, Alaska
Cape Blossom is a cape located on the Baldwin Peninsula in Alaska which occupies a point that extends southwestwards into Kotzebue Sound, 18 km south of Kotzebue....
in Kotzebue Sound in July 1898. Grinnell collected and observed the summer migrant bird life; Gambel's sparrow, barn swallow, and Savannah sparrow, among others. By August, Grinnell had 75 bird specimens preserved, including a Siberian Yellow Wagtail. The miners spent the winter inland on the Kowak River, then returned to the coast that spring.
The company sailed on the Penelope to Cape Nome in July 1899. At Cape Nome, Grinnell's job was amalgamating
Amalgam (chemistry)
An amalgam is a substance formed by the reaction of mercury with another metal. Almost all metals can form amalgams with mercury, notable exceptions being iron and platinum. Silver-mercury amalgams are important in dentistry, and gold-mercury amalgam is used in the extraction of gold from ore.The...
the gold using mercury. The gold stampede to the Nome area in the period 1899 - 1900 was Alaska's largest in both amount of gold recovered and population increase. The gold fields yielded more than $57 million from 1898 to 1910. The site is now a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
, the Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites
Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites
Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites is a National Historic Landmark located in Nome, Alaska. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978. It is significant for its role in the history of gold mining in Alaska....
.
In Grinnell's letters, he described a chaotic scene as "the entire eight miles there is scarcely one hundred feet without one or more tents on it ... our claims are now covered with beach jumpers and we cannot get them off. Mob law rules."
The Cooper Ornithological Club published Grinnell's field notes in 1900 as Pacific Coast Avifauna, no. 1.
Education
Grinnell was graduated from Pasadena High School in 1893 and enrolled in Throop Polytechnic Institute (now California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
) that autumn, where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1897.
In 1901 Grinnell received his Master's degree from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. At Stanford, he met several influential people, among them were Edmund Heller
Edmund Heller
Edmund Heller was an American zoologist.Heller attended Stanford University in 1896 and finished his study of zoology with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901. From 1926 to 1928 he was curator of mammals at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago...
. Heller would later join an expedition to Peru in 1915 to explore newly discovered ruins of an Incan civilization at Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for...
.
During his time at Stanford Grinnell formed the plan for a list of birds of California. He worked on that project for the next 38 years. He was finishing the third installment to Bibliography of California Ornithology when he died in 1939.
Grinnell supported himself at Stanford by teaching at Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto Senior High School, known locally as "Paly," was founded in 1898 and is one of the oldest high schools in the region. Located in Palo Alto, California, United States, Paly is nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, and is adjacent to Stanford University. Paly is known for its academically...
and working in Stanford's Hopkins Seaside Laboratory
Hopkins Marine Station
Hopkins Marine Station is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located ninety miles south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove, California on the Monterey Peninsula, adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is home to nine research laboratories and a fluctuating...
. At Hopkins, Grinnell taught embryology in the summer of 1900 and in the summers of 1901 and 1902, ornithology.
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
interrupted Grinnell's academic track and he returned to Pasadena in 1903 to recover. Grinnell accepted an offer as biology instructor at Throop Polytechnic during this time. Grinnell finished his Stanford Doctorate requirements—essentially by mail—with submission of his thesis An Account of the Mammals and Birds of the Lower Colorado Valley with Especial Reference to the Distributional Problems Presented and received his Doctorate in Zoology on May 19, 1913.
Students of Grinnell's biology class at Throop included Charles Lewis Camp
Charles Lewis Camp
Charles Lewis Camp was a notable palaeontologist and zoologist, working from the University of California, Berkeley...
and Joseph S. Dixon. Charles Camp would become the director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology
University of California Museum of Paleontology
The University of California Museum of Paleontology is a paleontology museum located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley....
. Joseph Dixon would join John Thayer's sponsored expedition in 1913 to Alaska. The Thayer expedition almost perished when their ship became locked in ice 7 nautical miles (13 km) off the coast, east of Point Barrow
Point Barrow
Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, northeast of Barrow. It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at...
until the summer of 1914. Dixon collected specimens during this time, including a new species of gull, Larus thayeri which was named for the expedition's sponsor.
Hilda Wood Grinnell
Grinnell married Hilda Wood on June 22, 1906. Wood was born in Tombstone, ArizonaTombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
in May 1883. She was one of Grinnell's students at Throop and later his teaching assistant in zoology. Wood received her Bachelor's degree from Throop in 1906. The Grinnells moved to Berkeley in 1908 and in 1913, Hilda earned her Master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. She wrote articles for publications in The Condor and the Journal of Mammalogy and was a member of the American Ornithologists' Union and the California Academy of Sciences. Hilda Grinnell authored a 32-page biography entitled Joseph Grinnell: 1877 - 1939 in the January–February 1940 issue of The Condor.
Hilda continued Grinnell's work on The Distribution of the Birds of California; maintained Grinnell's system of bibliographic entries, consulted the catalogs for accuracy, and read proofs and copy with the book's junior author, Alden H. Miller.
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Annie Montague AlexanderAnnie Montague Alexander
Annie Montague Alexander was an American philanthropist and paleontological collector. She established the University of California Museum of Paleontology , Museum of Vertebrate Zoology , and financed their collections as well as a series of paleontological expeditions to the western United States...
, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, naturalist and explorer, founded the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908...
at the University of California (UC) in 1908. Alexander named Grinnell as museum director the same year. She believed that Grinnell was the right choice as director to the point that she was prepared to withdraw the endowment if UC officials objected to Grinnell.
Historic meeting
Alexander met Grinnell in January 1907 while preparing for her expedition to Alaska; she came to Throop's biology department to find Joseph Dixon, Grinnell's student. Dixon had been recommended to Alexander by Frank Stephens, author of California Mammals. Grinnell endorsed Dixon as a member of Alexander's expedition, as they discussed Alaska. Grinnell invited Alexander to his home to view his collections, which she did before returning to Oakland. The name Annie M. Alexander seemed familiar and Grinnell found reprints among his papers from paleontologist John C. MerriamJohn C. Merriam
John Campbell Merriam was an American paleontologist. The first vertebrate paleontologist on the West Coast of the United States, he is best known for his taxonomy of vertebrate fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, particularly with the genus Smilodon, more commonly known as the...
to Alexander, thanking her for her work and financial support. Satisfied of her commitment to research, he sent her a letter outlining specific points on field work that would maximize scientific results from the seven-member expedition.
Alexander returned to California in the summer of 1907. She invited Grinnell to view the Alaska specimens. During the Thanksgiving holiday he met with Alexander at her home. The pair exchanged ideas for a museum on the West Coast that would be on par with the institutions of the eastern United States, such as the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. Alexander and Grinnell believed the fauna and flora of the western territory was fast disappearing as a result of human impact, thus detailed documentation was essential for both posterity and knowledge. This foresight proved useful almost a century later, when researchers at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology would use the Grinnell field notes to compare changes in California fauna.
Grinnell and Alexander differed on where the museum should be located. Grinnell advocated for Stanford while Alexander, impressed by the University of California (UC) paleontology lectures she had attended, determined that the museum would be at UC.
Alexander elaborated on the job requirements in a letter to Grinnell dated September, 1907 after she returned from Alaska: "I should like to see a collection developed (more especially of the California fauna) and would be glad to give what support I could if I could find the right man to take hold; someone interested not only in bringing a collection together but with the larger object in view, namely gathering data in connection with the work that would have direct bearing on the important biological issues of the day. Work systematically and intelligently carried on is the work that counts."
Alexander appointed Grinnell director for one year, although he held that post for the remainder of his life.
He named the museum and in 1909, donated his collection of mammals, also his bound files of The Auk, The Condor and other publications. He gave his entire collection of bird specimens to the museum in 1920. The bird collection numbered more than 8,000.
The relationship between museum director and benefactess was unusual. Grinnell deferred to Alexander's wishes in almost every aspect of the museum's business. Alexander, in turn, expected Grinnell to devote all his time and energy to the enterprise, to continue research and publishing, in addition to the duties of director.
In 1908, Alexander had written to Grinnell asking for a recommendation of someone suitable for the upcoming 1908 expedition. His reply elicited a sharp response from Alexander: "Am rather relieved you could not recommend a lady for our trip, though regret your evident contempt of women as naturalists ... ." Alexander found Louis Kellogg to join the Alaska trip. A subsequent letter from Grinnell was even more frank, "I do hope your discovery [of a companion] proves tractable and industrious. One good test might be to have her string tags [specimen labels] for five hours straight!"
Alexander supported the museum financially; during the ensuing 46 years, she contributed more than $1.5 million.
Editor of The Condor
The Condor is one of three publications by the Cooper Ornithological ClubCooper Ornithological Society
The Cooper Ornithological Society , formerly the Cooper Ornithological Club, was founded in 1893 in California. Its name commemorates James Graham Cooper, an early California biologist. It publishes the ornithological journal The Condor and the monograph series Studies in Avian Biology...
(or Society), one of the largest non-profit ornithological organizations in the world, named for James G. Cooper, a California naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
.
The magazine's first editor was Chester Barlow, a charter member of the club and editor until his death in 1902 at age 28 of tuberculosis.
Joseph Grinnell was listed as editor beginning with the January 1906 issue, replacing Walter K. Fisher. The main office of the magazine moved to Pasadena from Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
when Grinnell, who still lived in Pasadena, became editor.
The Condor published classified ads which listed items to buy, sell or trade for other specimens, collections, guns, cameras or publications. Species and their eggs for sale or exchange included rare birds like the California condor
California Condor
The California Condor is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. Currently, this condor inhabits only the Grand Canyon area, Zion National Park, and coastal mountains of central and southern California and northern Baja California...
and Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...
.
Grinnell also advertised to trade specimens in the magazine; the November 1906 issue contained the ad: "Wanted-will pay cash or good exchange in mammal or bird skins". In the same 1906 issue, Grinnell commented on Thomas Harrison Montgomery's article questioning the scientific benefit of egg collection (Oology
Oology
Oology is a branch of ornithology studying bird eggs, nests and breeding behavior. Oology can also refer to the hobby of collecting wild birds' eggs, sometimes called birdnesting or egging, which is now illegal in many jurisdictions.-As a science:Oology became increasingly popular in Britain and...
) in Audubon Society's Bird-Lore publication. Grinnell defends the collecting and study of birds' eggs in his editorial "Is Egg-collecting Justifiable?" and includes recreation as one of the values gained. "Then there is the recreative phase which is not to be disparaged; and the pleasure to be derived from this pursuit. We must confess that we have gotten more complete satisfaction, in other words happiness [italics in original], out of one vacation trip into the mountains after rare birds and eggs than out of our two years of University work in embryology!"
Grinnell edited The Condor for 43 years. He was one of the most influential, serving during the magazine's early years of development. As editor, he was democratic in some ways, asking members to vote on possible changes, like using metric units of measurement (the majority vote was no). He implemented "simplified spelling" which used phonetics, and can be seen in early-edition phrases. The magazine under Grinnell's tenure expanded from 175 to 223 current-format pages, and as of 1993, at 1,100 pages per year, is the largest of any major ornithological journal.
Grinnell Method of note taking
Even though Joseph Grinnell found writing difficult, he put great effort to produce factual, precise writing. Author William Leon Dawson, wrote of Grinnell, "that some of his biographical sketches evince a keenness of insight, and bring out a wealth of first-hand information which mark him as potentially the foremost biographer of Western birds."Grinnell developed and implemented a detailed protocol for recording field observations. In conjunction with a catalog of captured specimens, a journal was kept, detailed accounts of individual species behaviors were recorded, topographic maps were annotated to show specific localities, and photographs were often taken of collecting sites and animals captured. These materials also documented weather conditions, vegetation types, vocalizations, and other evidence of animal presence in a given locale.
The method has four components:
- A field notebook to directly record observations as they are happening.
- A field journal of fully written entries on observations and information, transcribed from the notes.
- A species account of the detailed observations on chosen species.
- A catalog is the record of where and when specimens were collected.
Grinnell's attention to detail included the type of paper for writing. "The India ink and paper of permanent quality will mean that our notes will be accessible 200 years from now." He added, "we are in the newest part of the new world where the population will be immense in fifty years at most."
The Grinnell System (also Grinnell Method) is the procedure most often used by professional biologists and field naturalists.
Survey of California fauna
Grinnell's goal for the museum was to build a collection primarily of California species, with comparative examples from outside the state. Representative sample areas of California were surveyed broadly, then in detail. The first field expedition for the new museum was to the Colorado DesertColorado Desert
California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert, which extends across southwest North America. The Colorado Desert region encompasses approximately , reaching from the Mexican border in the south to the higher-elevation Mojave Desert in the north and from the Colorado River in...
in April 1908. In 1910 three months were spent in the field along the Colorado River to study the river's effect as a barrier in the distribution of desert mammals. The Mount Whitney
Mount Whitney
Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...
area, called the Whitney transect, was studied in 1911, the San Jacinto Mountains
San Jacinto Mountains
The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for Saint Hyacinth . The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range.The range extends for approximately from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to...
in 1913 and from 1914 to 1920, a cross-section of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including Yosemite
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
was surveyed. The Lassen Peak area was studied by Grinnell, Joseph S. Dixon and Jean M. Linsdale from 1924 to 1929.
The field surveys also provided source material for Game Birds of California (1918) and Fur-bearing Mammals of California (1937).
Yosemite
The 1914 Yosemite survey area consisted of 1547 square miles (4,006.7 km²) in a narrow rectangle from eastern San Joaquin ValleySan Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
, across the Sierra Nevada Range to the western edge of the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
, including Mono Lake
Mono Lake
Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...
. There were 40 collecting stations, with one to five persons per station. The survey team collected animal specimens by shooting and setting out traps. Observations were recorded for animal behavior including their "workings", meaning nests or burrows. The survey team of eight researchers, including Grinnell and Joseph Dixon, produced more than 2,000 pages of field notes and 700 photographs . The research was published in 1924 as Animal Life in the Yosemite.
Lassen Peak area
There were 50 sites surveyed throughout the Lassen region of northern California which documented the distributions of more than 350 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and collected more than 4,500 specimens. The results were published in the 1930 monograph Vertebrate Natural History of a Section of Northern California through the Lassen Peak Region. More than just a species checklist, this 600-page volume has behavioral observations and historic photographs. For many areas in the transect, the Lassen survey remains the most comprehensive vertebrate inventory yet conducted.The survey of California fauna was a test of Grinnell's theory
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
that differences between species are driven by ecological and geographical barriers, a new idea in the science of biology of the 1940s. “He was looking at geographic variation and change of characters in space and time. He wanted to understand the kinds of factors that might influence local adaptation and … variation among individuals and within populations. These ideas were unique at the time because they called into question the accepted notion that species are static and unchanging.", noted Jim Patten, Professor Emeritus, in Berkeley Science Review.
Grinnell Resurvey Project
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology began the Grinnell Resurvey Project in 2002 using Grinnell's original survey of California fauna for comparison. The resurvey team encountered difficulties, as the 2007 report on Yosemite noted "the data from the original and current surveys cannot be directly compared because of differences in observer effort."Project researchers worked in Yosemite National Park from 2003 to 2006. Using colorfully annotated maps dating from the late 1800s, the biologists revisited about 40 sites. Some sites could not be resurveyed because they are no longer accessible; one example is Lake McClure
Lake McClure
Lake McClure is a artificial lake in western Mariposa County, California, about east of Modesto. It is formed by New Exchequer Dam on the Merced River, a tributary of the San Joaquin River, and its capacity is . It is a rock-fill dam with a reinforced concrete face and was completed in 1967...
, a reservoir constructed in 1926. Lassen National Park was resurveyed in 2006, and the Warner Mountains
Warner Mountains
The Warner Mountains are an 85-mile-long mountain range running north-south through northeastern California and extending into southern Oregon in the United States...
in northeast California and south to the White Mountains
White Mountains (California)
The White Mountains of California are a triangular fault block mountain range facing the Sierra Nevada across the upper Owens Valley. They extend for approximately as a greatly elevated plateau about wide on the south, narrowing to a point at the north, with elevations generally increasing...
in 2007.
The resurvey report's section on birds noted problems in comparing the censuses: "In the original survey there was a large difference in terms of birds observed per unit time between J. Grinnell and T. Storer, with Grinnell having much higher scores than Storer for the same area. Grinnell and Storer counts also had a larger variation among their own censuses for a single site than we did during our survey."
The Yosemite resurvey documented shifts in the geographic ranges of some mammals. The majority of change is to higher elevation by a ratio of 2.5 to 1. A notable alteration in range is shown by the pinyon mouse
Pinyon Mouse
Peromyscus truei or the pinyon mouse, is native to the southwestern United States. These medium sized mice are often distinguished by their relatively large ears...
(Peromyscus truei), where both the upper and lower range limits have moved upward in elevation. The resurvey biologists documented the pinyon mouse on Mount Lyell
Mount Lyell
Mount Lyell is the highest point in Yosemite National Park, at above sea level. It is located at the southeast end of the Cathedral Range, northwest of Rodgers Peak...
at elevation 10,500 feet. In Grinnell's Animal Life of the Yosemite, the pinyon mouse (or big-eared white-footed mouse) is described as occurring in the Upper Sonoran Zone on the west slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The Upper Sonoran is a life zone
Life zone
The Life Zone concept was developed by C. Hart Merriam in 1889 as a means of describing areas with similar plant and animal communities. Merriam observed that the changes in these communities with an increase in latitude at a constant elevation are similar to the changes seen with an increase in...
between 1,000 to 3,500 feet above sea level.
In the Yosemite transect, no significant change in avian species abundance was found. Grinnell documented 133 species and the resurvey team reported 140 bird species.
The report's section on amphibians and reptiles noted healthy populations of mountain yellow-legged frog
Mountain Yellow-legged Frog
The Mountain yellow-legged frog lives in a diverse array of water sources within the Sierra Nevada mountains of the western United States. They prefer mountain creeks and lakes, particularly sunny riverbanks, meadow streams, isolated pools, and lake borders...
(Rana muscosa) at Yosemite's Dorothy Lake and breeding populations near Evelyn Lake. This species (or Distinct population segment
Distinct population segment
A distinct population segment is the smallest division of a taxonomic species permitted to be protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Species, as defined in the Act for listing purposes, is a taxonomic species or subspecies of plant or animal, or in the case of vertebrate species, a...
) is listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Conservation
Grinnell worked on conservation issues in the latter part of his life. He wrote several articles: "Bird Life as a Community Asset" (1914), A Conservationist's Creed as to Wild-Life Administration" (1925) , "Animal Life as an Asset of National Parks" (1916), and " Bats As Disirable Citizens" (1916). He tried to change National Park Service policies on predator control and on forest management. Additionally, he promoted the idea of a trained biologist or naturalist in national parks to conduct public education programs for visitors. He studied and published on the Point Lobos area on the California coast, and during the last two years of his life, studied animal life at Hastings Reserve in Santa Lucia MountainsSanta Lucia Mountains
The Santa Lucia Mountains or Santa Lucia Range is a mountain range in coastal California, running from Monterey southeast for 105 miles to San Luis Obispo. The highest summit is Junipero Serra Peak, in Monterey County...
of Carmel Valley, California.
National parks
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology's Yosemite survey of 1914-1924 documented the area's wildlife. A second goal of the survey was education of the public as a means to protect the park. Yosemite was established in 1890. Total land area (excluding the valley, which was state-owned) was more than 1500 square miles (3,885 km²). Congress reduced the park boundaries by one-third in 1905 in response to pressure from mining, grazing and logging interests. "Ultimately, Grinnell realized, whether in Yosemite, or across the nation, further assaults on wildlife habitat would only be blocked by a concerned and knowledgeable public." wrote historian Alfred Runte.Grinnell and Tracy L. Storer's article "Animal Life as an Asset to National Parks" in Science on September 15, 1916 and presented two major points. First, national parks could be examples of pristine nature and were valuable to science and the public. Second, parks could be outdoor classrooms for a trained naturalist to offer natural history classes, conduct walks, and other educational activities for park visitors.
The newly created National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
, in the Department of Interior, had no public education programs in 1916, although director designate Stephen Mather had read Grinnell's article in Science. Grinnell was not the only advocate for education in the national parks. A letter from Interior Secretary Franklin Knight Lane
Franklin Knight Lane
Franklin Knight Lane was an American Democratic politician from California who served as United States Secretary of the Interior from 1913 to 1920...
to Director Mather in May 1918, constituted the Service's first administrative policy statement on the concept of the parks as educational media: "The educational, as well as the recreational, use of the national parks should be encouraged in every practicable way." Despite this high-level expression of support, the idea of the park service being in the education business-beyond dispensing basic tourist information-was not widely accepted.
The first official natural history program at Yosemite began in 1920 with Harold Bryant and Loye Holmes Miller as park-employed naturalists. Harold C.Bryant viewed Grinnell as mentor and Bryant went on to help design the interpretive program. He was awarded the Cornelius Armory Pugsley Medal in 1954 for his contributions to parks and conservation.
Predator control
Grinnell argued in the 1916 Science article "Animal Life as an Asset to National Parks" against several park service management policies; one of which was the predator control program. Congress had passed legislation a year earlier that instructed the Bureau of Biological Survey (now the US Fish and Wildlife Service) to destroy predators that "are injurious to agriculture and animal husbandry on the national forests and the public domain ...".The new National Park Service agency used predator control agents from the bureau to trap wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions within park boundaries. The agency's first director, Stephen Mather saw his primary responsibility to the new national-park idea as one of building a constituency to support the parks, and feared that if predator populations were not controlled inside park boundaries, they would wander to adjoining private lands to kill livestock. Mather did not want angry ranchers complaining to their congressional representatives that the national parks were bad for the ranching business.
Grinnell, George Melendez Wright
George Melendez Wright
George Melendez Wright was an American biologist who conducted the first scientific survey of fauna for the National Park Service. He was born in San Francisco, California. Wright's Salvadoran mother Mercedes Melendez Wright was born in San Salvador, and was from one of El Salvador's most...
, a student of Grinnell's, and others objected to the predator control policy. Grinnell argued that, "As a rule, predaceous animals should be left unmolested and allowed to retain their primitive relation to the rest of the fauna ... as their number is already kept within proper limits by the available food supply, nothing is to be gained by reducing it still further." But trapping of rare animals for scientific study was an exception, he added "A justifiable exception may be made when specimens are required for scientific purposes by authorized representatives of public institutions, and it should be remarked in this connection that without a scientific investigation of the animal life in the parks, and an extensive collection of specimens, no thorough understanding of the conditions or of the practical problems they involve is possible."
In July 1915, during the Yosemite survey, Charles Lewis Camp
Charles Lewis Camp
Charles Lewis Camp was a notable palaeontologist and zoologist, working from the University of California, Berkeley...
trapped two wolverines, a male and female. The survey results were published in Animal Life of the Yosemite with an entry on wolverine (Gulo lusteus lusteus): "the wolverine is a rare animal anywhere in the Sierra Nevada. Its inclusion here is based upon the capture of two individuals at the head of Lyell Canyon."
The last confirmed California wolverine was killed seven years later by local trapper and miner Albert J. Gardisky in Mono County near Saddlebag Lake on February 22, 1922. This complete specimen is located in the mammal collection at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Since hunting and trapping
Trapping (Animal)
Animal trapping, or simply trapping, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, wildlife management, hunting, and pest control...
had not yet been outlawed in national parks, Grinnell, the museum's director, initially took advantage of the situation, purchasing skins, skeletons and carcasses for the museum.
Trapping was banned in Yosemite National Park by 1925, and in all national parks by 1931.
Grinnell was aware of the possible extirpation
Local extinction
Local extinction, also known as extirpation, is the condition of a species which ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere...
of the wolverine in California by 1937, if not earlier, for he wrote a summary of all documentation, sightings, captures and stories on wolverines in Fur-bearing Mammals of California, with the last known sighting listed at 1924. Grinnell estimated " at the present time (1933) there are at most no more than 15 pairs of wolverine left in the State." He warned that there was a " necessity of a closed season for the wolverine if it was to escape the fate of the grizzly bear."
Point Lobos State Reserve
A year-long study by Joseph Grinnell and the museum began in 1934 of the Point Lobos State ReservePoint Lobos State Reserve
Point Lobos is the common name for the area including Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and two adjoining marine protected areas: Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area...
in Monterey County
Monterey County, California
Monterey County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, its northwestern section forming the southern half of Monterey Bay. The northern half of the bay is in Santa Cruz County. As of 2010, the population was 415,057. The county seat and largest city is Salinas...
for gathering "information which would show the kinds of land vertebrates present within the reserve, frequency of occurrence and relative abundance, habitat, relationship with the physical environment, and the annual cycle of its activity". The research was published in 1935 as "Vertebrate Animals of Point Lobos Reserve".
Point Lobos nearly became a residential development before 1900. Preservationist Alexander McMillan Allen, the Save-the-Redwoods League
Save-the-Redwoods League
The Save the Redwoods League is an organization dedicated to the protection of the remaining Coast Redwood trees in the state of California. It was founded in 1918 by Frederick Russell Burnham, Madison Grant, John C. Merriam, and Henry Fairfield Osborn....
environmental group and others began to buy back the residential lots in 1898. By 1933 it was added to the new state park system. In 1960, 750 acres (3 km²) undersea was added which created the first underwater reserve in the nation. The reserve's name is from the offshore rocks at Punta de los Lobos Marinos, or Point of the Sea Wolves.
Hastings Reserve
Russell P. Hastings offered the Hastings cattle ranch of 2000 acres (8.1 km²) to the University of California for faunal studies, after learning about the research at Point Lobos. Grinnell began long-term faunal surveys on the Hastings ranch in upper Carmel Valley, Monterey County at the end of 1936 through 1939.The ranch became a field research station in 1937, and is the oldest and most productive unit in what is now the University's Natural Land and Water Reserves System, a system of 27
natural areas and biological field stations. Since its inception, Hastings has been managed by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The Hastings Reserve in one of only three fully protected reserves in the North Coast Ranges of California.
Death
Grinnell's last field trip was in May 1938 to the Providence MountainsProvidence Mountains
The Providence Mountains are found in the eastern Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, U.S. The range reaches an elevation of at Edgar Peak and is home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, and the Mojave National...
in San Bernardino County, Southern California. Grinnell's final specimen was a Black-chinned Sparrow
Black-chinned Sparrow
The Black-chinned Sparrow is a small sparrow.This passerine bird is generally found in chaparral, sagebrush, arid scrublands, and brushy hillsides, breeding in the Southwestern United States , and migrating in winter to north-central Mexico and Baja California Sur...
. In the fall of that year, he took a leave of absence from the university during which he suffered a coronary. During his convalescence, a second coronary occurred. Grinnell died on May 29, 1939 in Berkeley, California at age 62.
The students and staff at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology formed the Grinnell Naturalists Society in 1940 to commemorate and continue the work of Joseph Grinnell. The Society was active from 1940 to 1952. The Bancroft Library maintains the organization's records and the collection is available for research purposes. The collection includes minutes of meetings, correspondence, newsletter file, questionnaire responses and account records.
Selected published works
Joseph Grinnell authored or co-authored 554 published works, beginning in 1893 until 1939. A small sample is given below. A complete list by year is in the biography written by Hilda Wood Grinnell (see Cited literature section).Joseph Grinnell co-authored several articles with his younger sister, Elizabeth J. Grinnell. Our Feathered Friends was published in 1898 and from 1900 to 1901, five articles were published in the regional magazine Land of Sunshine which was renamed Out West in 1901 and edited by Charles Fletcher Lummis.
Books
- Birds of the Kotzebue sound region, Alaska
- The game birds of California
- Animal Life in the Yosemite 1924
- Vertebrate Animals of Point Lobos Reserve 1936
- Fur-bearing Mammals of California 1937
Journal articles
- "The Catalina Island Quail" The Auk July 23, 1906
- "Wild Animal Life as a Product and as a Necessity of National Forests" The Journal of Forestry,
XXII, December 1924
- "Why We Need Wild Birds and Mammals" Scientific Monthly December 16, 1935
Other
- History of Pasadena by Hiram A. Reid 1895. Chapter titled "Our Native Birds".
- Travelers' Handbook to Southern California by George Wharton JamesGeorge Wharton JamesGeorge Wharton James was a prolific popular lecturer and journalist, writing more than 40 books and many articles and pamphlets on California and the American Southwest....
, 1904. Chapter 20: "The Ornithologist in Southern California".
Species named after
Two insects, four mammals and nine birds were named after Joseph Grinnell. The Sitka Kinglet (Regulus calendula grinnelli) was the first species named for Grinnell by ornithologist William Palmer in 1897. (Palmer was also a taxidermist and prepared the remains of the last Passenger PigeonPassenger Pigeon
The Passenger Pigeon or Wild Pigeon was a bird, now extinct, that existed in North America and lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century...
"Martha
Martha (passenger pigeon)
Martha was the last known living passenger pigeon; she was named "Martha" in honor of Martha Washington....
" when she died in 1914 at the Cincinnati, Ohio zoological gardens.)
Cited literature
- Grinnell, Joseph Gold Hunting in Alaska 1901
- Grinnell, Joseph and Tracy Storer Animal Life in the Yosemite 1924
- Grinnell, Joseph, Jean M. Linsdale and Joseph S. Dixon Fur-bearing Mammals of California 1937
- Stein, Barbara On Her Own Terms 2001
External links
- High Country News magazine, "The Ghosts of Yosemite-scientists from the past bring us a message about the future" by Michelle Nijhuis. October 17, 2005
- Museum of Vertebrate Zoology website.
- Guide to the Joseph and Hilda Wood Grinnell Papers, Guide to the Joseph Grinnell Papers at The Bancroft Library
- Western Kentucky University