Indiana Biological Survey

Division of Fishes

Ichthyologists Influential in Indiana

• William S. Blatchley

  William S. Blatchley

  Willis Stanley Blatchley of Indianapolis, Indiana, expired on May 28, 1940. At the time of his death, America lost one of the greatest nature lovers and keenest interpreters of Nature's secrets this country has ever known.

  Doctor Blatchley's writings are of two great classes: (a) popular essays and travelogues which reveal his deep love for, and unusual insight into natural phenomena, such as his "Gleanings from Nature," "Boulder Reveries," and "Woodland Idyls"; and (b) scientific works on the taxonomy or classification of insects, fishes, birds, flowers and weeds.

  He is best known for his elaborate, highly scientific and extremely useful publications on the classification of the Coleoptera, Rhynchophora, Orthoptera and Heteroptera. These four volumes average nearly 1000 pages each; they are elaborately illustrated; they are so written as to enable the tyro to make correct determinations of the beetles, weevils, true bugs, grasshoppers and their relatives of the eastern United States; and are, at the same time, sufficiently comprehensive to be indispensable for the advanced students of these groups. They are probably more widely and constantly used by entomologists than the works of any other American author on insects.

  In addition to providing the most useful books on the classification of these great groups of insects, Dr. Blatchley described hundreds of new species which he discovered in his travels. He was highly honored by many scientific organizations including election as an Honorary Fellow in the Entomological Society of America, a distinction shared by only nine other men at the time of his death.

  Although best known as an entomologist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, botanist, and geologist, who served for 16 years as State Geologist of Indiana, he should also rate as a pedagogist of rare ability. He possessed that extremely valuable characteristic of great teachers, that he never lost appreciation of the level of knowledge of his readers and was not so engrossed in his own specialties that he forgot how little others knew about them. By starting at the level of his readers' knowledge and making his works unparalleled in clarity as well as thoroughness, he was able to attract the beginner and carry him far in the intricacies of insect taxonomy. He was a man of high ideals, great and laudable ambition, diverse interests and lasting accomplishments, and few scientists have spent their four score years so effectively.

  The following is taken from Blatchley’s autobiography “Days of a Naturalist” originally published in 1941 in the journal Bios 12(3):139-154.

  In a record in an old family Bible which I possess, it is stated that I was born at North Madison, Connecticut, on October 6, 1859. That is probably true, but although I was one of the two principal personages present on that occasion, I have no memory of what the Hollywood people call a "blessed event."

  My parents brought me to Indiana in 1860, and, for the next twenty years, I lived on farms near the hamlets of Groveland and Bainbridge, Putnam County. Both my parents, previous to their marriage, had been teachers. My father taught one year near Groveland and afterwards became a market gardener. There were in those days no Nature Study clubs, no Audubon Societies, and nothing concerning natural history was taught in the schools which I attended. During the summer months I helped my father in his garden work and the first insects I ever collected were the eggs, larvae, and adults of the "Colorado potato beetle" which, about 1869, invaded Indiana from the west. My father sometimes had an acre or more in potatoes and he had me collect the leaves which bore egg clusters on the under side and also beat the squirming larvae and the adults into an old tin basin, then burn them in a bonfire.

  At the age of 17, I began to earn my first money of any consequence by peddling notions in summer and fall in Putnam and adjoining counties. I used part of my profits in attending, for a term or two, the normal school at Danville. I then secured a teacher's license and taught four winters in the country schools of Putnam County; the first winter for $1.50 a day, the last one for $2.50 per day.

  Although most of my days up to that time had been spent in the Great-Out-of-Doors, I knew definitely by their common names not more than 30 kinds of birds, perhaps ten kinds of snakes, and probably 30 kinds of wild flowers. Of insects I knew best bumble-bees, honeybees, bald hornets and yellow jackets, all of which had, from time to time, forcibly impressed themselves upon my perception. I knew also horse-flies, house flies, and perhaps ten kinds of butterflies. These and a few others I knew only as groups whose individuals resembled each other. I was wholly ignorant of the fact that all these living things are classified into orders, families, and subordinate groups. I did not know that there is such a thing as a genus or a species, and even yet I do not know that there is, as the limitations of a so-called species depend largely upon the viewpoint of its author, while a genus, in my opinion, is only an artificial concept proposed by man to enable him the more readily to group his species.

  In the spring of 1883 I entered the preparatory department of Indiana University for a ten-weeks course. The buildings of the University at that time were only two—the main building, a three-story structure, contained the college chapel and a number of class rooms. The other, "Science Hall," housed the college library and museum, and the chemical and geological laboratories.

  I visited Science Hall only a few times and remember being awed by the great casts of mastodons, mammoths, glyptodons and megatheriums; also by the odor of gases and display of chemicals in the chemical department; but as at that time I did not know a megatherium from a trilobite, nor oxygen from hydrogen-sulphide, my judgment of Science Hall and its contents must have been rather crude. However, its wonders and the sight of the great library which it contained intensified my desire to obtain a college education, and when I left Bloomington in June, I was fully resolved to enter Indiana University proper the next autumn. That resolve received a mighty shock when, on the morning of July 13, I noted by the papers that Science Hall, with all its contents had gone up in smoke the night before. For six weeks thereafter I debated whether or not I should enter college, and if so, whether I should not go to some other school than the one at Bloomington. I even went so far as to engage a school to teach for the ensuing winter, but finally, two days before the college term began, I made the best decision of my life; I cancelled my contract with the school trustees and started for Indiana University.

  My assets on entering college consisted of $300 in cash, a wife and a baby; my liabilities nothing. When four years later, I graduated I had the same wife and two babies and was still 'without liabilities. For some strange reason at the time of registration, I gave German (God save the mark!) as the specialty I desired to follow, but after a few weeks I discovered that I was deficient in aptitude for grasping readily the vital points of a foreign language. Meanwhile I was hearing much of the teachings and ability of Dr. David Starr Jordan, who was at the head of the Department of Zoology. On account of the burning of Science Hall he now had his working laboratory in a small room on the top floor of the one remaining building. Near the end of the fall term I decided to interview Doctor Jordan and so went up to his work room where I found him with Joseph Swain, Charles Gilbert, and Seth Meek, busily engaged in classifying alcoholic specimens of ocean fishes. I introduced myself and told him that I had heard much praise of his work in the Department of Zoology and that I should like to change from the German course for which I had registered to that of zoology. He asked me a few questions about my past, and reaching down into one of the cans, he brought up a very brilliantly-colored fish and said: "Well, you may take your choice between "Ich bin, du bist, er ist," and the study of such objects as this." I chose the fish and on that day I started my career as a naturalist.

  Up to that time Jordan had published three editions of his "Manual of Vertebrates," and he and Professor Gilbert had brought out in 1882 their noted work A SYNOPSIS OF THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA. In a few days I began to attend his lectures on zoology, evolution and kindred subjects, and in the laboratory he put me at work on the study of fresh water fishes, using his MANUAL OF VERTEBRATES as a text. The first three scientific papers I ever published were prepared under his supervision on some fresh water fishes of Indiana. They appeared in the PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES in 1885.

  Doctor Swain was at that time teaching the freshman botany class and in the spring of 1884 I joined it and learned for the first time that most flowers have stamens, pistils and other organs which are used in their reproduction and in their classification by man. He wished some one to collect plants for his class and learning that I was working my way through college, gave me the job, which paid twenty cents an hour, and which I thereafter held until I graduated. On Saturdays and the late afternoons of other days I roamed the hills for miles around, studied the plants in their natural habitats, kept notes of where they occurred and their time of blooming and discovered the hidden beauties of the snow trillium and the trailing arbutus. During the spring term of my senior year I taught the freshman class in botany and my graduating thesis was "The Flora of Monroe County," in which I listed with full notes 680 species of flowering plants and ferns and about 20 kinds of mosses and liverworts.

  There was in Bloomington at that time a shoe cobbler who had much influence with certain members of the faculty. They gathered in his shoe shop in late afternoons to discuss the affairs of the world, both past and present. While only a self educated man, Henry S. Bates could hold his own with the best of them, as he was acquainted with the literature and beliefs of the noted writers of all time. His shop was called "The Bates School of Philosophy" and Doctors Jordan, Swain, W. L. Bryan and several of the ministers and lawyers of the town were among his students and special friends. I had become acquainted with him in the spring of 1883 - when I made my first visit to Bloomington. He liked to take tramps with me on Sunday afternoons and he showed me for the first time the beauties of the rainbow darter and fringed gentian.

  He had been elected city treasurer and in my freshman year appointed me his deputy to collect delinquent taxes. I was allowed a fee of 50 cents for making a demand on each delinquent, and also three percent of what was paid in, which sums were added to the amount of their taxes. If necessary I could also levy on their household goods and sell them if the taxes were not paid. I needed those half-dollars and for two or three years collected from more delinquents than had ever before been done; among them several prominent attorneys, one of whom, in a few years, was elected to congress and another to county judgeship. This tax collecting was one of the numerous ways in which I paid my way through college.

  In my sophomore year I became interested in the spring migration of birds, especially the warblers, a group of small, usually brightly colored insect-eating species, which previously I did not know inhabited the earth. Uncle Tommy Spicer, the custodian of the old University grounds allowed me to shoot warblers from the trees on the old campus. On one Saturday afternoon in early May when the migration was at its peak, I killed 21 species, determined their names by Jordan's Manual; skinned them, treated the skins with arsenic and labelled them with place and date of capture. On my botany trips I carried my borrowed shot-gun with me, shot such birds as I saw, and thus literally "killed two birds with one stone." One of the first birds I killed I could not identify by Jordan's Manual so I took it to him and he smiled broadly when he told me it was an English sparrow, not mentioned in his keys, but only in a footnote which I had overlooked.

  I continued my study of fishes, birds and plants and by the end of 1885 considered myself quite a naturalist. In that year Doctor Jordan was appointed President of the University and soon afterward brought to the faculty Dr. J. C. Branner, one of his former classmates at Cornell (Ithaca). Doctor Branner had served several years as a geologist in Brazil, and while there had become interested in insects. Jordan had him form a class in entomology in which he taught insect anatomy, the functions of their different organs and the rudiments of their classification. From him I learned for the first time that insects have six legs, many of them both simple and compound eyes, and also the different stages which they undergo before reaching maturity. The only two members of that class which I now remember were Charles Bollman, then about 18 years of age, who in time became an authority on the myriapods of this and other countries, and Jerome McNeill, who afterwards wrote many papers on Orthoptera. Doctor Branner had each member of the class make a private collection of some group of insects and we three often collected together in the region about Bloomington. My collection was devoted mainly to butterflies which I kept in cigar boxes with corn-pith instead of cork in the bottom. This ten-weeks course in entomology under Doctor Branner was the only time I ever gave to that subject in any school. What I learned of it in after years I acquired by my own investigations. My first published papers on insects were SOME INDIANA BUTTERFLIES, issued in three installments in the Indiana Farmer in the fall of 1886, and, in the same year SOME SOUTHERN INDIANA BUTTERFLIES, in vol. II of the HOOSIER NATURALIST, a small periodical of that time which was published at Valparaiso, Ind.

  Doctor Jordan was in the habit of taking the seniors of the zoology and botany classes on tramps to introduce them to nature in the raw. In the spring of 1886 he took about 30 of them, most of them ladies, on a trip to Weed Patch Hill and Nashville in Brown County. A day or two before they started he asked me to accompany them, as he wished to have them study plants when they stopped to rest and he wanted me to collect the plants and bring them in to the students. We started about 8 o'clock one forenoon and, after stopping at a number of places, he asked me to go ahead and secure lodging at farm houses, telling me that he knew that I had had experience of this sort in the years when I was a pack peddler. Some of the ladies, who probably had never walked more than a half mile at a time, became very tired by the middle of the afternoon, so that their progress was slow. By the time I got back to them it was almost sundown and I had found places for all of us but two. Doctor Jordan said that he and I would go ahead and try to find a lodging place. About dark we came to a one-room log cabin with a lean-to kitchen. The owner at first refused to keep us, but as it had begun raining Jordan told him he had to take us in, which he finally agreed to do. In the main room there were two large beds and another one was probably in the loft, as they put their 10-year old boy up there to sleep; taking down a ladder which was resting against the ceiling of our room and opening a trap-door to allow him to reach his bed. The man, his wife and a baby slept in one of the beds and Doctor Jordan and I in the other. That was as close, physically, as my famous teacher and I ever got together. He waked me up about one o'clock to listen to a whippoorwill "which was uttering its monotonous call note from our roof, thinking that I had never heard one, but that was one of the few birds that I knew when I entered college.

  Up to that time I had had a kind of reverence for and awe of Doctor Jordan, and hesitated about speaking to him concerning personal matters. As we could hear the man and his wife snoring we knew that they were asleep so we talked in low tones for a short time. I made bold to tell him that I was not satisfied to become an ichthyologist and asked his opinion as to what other branch of zoology he considered most promising for a student who "wished to do original work. He told me that entomology was one of the most neglected subjects in this country; that there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of species of insects as yet undescribed, and he advised me to become a specialist in that subject. This I made up my mind to do and that night decided my future life work. In the morning Doctor Jordan and I went down to the spring house to wash our faces in an old tin basin there provided. He then looked around for a towel, and seeing some cloths hanging on some bushes he picked up one of them. The lady of the house having watched us, came running out of the kitchen with a towel and said: "Don't use that, mister, that's the baby's didy!" Up to that time I had not collected beetles except a few "Oh my!" ones, such as a large "stag beetle," with jaws branched like the horns of a deer which I found in my garden, and also some very large and handsome wood-boring beetles. But I soon began collecting them in earnest and when I graduated in 1887 I had more than 30 cigar boxes full of them.

  Dr. B. W. Evermann, was at that time a special student of Doctor Jordan, and he and I in 1885 and 1886 became close friends and often collected birds together around Bloomington. He "was a fine allaround naturalist and at his graduation in 1886 became head of the Department of Zoology in the State Normal School at Terre Haute. After my graduation he secured for me a position as head of the Science Department in the Wiley High School in that city, and we soon began making collecting trips together on Saturdays and late afternoons in the region around Terre Haute. The topography of that region is varied and was then very interesting to a naturalist. It included the land of the river bottoms in which there were several very large ponds, "which each year were left when the waters receded from the frequently flooded areas. There were also numerous sand hills east and north of the city and large areas of raw prairie, both near Heckland, a station nine miles north on the railway, and in the level upland country to the south.

  While collecting with McNeill at Bloomington I had become interested in Orthoptera and in the prairie regions near Terre Haute I found many species unknown to me which I began to study critically. I wrote a number of papers regarding them for the periodicals, THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST and PSYCHE. The first three papers I published in the PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY were "The Gryllidae or Crickets of Indiana" in the volume for 1891 and "The Locustidae (katydids and green grass-hoppers) and Blattidae (cockroaches)" in the one for 1892. All these papers in later years served as a nucleus for my two large works, THE ORTHOPTERA OF INDIANA, 1903) and THE ORTHOPTERA OF NORTHEASTERN AMERICA, (1920.) Reptiles and Batrachians I also found abundant on the sand hills and about the large river bottom ponds. As the high school was paying for the alcohol, I built up quite a collection for the zoology department. Especially was this true of the Batrachians, so that by 1894 when I left the county, I had taken therein 24 of the 27 species recorded by Hay from the entire State; among them three species not before taken in Indiana. Of reptiles I took 28 species, one of which, the Calligaster chain snake formed a new record for Indiana. As a result of my work with these interesting forms I published two papers entitled "Notes on the Reptiles and Batrachians of Vigo Co., Ind.", one of which appeared in 1891 in the Journal of the Cincinnnati Society of Natural History, the other in my State Geological Report for the year 1900.

  One of the chief factors which led to my success as a naturalist was the taking into the field pocket notebooks and writing down the facts which I observed and the thoughts which they engendered. At times I would write for ten or fifteen minutes or more. From these notebooks I began to write articles for the TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING GAZETTE, such as "Mid-Summer and Mid-Autumn along the Old Canal," and a number of popular articles on the habits of snakes, birds, etc. I have yet on hand more than 40 of these notebooks containing my original field notes and from them my "Gleanings from Nature" (1899) ; "Boulder Reveries" (1907) and other nature books were prepared. For the articles in the GAZETTE I received from three to five dollars each. Of this money I made a special fund and in time had enough to purchase 30 Schmitt Insect Boxes and to have built a tight case to hold them. I was then able to remove my rapidly growing insect collection from cigar boxes to a better protection from Dermestes, etc.

  Two of my summer vacations I served as a teacher of Science in a Normal School in Wabash County and one (1889) in field work in the wilds of Arkansas, tracing outcrops for the preparation of maps for Doctor Branner, who had become State Geologist there. I had many interesting experiences during these summers. On one occasion in Arkansas I was water-bound by heavy rains and secured lodging with a near-by native. He had a log cabin with one room and a lean-to, the latter without a door. Under my bed in this lean-to three hounds had their nightly abiding place and they scratched fleas and at intervals bolted out to chase a coon, so that my weary bones had little rest. I was working by myself and on several occasions was often lost for hours until I heard a distant rooster crow or a dog bark.

  On September 27, 1890 an incident occurred which probably changed the whole course of my future life. One of the leading citizens of Terre Haute at that time was W. R. (Riley) McKeen—President of the McKeen Bank, and also President of the Vandalia Railway. He owned a large country estate about two miles east of the city. I had been out gathering material for my classes and had my shotgun with me. On my way home I took a short cut through McKeen's wooded pasture. It was posted against intruders but in those years I paid little attention to posted domains except during the quail hunting season. Suddenly I saw a bird which I did not recognize alight on a branch of a maple tree. I shot it and about the time I picked it up a man came running toward me and asked what I meant by shooting on his posted ground. I showed him the bird, told him that I was a teacher of Science in the Wiley High School, that I had been collecting birds for years and had a large number of bird skins which I used in my classes. I also told him that more than 300 kinds of birds were known from Indiana and that they are classified into families, etc.; that my bird belonged to the sparrow family which includes many species, but that this one was unknown to me, and that I was going to identify it the next day. In fact I talked to him like a Dutch uncle as I did not wish him to have me arrested for trespass as he at first threatened to do. He became interested, asked me to come to his office after I had identified the bird, and tell him what it was. It proved to be a specimen of the clay-colored sparrow, a western species. Butler, on page 960 of his 1897 "Birds of Indiana" states that my specimen was the first and only one known from Indiana at that date. A day or two later I went up to McKeen's private office above his bank. He greeted me cordially and we talked for a half hour or so. He asked questions about the bird and other features of my work, and when I rose to leave asked me if I would not like to accept a pass over his railroad to aid me in collecting in other parts of the State.

  In the summer of 1891 Dr. J. T. Scovell, then teacher of geography and geology in the State Normal, invited me to become a member of his second expedition to determine the height of the volcano Orizaba, Mexico. He wished me to collect insects, reptiles and other forms of life about the base and on the slopes of the mountain. He and Doctor Evermann induced the Terre Haute School Board to appropriate $90 toward my personal expenses, and as we had railway passes for the round trip, I had to add little from my private funds. It was my first visit to a tropical region and I had many interesting experiences. After my return I published three papers, based on my collections, in one of which I described two new species of salamanders.

  During my visits to the State Geologist it had occurred to me that if such a man (I had found him drunk) was deemed capable of filling that office, I also could fill the position. Indiana at that time was the only state in the Union in which the State Geologist was elected by the people. I therefore made it known to my friends that I would enter the contest for the nomination at the next Republican state convention. I "was nominated on the second ballot and was elected at the general election in November, 1894. At that time I knew little or nothing about politics, but during the next 16 years I learned much, as I was nominated for the four-year term at five different Republican conventions, elected four times and defeated by my Democratic opponent in the general election in November, 1910. I could, from my experiences while I held the office, write a large volume entitled "Science vs. Politics."

  From 1900 on my work in gathering data for my annual reports took me into every county in the State and gave me an opportunity to collect insects and plants in those regions. In 1903 I published my "Orthoptera of Indiana." After it was issued I had more time to give my attention to the collecting of beetles (Coleoptera) and true bugs (Heteroptera). In 1907 I issued my third Nature book, "Boulder Reveries," a little volume of extracts from my notebooks. These had been written by the side of some large boulders on the hillside slope of an old woods pasture in Putnam County. This book brought about my acquaintance and friendship with James Whitcomb Riley which continued until his death in July, 1916. After it was issued I began to put into shape my notes on Indiana Beetles which I had been collecting for 23 years, or since 1884. It took all my time outside my office duties to get it ready for the printer, and in 1910 I offered it to the State Printing Board as a part of my annual report for that year. After about 200 pages of it had been set in type by the State Printer, Thomas R. Marshall, the then Democratic Governor, learned that it was to be quite a lengthy paper and ordered the printing stopped. Fortunately I had had a bill put through the legislature a year or two before giving me the power to issue bulletins in addition to my regular annual reports, provided I paid for their publication out of the sum allotted for the expenses of my department. I therefore took advantage of this law and offered the manuscript as a bulletin of my department.

  My work as a naturalist had, up to this time, been almost wholly done in Indiana but, on January 3, 1911, a few days after my term as Geologist expired, my wife and I, accompanied by Judge Lucius Hubbard of South Bend started to Florida for the winter. The Judge was especially interested in botany and in fishing. From Jacksonville, where we remained a few days, we took the delightful trip by boat up the St. John's River to Sanford, then went across the state by rail and down the west coast to St. Petersburg. Finding collecting conditions there very poor we went on down to Sarasota, where I rented a cottage. While there the Judge and I hired a horse and wagon and drove 25 miles westward to the Miaki River where, in a wooded area on one of its banks, we found a fine camping place. Here the Judge caught many kinds of fishes while I hunted insects and birds.

  On my return to Indiana in the spring of 1911, 1 began the preparation of the manuscript of my Indiana Weed Book in which I described, illustrated and gave full notes on the habits, distribution, methods of eradication, etc. of 150 of the worst weeds of the State and brief characterizations of 77 others. Eighty percent of these weeds occur throughout the region east of the Rocky Mountains and the book is used as a text or reference work in hundreds of high schools and colleges. It was issued in 1912 as was also my fourth Nature book, Woodland Idyls, the latter prepared from notes written during three camping experiences in Putnam County, Ind.

  During the summer months of 1913-1916 I found that I had much time on my hands and as I had been so long using my brain for intensive work, I could not stop it at once and so began the preparation of my second Manual of Insects, on Rhynchophora or Weevils—a group of beetles with head prolonged into a snout or beak, which they use in boring into wood, fruits, etc. On account of lack of space these beetles were not included in my "Coleoptera of Indiana." After much of the manuscript had been written, I learned that Chas. W. Leng, of Staten Island, New York, had begun a similar work on the weevils of the Eastern States. We therefore arranged to prepare a joint work describing all the weevils known from the United States east of the Mississippi River and from Canada east of the 90th meridian. We named it "The Rhynchophora or Weevils of Northeastern America." It was issued in September, 1916, contained 682 pages with 155 text illustrations. It treated 1084 species of which 76 were new forms which I described, most of them from Florida.

  The winters of 1916 to 1920 inclusive I passed in Florida and made numerous trips down into the Everglade region and to Cape Sable, Key West, and the Ten Thousand Islands. On these trips I found numerous insects, especially Orthoptera, unknown to me, and from my notes and stud}' of these, using my previously published papers on that group, I prepared my Orthoptera of Northeastern America, an illustrated volume of 784 pages, published in 1920. This was followed by "Heteroptera or True Bugs of Eastern North America," an illustrated volume of 1186 pages which I published in 1926.

  This work on Heteroptera was the fourth and last of my larger manuals. They had been conceived by necessity and brought forth with great labor. In them I had used as simple language as possible with a view of helping the beginner, but they were comprehensive enough to be of aid to advanced students and they furnished in one volume information which otherwise would have to be sought through hundreds of books and pamphlets.

  I had long had a desire to visit South America—that great country so full of undeveloped resources, that lies mostly to the southeastward of the United States. I realized that I had to make the trip before I was much older, so in the winter of 1922-23, instead of going to Florida I made a four-months trip to South America. The objectives of this trip, all of which were fulfilled, were four in number. 1)—To see the country, especially the Andes Mountains and to study at first hand its human animals, the common people. 2)—To visit the different museums, universities and other scientific and educational institutions. 3)—To make personal acquaintance with the leading biologists of the different countries visited, with many of whom I had had correspondence. 4)—To collect where opportunity offered, insects of the orders Coleoptera, Orthoptera and Heteroptera, in order to become more familiar with the distribution of the families and genera of these groups. I left New York City on November 13 and reached Rio de Janeiro on December 4. This city is the second largest in South America. It is said to be one of the most beautiful in the world and is situated on one of the finest harbors known to man. I remained there 12 days; then went by rail to Sao Paulo, the center of the largest coffee-growing district in the world, 310 miles inland from Rio. Located near this city is one of the finest museums in South America and also the largest laboratory in the world for the making from the venom of rattlesnakes a serum for the cure of the bites of poisonous reptiles. From Sao Paulo I went down over what they say is the most costly railroad in the world to Santos, the greatest known coffee shipping port. There I took another steamer for Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, 1027 miles distant. I remained there four days, then went by steamer across the La Plata River, 130 miles, to Buenos Aires, the largest city in South America and the metropolis of Argentina. It is a city of nearly three million inhabitants, where they sell everything produced on earth paying for what they sell with grain, cattle, hogs and their by-products. Remaining there eight days I then went 460 miles by rail northwestward to Cordoba, a city of 160,000 people. It was founded in 1583 and in it is located the second oldest university in South America, founded in 1613, which out-dates Harvard (1636) by 23 years. Here also is the National University and the National Weather Bureau of Argentina, both of which are in charge of scientists from the United States. From Cordoba I went by a recently completed narrow gage railway to San Juan at the base of the Andes Mountains and from there across the Andes to Santiago, the capital of Chile, a most interesting city of 350,000 people, where I remained ten days.

  The Republic of Chile with an area of almost three million square miles, is peculiar among other South American nations in that it is three thousand miles or more in length, no where more than 250 miles in width, and divided into three topographical regions, one of them, 825 miles in length, forming one of the most arid deserts of the world; a second, the central portion, 750 miles in length, rich in agricultural and mining possibilities, with a climate more like that of Indiana than any country I saw; third, largely a vast archipelago, reaching from the mainland 1500 miles farther southward to Cape Horn. Leaving Chile we crossed Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake on earth and from its shore took a railway to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas, a city of 30,000 people lying at an altitude of 11,000 feet. It is a city of a thousand stinks, in places these being combined into one. The streets are not over ten to fifteen feet wide, paved with cobble stones and most of them with an open ditch for sewage running down the middle. A few miles from the city are the ruins of a famous fortress on a plateau lying 650 feet above the city. According to Senator Hiram Bingham, this fortress is the "greatest achievement of ancient man in America." I stayed at Cuzco three days, then took a train back to Lake Titicaca and from there another one to Mollendo, a seaport of Peru. The steamer was two days in reaching Callao, the seaport of Lima, 20 miles distant from that city. From Lima and its Port Callao I took a boat for the Panama Canal. While in South America I collected probably 5,000 specimens of insects which, with labels showing their place and date of capture, are now in my former collection at Purdue University.

  In 1932 I condensed my notes taken in South America into a volume of 391 pages entitled "South America as I Saw It: The Observations of a Naturalist on the Living Conditions of its Common People; its Topography and Products; its Animals and Plants."

  On November 16, 1927 my wife and I started for Los Angeles, California, where we remained until March 15, 1928. I collected Coleoptera, Heteroptera, and Orthoptera in the parks and other localities about Los Angeles, and also made a trip down through the Imperial Valley to the Salton Sea. On March 15 we went to San Francisco where I worked for a month for Doctor Evermann in classifying and arranging the Orthoptera in the collection of the Museum of the California Academy of Science. I published but one paper on the insects taken in California, a 16-page article entitled "Notes on a Collection of Heteroptera taken in Winter in the Vicinity of Los Angeles, Calif." In 1924 I made my first visit to Royal Palm Park, located on an island in the Everglades about 40 miles southwest of Miami. The park was at that time controlled by the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs and while there I made an agreement with them that I was in time to prepare a paper on the natural history of the island. This they were to illustrate and publish. After that until 1930 I made six trips of two to four weeks each to the Park. However, the Women's Club lost all its funds in a bank failure at the close of the Florida boom and the only unpublished manuscript I have is one of 600 or more pages which I had prepared for them.

  About 1930 my eyesight began to fail so that I was no longer able to study insects and prepare papers on them for publication, nor have I since been able to collect them on account of a chronic case of neuritis.

  In 1926 I therefore disposed of my entire mounted collection of insects, including nearly 500 types of species which I had described, to the Department of Entomology at Purdue. There it is kept in a fire proof building and is available for examination by persons interested. Since 1930 I have, from my notebooks, written and published two nature books—one, entitled "My Nature Nook; Notes on the Natural History of Dunedin," which contains 302 pages and 15 half tone plates. The other, "In Days Agone: Notes on the Fauna and Flora of Subtropical Florida in the Days when most of its Area was a Primeval Wilderness," a work of 338 pages and 15 plates.

  During the years from 1930 to 1939 my winters have been passed at Dunedin and my summers at Indianapolis. In winter my time has been mostly spent in reading; in working on my trees, shrubs and vines, of which I have nearly 250 kinds growing on my lot, and in the study and arranging of the postage stamps of the world, a former hobby of mine. In 1937 I made a trip to North Madison, Connecticut, the place of my birth. The house in which I was born is still in good condition and occupied. It bears a tablet stating that it was erected in 1730. On my way home I stopped for a week on Staten Island with my friends Chas. W. Leng and Wm. T. Davis, then returned from New York by airplane, making the trip to Indianapolis in four and a half hours, my first experience in travel by air.

  In 1938 I published "The Fishes of Indiana, with Descriptions, Notes on Habits and Distribution in the State," a brochure of 121 ages and 39 illustrations.

  I have thus given hurriedly the main facts concerning my "Days as a Naturalist" since 1883, when Doctor Jordan started me in my future life work. In my work I have had hundreds of interesting experiences. The days which I have spent in the field collecting birds, insects and plants were the happiest ones of my life. I thank the fates that led my steps in the pathways of a naturalist and, could I punch a button and live literally my life again, taking the bitter with the sweet, I would gladly do so.

  I often ask myself: What is it all when all is done? During my four score years 1 have tried to help increase man's stored knowledge and appreciation of some of the common things he can see and find 'when he goes out where nature abides. I have not worked for great wealth nor for personal glory or socalled "Fame." For what is fame? Henry Watterson has defined it thus:

  "A mound, a little higher graded—Perhaps upon a stone a chiseled name; A dab of printers' ink, soon blurred and faded, And then oblivion—that, that is fame."

Back to top

• Carl Eigenmann

  Carl Eigenmann

  
  
Back to top

• Barton Warren Evermann - 1853 - 1932

  Barton Warren Evermann

  Barton Warren Evermann, was considered among the elite of United States ichthyologist and marine biologists and has had numerous genera and species named after him [Evermannella Eigenmann, 1903, Balanus evermanni Pilsbry, 1907, Metapenaeopsis evermani (Rathbun, 1906), Triphora evermanni F. Baker, 1926, Cingulina evermanni Baker, Hanna & Strong, 1928, Porites evermanni Vaughan, 1907]. Evermann’s name is frequently associated with that of Jordan. He served as an ichthyologist for the United States Fisheries Commission.  He was a professor at Indiana State University, and in 1916, along with San Francisco banker Ignatz Steinhart and Jordan, Evermann set into motion plans to establish the Steinhart Aquarium, which would represent the most modern and diverse aquatic collection in the world.

  Evermann was an avid field biologist. He was a loyal associate of Jordan’s and published over 33 manuscripts including the Fishes of Middle and North American. He traveled extensively to Mexico, the western United States, southeastern United States, Japan, Puerto Rico, South America, the Philippines, Alaska, Barbados, and China. No sooner had Jordan accepted the Indiana job than he took leave of it in order to complete the fishes of the Pacific Coast for the Fish Commission. That expedition, which lasted nine months, was followed by no less than three European expeditions and two to the Southern United States, in just five years. Jordan turned down offers from Illinois and Iowa to stay at Indiana, continuing collaborations he had developed at the Smithsonian and extending his own work with Gilbert, Evermann, and others on the fishes of North America.

  Evermann served as Director of the Crooked Lake Biological Station, he was a biologist with the U.S. Fisheries Commission, and was Jordan’s right hand man in the field. Evermann died in 1932.

Back to top

• David Frey
  
Back to top

• James R. Gammon

  James R. Gammon

  James R. Gammon, through his research, studies, writings, teaching and his commitment to Indiana's environment, has left a biological legacy documenting the condition of the middle Wabash River. Gammon has been affiliated with DePauw University since 1961. His primary duties were as an educator and researcher in the department. In addition to his teaching duties as a Professor of Zoology at the University, he has performed numerous studies for state and federal governments, as well as private organizations, on the aquatic biology and aquatic ecology of Indiana's rivers and streams. He developed the index of well-being, a biological index that is used by many public and private organizations to evaluate the health of aquatic systems by measuring diversity in terms of numbers of species and organisms distributed among the species.

  James R. Gammon is considered the father of biological stream evaluations in Indiana. He was among the first to develop an ecosystems approach to evaluating Indiana's waters. His stream water quality indices are now the standards utilized by many to define the general health of the waters in Indiana.

  Gammon has always assisted the state and community by serving on special studies and task forces. He has testified before legislative committees, at their request to help focus developing issues and has worked extensively with community groups to further their understanding of water issues. Perhaps, Gammon greatest legacy has been to produce well- trained students that occupy responsible positions in government, industry and academia

  He is the author of more than 60 publications involving the condition of various aquatic ecosystems including stream and large river ecosystems.

Back to top

• Shelby D. Gerking
  
Back to top

• Charles H. Gilbert - 1859 - 1928

  Charles H. Gilbert was among the first to graduate from Indiana University. A student of David Starr Jordan(1) at Indiana University during the 1880's, Gilbert received his doctorate in zoology in 1883, the first such degree ever awarded at that institution. When Jordan was selected in 1891 to be the founding president of the newly established Leland Stanford Junior University in Palo Alto, California, Gilbert was chosen by Jordan to head the Zoology Department. During his tenure at Stanford (1891-1925), Gilbert was a diligent student of fishes of western North America. The name Charles Henry Gilbert (1859-1928) is an important one in the annals of ichthyology and fisheries biology of the American West. As a temporary employee of the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries (hereafter referred to as the Fish Commission) at various times, he participated in several expeditions aboard the Commission's Steamer Albatross.

  Gilbert was compulsively dedicated to his work. He also possessed a strong, demanding personality. As Walter Kenrick Fisher, a former student of Gilbert, wrote:

  "Professor Gilbert was a scientist of very unusual talents, with a controlled and keen, logical mind. He exercised no patience with loose thinking or any work short of the best which a student could produce. His seminars afforded adequate outlet for his uncanny powers of searching analysis and relevant criticism. His students more than once have heard him relentlessly demolish a thesis of one of the Elect."

  The first comprehensive surveys of the fisheries along the Pacific coast and in Alaska were part of the 1880 U.S. Census. David Starr Jordan, then President of Indiana University, and Charles H. Gilbert, a young biologist at Indiana University, were chosen to write the first description Of Pacific salmon fishing and canning interests of the United States (Jordan and Gilbert, 1887), with Tarleton Bean preparing a section on Pacific cod, Gadus macrocephalus, and Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis.

  In 1885, Jordan was appointed the first President of the newly opened Leland Stanford University, and Gilbert followed him to become head of the Biology Department. Their influence, along with the recommendations of Bean, was instrumental in arranging for the Albatross, a U.S. Fish Commission vessel, to continue a series of annual surveys in the Aleutian Islands, in the Bering Sea, along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and even into distant waters off Japan and Hawaii. Frequently Jordan, Gilbert, or Barton Warren Evennann would accompany the vessel during its cruises, taking numerous soundings, temperatures, bottom samples, and other oceanographic tests. Because Jordan and Gilbert had written the first description of the salmon fisheries on the Pacific coasts, it was apparent that Jordan should be chosen to head a select committee appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 to investigate the causes for the decline in the salmon fisheries of Alaska. Gilbert was named scientist in charge of the Pacific Fishery Investigations of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in 1909. For the next 22 years, the Bureau's research center for fisheries of the Pacific coast and Alaska remained at Stanford University, and the influence of Jordan, Gilbert, Evermann, and John Otterbein Snyder, and the contributions of their students, dominated all fishery surveys and investigations made in the North Pacific and beyond.

  An example of Gilbert's dedication to his profession, as well as his intense personality, is his scientific leadership of the 1902 cruise of the Albatross, in waters around Hawaii. During this expedition, Gilbert and the captain of the vessel, Lt. Commander Chauncey Thomas, Jr. (1850-1919), U.S.N. , engaged in an acrimonious feud over what Gilbert perceived to be a lack of dedication by the captain. The two antagonists were each operating from different viewpoints. Gilbert, the scientist, academician, and authority on fishes, was not accustomed to having his viewpoints challenged. Commander Thomas, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and career officer, likewise was comfortable with authority, and did not suffer lightly questions of his command. The 1902 Hawaiian expedition of the Albatross, which, despite the problems of the two antagonists, was a remarkably successful voyage, resulting in the discovery of many species new to science as well as many scientific publications of relevance even today. The expedition to the Hawaiian Islands in 1902 was directed toward assessing fishery resources, and it followed an on-shore survey of fishes in 1901 conducted b Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann.

  According to the Fish Commission, the purpose of the Albatross expedition to Hawaii in 1902 was to continue the investigation of the Hawaiian fisheries, begun in 1901 by direction of Congress. It was decide to send the Albatross to study the conditions in the surrounding waters. David Starr Jordan was to have general supervision of the expedition and Dr. Charles H. Gilbert was put in immediate charge of the scientific work. The investigation was to embrace dredging and collecting in channels and on the banks about the islands, and a thorough examination of the surroundings of Kauai, the oldest of the group, of outlying reefs about the islands northwest of Kauai, and of the different fishing-banks. The Hawaiian Islands had been annexed by the United States in 1898 and were made a colonial territory in 1900. Hence the Government's interest in the fishery resources of this newly acquired region.

  Gilbert was appointed "Naturalist-in-Charge" of the vessel, a temporary position that he occupied while on leave from Stanford University. He was assisted by Charles Cleveland Nutting, of the University of Iowa, John Otterbein Snyder, of Stanford University, and Walter Kenrick Fisher, then a graduate student of Gilbert’s at Stanford. Fishery expert Alvin Burton Alexander and resident naturalist Frederic Morton Chamberlain were on the permanent staff of the vessel."

  Beam trawls and dredges were the vessel's principal sampling gears, but dip nets, gill nets, surface tow nets, and mid-water nets were also used. Shore and reef collecting was conducted at various points. Collections of both vertebrates and invertebrates were preserved for later study. Hydrographic and meteorological observations were recorded.

  The Albatross departed San Francisco on 11 March 1902 for the Hawaiian Islands. The trip to Honolulu was not without difficulties and presented an ominous beginning of the expedition. Heavy weather was encountered on the first day's outing, and on 12 March the ship's quartermaster was thrown off the vessel and lost at sea. Attempts to trawl on Erben Bank enroute to Hawaii were made on 15 and 16 March, but they were a failure. The beam trawl, a boat trawl with tangles, the tangles and tangle bars, utilized at different time were all lost and put a strain on the dredging cable, which had never been exceeded in the ship's history.

  A total of 18 stations were sampled using surface and intermediate-water nets, enroute to and in the vicinity of the Islands before the vessel arrived in Honolulu on 24 March. The ship remained in port for coaling and maintenance until 27 March. Gilbert wrote Jordan a progress report on 23 March, while the vessel was within a day's sail of Honolulu. He described the dredging attempts made on the way to Hawaiian waters:

  "At about 9 o'clock each morning, and at 8 o'clock at night, we have hauled one net at the surface, and have sent another one down to a depth of 50 to 150 fathoms. An astonishing amount and variety of life has been shown to exist. We have Protozoa, Coelenterates Mollusks, Crustacea, Insects, and fishes - not to mention diatoms among the plants. The work has been done systematically, and the material carefully sorted and preserved. The field seems to be inexhaustible, as many new forms appear with each haul. The most remarkable animal came up from 100 fathoms. It is an elongate to worm-like creature, which we pronounced on casual inspection to be a Crustacean, and then later a worm. Its eyes are on flexible stalks half an inch long. Fisher and Snyder began to draw and study it, and began to insist that it was a vertebrate. It is undoubtedly a bony fish, tho' possibly a larval form. The tail is heterocercal, the dorsal and anal developed, and the pectoralis peculiar broad flaps without very definite rays. If it is a larval form, I have no faintest idea what the adult will turn out to be."

  Gilbert continued his letter, describing other interesting specimens they had collected, and he was, in particular, fascinated with the larvae and young of fishes they encountered. Gilbert proposed to Jordan that upon completion of the Hawaiian Island expedition, such an attempt to inventory larval and juvenile fishes be conducted. He suggested that a line be run due east from Hawaii to the California coast to sample these forms systematically.

  During the first part of the cruise, the Albatross was trawling during the day and anchoring at night. This schedule was due, in part, to the shortage of a crew member because of the loss of the ship's quartermaster. According to the captain's orders of 27 March:

  "When the ship is within reasonable distance of suitable ports she will be anchored therein and liberty granted the crew on Saturday afternoons and Sundays as required by U.S. Navy Regulations....".

  From 27 March to 19 April, the Albatross dredged off the coasts of Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and Lanai islands. Loss or damage to sampling gear was a significant problem during this period. Damage to nets was recorded on 14 hauls, and the gear was lost on five occasions. Such extensive loss or damage to sampling gear caused considerable apprehension to the captain. Materials for repairing nets were ordered from San Francisco and a report was written to the Commissioner about the extensive gear loss.

  Gilbert described to Jordan the problems they were having with lost and damaged gear. Despite these conditions, the hauls were most interesting and rewarding scientifically. Jordan responded to Gilbert by letter in late May. In late April and early May, the vessel dredged off the north coast of Molokai Island. The ship then returned to the vicinity of Oahu Island for further work, before returning to Honolulu. Again, gear loss and damage continued. The Albatross on 10 May then proceeded west to Laysan Island and vicinity and continued until 5 June. In addition to dredging, shore excursions for scientific sampling were made on Laysan, Necker, and Bird islands. After a hiatus in Honolulu from 5 to 9 June, the ship proceeded to the vicinity of Kauai Island for further sampling. Again, damage to gear was extensive. The Albatross returned to Honolulu on 18 June and Gilbert and Thomas met with Jordan for a review of the progress of the expedition. Jordan had arrived from Stanford and was enroute to Pago Pago, Samoa. An additional period of sampling near Kauai Island followed from 20 to 24 June, before the ship returned to Honolulu for maintenance and repairs.

  According to Gilbert, trawling was difficult around the island of Hawaii as the bottom was rough or barren. In most locations, the available dredging area was confined to within the 400 fathom line. He indicated that their work would be completed by 18 August. Thomas was proud of his accomplishments during the cruise, noting that they had generally done an amount of work that never would have been believed could be accomplished at first. But in doing all this, some 1400 soundings, they made 397 dredging stations, all but 43 being bottom work, the 43 surface net work; they filled up every jar, bottle and crock that was brought along with specimens and bought a lot more, have used 10 bbls of alcohol and then began on formaline. The captain continued his summary by comparing the accomplishments of the Albatross with that of the Challenger. However, anger and bitterness were apparent in his correspondence. He resented the idea that the Albatross is a mere annex to Stanford University.

  After arriving in San Francisco, the feud between Thomas and Gilbert continued over an argument that Gilbert had removed some fishes which were contained in the ship's permanent collection. According to Chamberlain, the fishes in this collection "... have been obtained from time to time since the Albatross has been in commission, being selected on account of their oddity, peculiar appearance, or some such point as will make them of most interest to visitors as illustrations of the scientific work of the vessel." In his report, Chamberlain added:

  "During the interval between the departure of the `Albatross' from San Francisco and her arrival in Honolulu, Dr. Gilbert and Mr. Snyder examined a number of these specimens. At my request Dr. Gilbert labeled those that he identified. In course of conversation he remarked that he was unable to identify a few of the specimens and that he believed them to be undescribed species. He further said that as such they should not remain on the vessel but that he would take them from the exhibit jars and place them in the collection to be made on the cruise, with which they would be shipped to Stanford University, remarking at the same time that the empty jars could be filled up with `common stuff.' At this time I again asked him to please make a note of whatever he took out. Somewhat later I again asked Dr. Gilbert to hand me a list of the specimens he had removed, and was met by the statement that `as they were not on charge' it would be unnecessary to furnish a list. I do not know how many nor what specimens were removed but am informed by the sailors in charge of the laboratories that about eight jars were emptied."

  Thomas forwarded Chamberlain's report to the Commissioner on 12 September, requesting that he order Gilbert to return the specimens. In his letter, Thomas argued:

  "The collection of specimens belonging to the ship is of the greatest interest to scientific people and others visiting on board and should be kept intact. That they are not `on charge' cannot excuse any attempt to acquire them for Stanford University or for the private collection of any person under the temporary employ of the Commission and as such in full charge of the scientific department of the ship."

  The issues raised in this letter subsequently reached Jordan. Although Jordan's letter to Gilbert has not been found, Gilbert's response has. On 26 September 1902, he wrote Jordan explaining:

  ". . . . While engaged in labeling the exhibition series, I came across six or eight small fishes which I was unable to identify with the literature at hand. These were taken out of the exhibition jars and placed in the study series, where they now are. As soon as their scientific status is determined it is the intention to report the matter to the Commissioner, and ask instructions as to the final disposition to be made the specimens."

  Gilbert further explained that the specimens were transferred on or about 15 March and that no criticism or comment was made until now, 6 month later. He concluded:

  "The charge which he [Thomas] now makes, that I attempted to acquire these specimens for Stanford University or for a private collection, is a malicious falsehood and constitutes behaviour unbecoming an officer or a gentleman. It certainly appears that scientific men in the temporary employ of the Commission should be protected against gratuitous attacks of this nature."

  At the same time that Thomas was concerned over the removal of fishes from the special exhibit aboard the Albatross, he and Gilbert were feuding by letter over the "ship's mess." According to Gilbert, he loaned $25 to Thomas to help pay for the groceries purchased for the officer's mess. Gilbert argued in a letter to Thomas dated 8 September:

  "You will recall that the twenty-five dollars of mine which you now hold was voluntarily advanced by me as a loan, in view of the fact that you were temporarily embarrassed financially, and were under the necessity of making purchases of fresh provisions for our mess. That such was your own understanding of the case is evidenced by the further fact that you, of your own motion, offered to return to me the money in Honolulu, on or about the next payday. Knowing from your conversation that you were still somewhat short of funds, I invited you to retain the sum until the end of the cruise. I was sufficiently astonished when at the end of the cruise you announced your intention to retain possession of that sum until you should run over your mess accounts. Whatever those accounts may show, you must agree, I think, that you can have no claim upon a sum of money which came into your possession under the circumstances and in the way you described. Will you not, therefore, return it to me at your earliest convenience."

  The two antagonists finally parted ways. Thomas requested a transfer from the Albatross and was appointed captain of the U.S.N. Bennington in late 1902. He continued his Naval career, rising to Rear Admiral, which culminated in his appointment as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1911. Thomas retired from active duty in 1912, having served the Navy for over 40 years. He died in 1919.

  Gilbert continued his research at Stanford University, including additional stints on the Albatross in 1903, 1904, and 1906. He served as Naturalist-in-Charge of the Albatross in 1906 during a cruise in the Bering Sea and in waters off Kamchatka and Japan, and records from this cruise provided no evidence of any conflict between Gilbert and the captain of the vessel, LeRoy Mason Garrett.

  By 1910 Gilbert had turned his attention to the study of Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus spp., and had become the leading authority in North America on these economically important fishes. Gilbert retired from Stanford University in 1925, continued his salmon research in 1926 and 1927, and died in 1928. In memory of Gilbert, a new Bureau of Commercial Fisheries research vessel, stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii, was named the Charles Henry Gilbert. Additionally, a new biology building at Stanford University was recently christened the "Charles H. Gilbert Biological Sciences Building".

  About 27 scientific papers were published based on collections or observations made on this expedition, resulting in significant contributions to knowledge. The papers by Gilbert (1905) and Snyder (1904) described a total of 17 new genera and 119 new species of fishes. Gilbert's contribution, on the deep-sea fishes collected, described a remarkable 15 new genera and 94 new species of fishes in a single paper. Nineteen publications concerning various invertebrate groups resulted in the description of three new families, 22 new genera, and 259 new species. Additionally, a definitive review of the shorefishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago was later published by Jordan and Evermann (1905), as part of the overall investigation of the fishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago.

Back to top

• David Starr Jordan - January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931

  David Starr Jordan

  David Starr Jordan, son of an upstate New York farmer, was born on January 19, 1851. His parents, both experienced teachers, encouraged their son to read. He developed an early and abiding interest in the natural environment and scientific study. After teaching for a brief period, in 1866 at the age of fifteen he received a scholarship to the newly established Cornell University, and was awarded a master's degree in science three years later. Jordan studied biology at Cornell University (M.S., 1872) and became professor of biology at Butler University, Indianapolis. He was a graduate of Cornell (M. S., 1872), Indiana Medical College (M. D., 1875), Butler University (Ph. D., 1878), Cornell (LL. D., 1886), Johns Hopkins, LL. D., 1902), before being appointed professor of natural history at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1879. He became president of that university and was known as a naturalist, educator, and the foremost American ichthyologist of his time. David Starr Jordan was the most influential of all American ichthyologists. He and his students dominated the field in the late 19th and early 20 century. It has been said that all ichthyologists today can trace their professional ancestry back to Jordan. Most of Jordan's scientific career was spent at Indiana University (1879-1891) and Stanford University (1891-1931), but he was closely associated with the Smithsonian for much of his career. He was even offered, at different times, the positions of National Museum director and Smithsonian Secretary, but he declined both. Like so many naturalists of his generation, Jordan owed much to Spencer Baird. Reminiscing in later years, he said that the three figures who contributed most to his own development were Andrew Dickson White (president of Cornell University, where Jordan studied), Louis Agassiz, and Spencer Baird.

  Following several years of travel, research, and teaching in various places, including the Indianapolis High School (Shortridge High School) and Northwestern Christian University (Butler University), Jordan succeeded Richard Owen in 1879 as professor of science at Indiana University. Influenced by Louis Agassiz and other scientists, the youthful professor enthusiastically espoused the cause of science and the theory of evolution.

  Professor Jordan travelled widely in the United States and Europe. The study of fish was his specialty, and his work resulted in his receiving a Gold Medal from the Prince of Wales in 1884 during an International Fishery Congress in London. For the past ten years he had been engaged in a special study of the distribution of fishes in the waters of North America. In this study he has had occasion to do a good deal of field work in the collection of and preservation of fishes. In this he has been aided by several students and associates, especially by Mr. Charles H. Gilbert, now professor of biology in the University of Cincinnati.

  All this work has been carried on under the auspices of the U.S. National Museum and the U.S. Fish Commission. It has been performed, in a greater or less degree, under the direction of Professor Baird, and in all cases most of the material obtained, including the types of all new species, has been sent to the U.S. National Museum.

  The amount of financial assistance received from Government sources has varied very much. At times (1880-'84) it has amounted to considerably more than the actual expenses of exploration and collection. At other times it has simply met the cost of the alcohol used. Aid of varying amount has also been given by Butler University and, since 1879, by the University of Indiana. These details are, however, foreign to the present purpose. Below is a brief account of the different excursions for field work in ichthyology, made by David Starr Jordan and his associates, with a list of the localities explored.

  • 1875: In the spring and fall of 1875, extensive collections were made in White River and its tributaries about Indianapolis, by the late Prof. Herbert E. Copeland and Jordan. A list of the species obtained is published in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 1877, pp. 375-377. Some collections were also made by Professor Copeland in Wisconsin and by Jordan at the Falls of the Ohio and about Cumberland Gap.
  • 1876: In the summer of 1876, Jordan made an extended collecting tour in the Southern States, accompanied by Mr. Charles H. Gilbert, who was then a botanical student under Professor Copeland. A small collection was obtained in the Rock Castle River, at Livingston, Kentucky. About three weeks were spent at Rome, Georgia. Here the streams tributary to the Etowah, Oostanaula, and Coosa Rivers were thoroughly explored. A few days were also spent at Flat Shoals, on South River, a tributary of the Ocmulgee, southeast of Atlanta. Small collections were also made in Peach Tree Creek and in Nancy's Creek, tributaries of the Chattahoochee, near Atlanta. This expedition represents the first attempt to study the fresh-water fishes of Georgia, and the collection then made is much larger than any since obtained in that State. The results of this summer's work were published, as "A Partial Synopsis of the Fishes of Upper Georgia," in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, XI, 1877, p. 307 et seq.
  • 1877: In 1877 a more extended tour in the Allegheny region of the Southern States was undertaken by Jordan, with the assistance of Dr. Alembert W. Brayton and Mr. Gilbert. Numerous streams were examined, representing the following hydrographic basins: Santee, Savannah, Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Alabama, Tennessee, Cumberland. A detailed report of these explorations was published by Jordan and Brayton in Bulletin XII of the U.S. National Museum, 1878, entitled, "On the Distribution of the Fishes of the Allegheny Region of South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, with Descriptions of New or Little Known Species." An extended discussion of the distribution of fresh- water fishes is given in this paper, pp. 91-95.
  • 1878: In 1878, Jordan spent some time at Beaufort, North Carolina, in the study of the marine fishes of that port. He was assisted by Dr. Brayton, Mr. Gilbert, and Mr. B. W. Evermann. A catalogue of the species obtained was published in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 1878, pp. 365-388, by Jordan and Gilbert, entitled "Notes on the Fishes of Beaufort Harbor, North Carolina."
  • 1879: During the summer of 1879, Jordan spent much of his time in Europe. Considerable collections were made by Mr. Gilbert and Jordan at Venice.
  • 1880: In November, 1879, Jordan was appointed special agent of the U.S. Census Bureau, in charge of the enumeration of the fisheries and other marine interests of the Pacific coast of the United States. He was also instructed by the U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries to undertake a thorough study of the fish-fauna of that region, and to make extensive collections of the fishes for distribution by the U.S. National Museum to the chief museums of the world. Mr. Charles H. Gilbert was appointed assistant in this work. Special assistance in Puget Sound was rendered by Mr. James G. Swan, of Neah Bay, and about San Francisco by Mr. William N. Lockington, then of San Francisco. Important volunteer aid was also given by Miss Rosa Smith, of San Diego, by Mr. Charles J. Smith, then of Astoria, and by Capt. Andrea Larco, of Santa Barbara.

    Mr. Gilbert and Jordan reached San Diego about January 1,1880. The time between that date and November 1 was devoted to an exploration of the coast from the Mexican boundary as far north as Saanich on Vancouver's Island, most of the important points being visited at least twice, at different seasons. The chief points at which collections were made are San Diego, San Pedro (Wilmington), Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo (Port Harford), Monterey, Soquel, San Francisco, Humboldt Bay, Astoria, Neah Bay, Seattle, Tacoma, Victoria, Saanich Arm, and New Westminster. Few coasts have yet been so thoroughly explored, so far as the shore fishes are concerned. Jordan had, however, no means of collecting fishes from any great depth. The results of these explorations have been given in numerous short papers in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum for 1880 and 1881, in the Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, and other papers. Their reports to the U.S. Census Bureau still remain unpublished. Some 55 species new to science were obtained by this expedition, and the number of species of shore fishes known from the Pacific coast of California, Oregon, and Washington was raised from about 200 to nearly 275. Series of specimens containing each from 50 to 250 of these species have been distributed to some 75 different museums, in various parts of the world.

    The most important result of their work on the Pacific coast is probably the solution of the problem as to the number of species of salmon (Oncorhynchus) inhabiting the North Pacific. Similar results were reached at the same time by Dr. T.H. Bean, who was then carrying explorations in Alaska.

    Upon his return to the East, Jordan visited Utah Lake, with the assistance of Peter Madsen, a fisherman at Provo, Jordan made a considerable collection of fishes, some of them new to science. These have been described by Jordan and Gilbert in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 1880, p. 459.

    After finishing work in California in November, 1880, Mr. Gilbert continued his explorations southward, spending the winter at Mazatlan and Panama, returning from Colon to Washington in the spring of 1881. A remarkably rich and carefully preserved collection was obtained from the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America. This included some 60 species new to science. These have been described in several papers by Jordan and Gilbert in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum and Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission in 1881 and 1882. An elaborate paper containing synonymy and detailed descriptions of all the species of fishes known from the Pacific coast of tropical America was prepared for publication. This was destroyed by fire in 1883 when nearly ready for the press.

  • 1881: The summer of 1881 was spent in Europe. Collections were made in Genoa and Venice.
  • 1882: In the spring of 1882, Jordan visited Galveston, New Orleans, and Pensacola, making a considerable collection at each point. The most important part of this collection was that obtained at Pensacola, with the assistance of Mr. Silas Stearns. The collections of fishes made by Mr. Stearns at Pensacola are among the most important that the National Museum has received from any source. The results of this expedition were published by Jordan and Gilbert in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum for 1882, pp. 241-307.

    Part of the summer of the same year was spent by Professor Gilbert at Charleston, South Carolina. Professor Gilbert received important aid from Mr. Charles C. Leslie. The results of these explorations were published by Jordan and Gilbert in Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 1882, pp. 580-620.

  • 1883: The winter of 1882-1883 was spent by Professor Gilbert in making collections of fishes at Panama and at neighboring points on both sides of the Isthmus as well as in the fresh waters of the Isthmus and of Costa Rica. A large collection was obtained and contained fresh-water forms and about 40 species new to science. It was unfortunately totally destroyed by the burning of the museum building of the Indiana University, July 12, 1883. During this time about one-third of the collections previously made by Professor Gilbert at Mazatlan and Panama were destroyed, as well as the private collections of Professor Gilbert and Jordan, which was contained in the department of fishes. Nothing was published concerning these collections of 1883.

    In the spring of 1883 a small collection of fishes was made in the Fork of the Cumberland River by Mr. Joseph Swain and Jordan. After the fire a third collection was made at Venice by Mr. Swain and Jordan. Small collections were also obtained at Wood's Hole, Massachsetts, and in different streams of Indiana.

    In November and December, 1883, Jordan undertook a reconnaissance of the fish-fauna of the Florida Keys. A day was spent at Jacksonville, a few days at Cedar Keys, Florida, about three weeks at Key West, and nearly two weeks in Havana. In this work, Jordan was assisted by William H. Dye, a student of Indiana University. Large collections were obtained, especially at Key West and at Havana including as many as 25 species new to science. The collections made in Florida were described in different papers in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum for 1884. Those from Havana have not yet been placed on record.

  • 1884: In July 1884, Jordan was asked by Prof. G. Brown Goode, curator of the U.S. National Museum, to take charge of a series of explorations of the streams of the Southern States, to be undertaken in connection with the New Orleans Exposition. In this work Jordan was assisted by Professor Gilbert, Prof. Joseph Swain, and Mr. Seth E. Meek.

    Field work began early in July by Professors Gilbert and Swain in different streams in Indiana. Later they extended their explorations southward, making collections in the Rolling Fork, the Rock Castle, Cumberland, Clinch, French Broad, and Stone's Rivers; later in the tributaries of the Tennessee, about Florence, Tuscumbia, and Huntsville, in Alabama, and in those of the Black Warrior, about Cullman, Blount Springs, Warrior, and Tuscaloosa. This exploration of the Tennessee basin brought to light a number of new forms, especially in the group of Etheostominae.

    Meanwhile Jordan, assisted by Mr. Seth E. Meek, began field work in the Des Moines River, in Southern Iowa. The Des Moines, Chariton, and Hundred and Two Rivers, in Iowa, were investigated, and the Missouri, La Mine, and Osage, in Missouri. After a time Jordan was obliged to return to Indiana for a few days, and Professor Gilbert, with Mr. Meek's assistance, continued the work in tributaries of the Neosho, Osage, White, Niangua and Gasconade, in Southern Missouri. Jordan rejoined them at Eureka Springs, in Arkansas, where they made large collections in the White River. Here Mr. Meek left, and Mr. Gilbert and Jordan proceeded to Fort Smith, where they made collections in Lee's Creek, the Poteau River, and the Arkansas. Proceeding southwestward from Little Rock, they explored in succession the Saline River at Benton, the Washita River at Arkadelphia, the Red River at Fulton, the Sabine River at Longview, the Trinity River at Dallas, the Lampasas and Leon Rivers at Belton, the Colorado River at Austin, the Rio Blanco and San Marcos Rivers at San Marcos, and the Rio Comal at New Braunfels. From New Braunfels they returned to Washington.

    The explorations in 1884 are in several respects the most extensive yet undertaken in the fresh waters of the United States. As results of the summer's work a considerable number of new species have been added to our lists. The range of many species hitherto supposed to be rare and local has been greatly extended, and numerous species supposed to be well distinguished have been shown to be geographical varieties of others. We have been enabled in many cases to recognize subspecies among our freshwater fishes and to properly distinguish these from individual and accidental variations. This work cannot be fully done until all our interior waters have been explored. There still remain many hydrographic basins in which no collections have yet been made.

  • On January 1, 1885, at the age of thirty-four, Jordan became president of Indiana University. He continued in this position until 1891, when he became president of Stanford University.

    President Jordan had many problems facing him when he became president at Indiana University. Classes were being held in one inadequate building on the old campus, but Wylie and Owen Halls were under construction on the new campus. On his second day in office, he wrote a letter to the alumni asking for their support in persuading the members of the legislature to appropriate $50,000 to replace the library, museum, and laboratories lost by fire. The legislature appropriated $30,000 of the $50,000 requested. Out of this sum, $5,556.39 was allocated to the library for the following purchases: a "cataloging outfit" purchased for $58.25; books $5103.99; periodicals $378.15; and newspapers $16.00. This was the largest single year's expenditures for the library up to this time and it was not equalled or exceeded again until 1897.

    David Starr Jordan,served in a variety of positions including President of Leland Stanford Jr. University, 1891-1913; chancellor, 1913-16. Professor in various collegiate institutions, 1872-79. Assistant to United States Fish Commission, 1877-91. Professor of zoology, 1879-85, and president, 1885-91, Indiana University. President of California Academy of Sciences, 1896-1904 and from 1908. Also United States commissioner in charge of fur seal investigations, etc.

    Jordan was an accomplished author writing in a variety of disciplines including biology, education, paleontology, and religion. A small variety of books that he wrote include, "A Manual of Vertebrate Animals of Northern United States," "Science Sketches," "Fishes of North and Middle America," "Footnotes to Evolution," "The Story of Matka," "Care and Culture of Men," "The Innumerable Company," "Imperial Democracy," "Animal Life," "Animal Forms" (with V. L. Kellogg and H. Heath), "The Strength of Being Clean," "Standeth God Within the Shadow," "To Barbara" (verse), "The Philosophy of Hope," "The Blood of the Nation," "Food and Game Fishes of North America" (with B. W. Evermann), "A Guide to the Study of Fishes," "Voice of the Scholar," "The Call of the Twentieth Century". Jordan published over 3000 publications, nearly 650 on ichthyology and fisheries biology, and nearly 250 on other scientific subjects.

    Jordan died on September 19, 1931. He was an outstanding scientist and the first layman to become president of Indiana University.

Back to top

• Thomas S. McComish

  Thomas S. McComish

  Thomas S. McComish completed a BS and MS degrees at South Dakota State University and his doctorate at the University of Missouri (1971). Among his greatest achievements have been to develop a fisheries management program at Ball State University. He also was heavily involved in aquaculture and was a partner in the formation of Aquatic Control.

  Tom has served as the Director of Lake Michigan Studies, a position supported by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources - Division of Fish and Wildlife, from 1969-present. He has been the Department Chair in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and has been an educator and researcher affiliated with Ball State University from 1968 - 2002. McComish studied extensively the Lake Michigan shoreline and nearshore fisheries. His greatest contribution has been the detailed and long-term database for locations near Michigan City, Mt. Baldy, and Gary. His data has been used extensively for managing the yellow perch fishery and for evaluating forage fish stocks.

  Back to top
  
• Seth E. Meek - 1859 - 1914

  Seth E. Meek and Charles H. Gilbert discovered Etheostoma nianguae, Niangua darter, a federally threatened fish found nowhere else but in streams in the Osage River basin. The pair's scientific expedition across the Ozarks and other work vastly expanded our knowledge of the richly varied aquatic life in Missouri's streams. Collaborating with them was David Starr Jordan, a colleague known as the father of American ichthyology. The three discovered and named as new species Missouri's sicklefin chub, Ozark shiner, Niangua darter, bluestripe darter and yoke darter. Between them they also discovered another 20 or so new species that initially were found in other states but also lived in Missouri.

  In addition, Meek collected dozens of types of fish around the state. Many were species already known to science, but his yeoman's work served to confirm their existence and, in part, their range in the state. This endeavor also helped establish another important fact: Missouri contains one of the richest native fish faunas of any state. While Gilbert and Jordan were far bigger names in scientific circles, Meek's work was significant. He was "the single biggest contributor to knowledge of Missouri fishes before 1900," according to William L. Pflieger, retired Conservation Department ichthyologist and author of The Fishes of Missouri. Echoing that sentiment is Henry W. Robison, professor of biology at Southern Arkansas University and co-author of Fishes of Arkansas.

  Seth Meek seemed destined to spend his life peering into the waters of one river or another. He was born in 1859 in Hicksville, a small town in far northwest Ohio. His birthplace falls squarely between the St. Joseph River and the northeasterly course of the Maumee River on its way to Lake Erie. Rivers and the aquatic life captivated him. He wasn't far into his studies at Indiana University when he became fascinated with ichthyology, the branch of zoology dealing with fish. It appears that it was at Indiana University where the lives of the three scientists converged. Meek and Gilbert were students there when Jordan served as head of the department of natural science. Jordan’s presence was a dominant figure for Meek. He was a large man best remembered for his intellect, drive and keen memory and for the sheer force of his personality. Jordan possessed an uncanny ability for distinguishing similar looking species of fish. Jordan was a prolific researcher, generating well over 600 publications- single scientific papers to weighty texts-about fish over the span of half a century. Scientific folklore has it that Jordan dictated from memory most of his two-volume Guide to the Study of Fishes-all while serving as president of Stanford University.

  Jordan and Gilbert published a 1,000-page volume on the fish of North America. Jordan went on to co-author The Fishes of North and Middle America, which was based on his work and that of his many associates. This undertaking was so great that its 3,000 pages were published in a series of four volumes from 1896 to 1900. Jordan had scores of students and scientific associates, including Meek, but Gilbert was for many years his chief collaborator. A native of Illinois, he complemented Jordan with his preciseness and critical thinking. In time, Jordan would entice Gilbert out west to Stanford University, where he would head up the zoology department.

  After his work in Missouri, Meek took a position as professor of biology and geology at Arkansas Industrial University (University of Arkansas). He went on to become assistant curator of zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, a post he held until his death in 1914. Meek collected fish around a 100-mile area in the vicinity of Chicago. These fish were bottled and placed on display for the World’s Fair held in Chicago. A peculiar circumstance of the collection was that Meek put individual fish in bottles to expand the value of the Field Museum’s fish collection. Collections from the Chicago region were published with Samuel Hildebrand another of Jordan’s students from Indiana University.

  To truly appreciate the contributions of the Golden Age of Ichthyology at Indiana University, and the contributions of Seth Meek, one must evaluate his contributions to ichthyology in Missouri and Arkansas. Publication dates for their scientific papers place the three together or separately in Missouri from about 1884 to 1889. Settlers had by then spread over a large portion of the Missouri Ozarks, where the biologists did most of their research, but much of the region's wild quality remained intact. The researchers traveled across some of the state's most punishing terrain by horseback and with wagons laden with specimen jars and other equipment. The scientific timeline showed that in 1884, Charles Darwin's “The Origin of Species” had been in print just 25 years and was clearly reshaping views of the natural world. Much of America's flora and fauna remained uncatalogued, even though naturalists and scientists had worked for decades naming and classifying. That's one reason why the 25 years prior to 1900 have been called the golden age of descriptive ichthyology in the United States. It was such work that brought Meek, Gilbert and Jordan to Missouri. They often would spend their summer breaks from the academic world engaged in field research for the United States Fish Commission or the U.S. National Museum. Gilbert and Meek, both then just in their mid 20s, ventured across southwest Missouri in the summer of 1884. During this trip they discovered the bluestripe darter and Niangua darter. That same summer Meek and Jordan traveled north to study the Missouri rivers, Tabo Creek near Lexington and tributaries of the Lamine River. They collected a small minnow that was then abundant in the Missouri near St. Joseph. It was slender, with small eyes and sickle-shaped pectoral fins. Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann, another of his colleagues, eventually determined it to be a new species. Their scientific name for it was Macrhybopsis meeki in honor of Meek, but the fish's anatomy inspired its common name, the sicklefin chub.

  Meek returned with two students in July and August of 1889 to survey streams in Missouri and Arkansas. Meek's records provide an interesting perspective into their work and travels. In just 16 days on the Missouri leg of the trip, they collected fish in 18 streams across the basins of the Meramec, Gasconade, Osage, Neosho (a Kansas stream with Missouri tributaries) and White rivers. Their zigzag route took them from St. Louis through or near St. James, Rolla, Dixon, Marshfield, Neosho and Springfield before their final stops on the Big Piney and North Fork rivers near Cabool. It was on this trip that they discovered the yoke darter in the James River and the Ozark shiner in the North Fork. Meek lavishly named the yoke darter Etheostoma juliae for Julia Gilbert, his colleague's wife.

  Meek's records also provide a number of personal observations. He found the Niangua "quite remarkable for the bright colors of its minnows and darters." By contrast, he seemed disappointed after visiting the Big Piney near Cabool. "Fish are apparently scarce in this stream," he wrote in an account published in the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. "The scarcity is in some measure due to the presence of gristmills and sawmills, which discharge refuse into the stream, and to the use of dynamite (to kill fish)." He also reported that it was common near Newburg and Neosho for dynamite to be used in a similar fashion. Meek called attention to the rugged terrain and bluffs along the North Fork of the White River south of Cabool. "The country is also heavily timbered and as yet sparsely settled," his account reads. "The stream has a rocky bottom and flows with a considerable current." These men seined in the White River basin before any dams were built. Meek, Gilbert and Jordan's accounts of their explorations of Missouri and Arkansas are recorded yet convey little of the excitement and awe that predisturbed Missouri was like. These were accomplished scientists whose live intent was to discover and extend the bounds of our knowledge of the aquatic environment.

Back to top

• Joseph S. Nelson

  Joseph S. Nelson

  Joseph S. Nelson is a renowned ichthyologist that received an honorable BS degree from the University of British Columbia (1960), M.Sc. from the University of Alberta (1962), and a PhD degree from the University of British Columbia (1965). His primary teaching has been in the areas of Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates, Natural History of Vertebrates, Ichthyology, Principles of Zoological Systematics, and Honors Research, while his research has focused on Systematics and classification of fishes, taxonomic revision of the Trachinoidei and Psychrolutidae, taxonomy of the sticklebacks Culaea and Pungitius, pelvic skeleton presence/ absence in brook sticklebacks, and taxonomy, biology, biogeography of Alberta fish.

  Nelson has received numerous awards and distinctions including the F. Z. S. (Calcutta) Honoris Causa (1992), Distinguished Service Award, American Fisheries Society (2000), the Robert H. Gibbs, Jr Memorial Award, 2002, for 'An outstanding body of published work in systematic ichthyology', American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (2002), and the J. Dewey Soper Award, Alberta Society of Professional Biologists (2003). His responsibilities have included the Curator of fishes, participation on research groups for systematics and evolution and environmental biology and ecology, a Member of the Board of Governors for the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (1997-2002), Chairman for the AFS & ASIH Names of Fishes Committee (1991-present), Editorial Board, Fish and Fisheries (a new Blackwell Science journal)(2000- present), Member, Fish and Mammal Subcommittee for COSEWIC, and Associate Dean, Faculty of Science (1995-2000; Apr-Aug 2002). He has been a member of the Canadian Society of Zoologists, Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists, Ottawa Field Naturalists, Federation of Alberta Naturalists, American Elasmobranch Society, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, American Fisheries Society, Association of Systematics Collections, Sigma Xi, Society of Systematic Biologists (formerly Zoology), Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, The Willi Hennig Society, European Ichthyological Union, The Ichthyological Society of Japan, and the Société Française d'Ichtyologie.

  Nelson has published over 115 peer reviewed publications on fish systematics and taxonomy. His current projects include the revision of the “Fishes of the World” and “Fishes of Alberta”.

Back to top

• William E. Ricker - August 11, 1908 - September 8, 2001

  William E. Ricker

  William Edwin "Bill" Ricker was born August 11, 1908, in Waterdown, Ontario. He received a B.A.(1930), M.A. (1931), and Ph.D. (1936) all from the University of Toronto. He is considered one of the foremost fisheries scientists in Canada. Bill Ricker retired in 1973 after 27 years at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, mostly at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, BC.  He produced an amazing array of publications in a long and illustrious career on topics ranging from stock assessment and recruitment to stoneflies, meteorites and Sherlock Holmes.  However, he is perhaps best known for the “Ricker Curve” – a formula used to describe the relationship between adult fish and their offspring.  He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1986, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guelph Chapter of Sigma Xi and an Honourary Doctorate by the University of Guelph, both in 1996.  A Canadian research vessel was named after him in 1996, and the Axelrod Institute of Ichthyology named its Ricker Recruitment Laboratory in his honor.

  Bill was born in Waterdown, Ontario in 1908 but the family soon moved to North Bay, Ontario where his father was on staff at the local Normal School. Bill received his elementary and secondary schooling in North Bay and his scholarly achievements began there when as a teenager he received the Goldpin Awards twice from the North Bay Collegiate Institute. His interest in science began in North Bay with studies in ornithology and astronomy. He undertook the first Christmas Bird Census in North Bay by himself in the mid 1920's. On a bitterly cold day, he counted 12 species and 20 birds. Bill enrolled at the University of Toronto in science and received his Bachelors degree in 1930. He could have become a botanist, mathematician, physicist or geologist, but he was encouraged to enter the field of fisheries science by Professors W.J.K. Harkness and J.R. Dymond. He obtained a Masters degree from University of Toronto in 1931 and his PhD under Professor E.M. Walker in 1936. By the age of 27 he was a highly respected scientist in the field of limnology, biostatistics, and aquatic entomology, as well as, being an authority on stonefly (Plecoptera) biology and taxonomy.

  On completion of his Masters degree Bill took a position as junior scientist with the International Salmon Commission in British Columbia and thus began his love of Canada’s western coast. He studied the Fraser River sockeye salmon population and worked at Cultus Lake with Dr. R.E. Foerster who had started a comprehensive study of sockeye salmon nursery areas along the British Columbia coast. During the 1930's he spent time at Cultus Lake, the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo and also at the Fisheries Laboratory in Ontario. After completion of his doctorate, his position with the International Salmon Commission continued work at Cultus Lake. While at Cultus Lake in 1935, he met and married Marion Torrance Cardwell, a public health nurse with a love of the outdoors that she shared with Bill. They had four sons, Karl, John, Eric and Angus. After the completion of his doctorate, he took a post doctoral trip for about a year to limnological facilities in eastern and western Europe.

  In 1939, he accepted a research and teaching position in the Biology Department at the Indiana University, Bloomington. He continued his limnological studies in the State and among other things taught a course in Ornithology that he inherited from Dr. Alfred Kinsey. He became interested in the work of the great Russian fisheries biologist and statistician Theodor Baranov and taught himself Russian, as well as, becoming familiar with Spanish. He recognized the importance of the Russian scientific fisheries work and went on to translate over two hundred Russian fisheries papers into English. He was a professor of Zoology at Indiana University where he taught about birds and fish from 1939 to 1950. He returned to Canada to serve as editor of publications for the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. In 1964 he moved to Nanaimo to become Chief Scientist of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. From 1973 until his death in 2001, he continued to work on a voluntary basis on the history of Fraser River salmon fisheries and other projects./p>

  During his life he has identified 90 new species of stoneflies and written a Russian/ English dictionary of fisheries terms, among many other activities. Towards the end of his life, Ricker worked on a history book about early travel on the Fraser River canyon. Ricker was awarded three honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Manitoba, Dalhousie University, and most recently, Guelph University). There is a research vessel named after him “The W. E. Ricker”, and a street that wraps itself around the Nanaimo Biological Station called Ricker's Curve.

  Ricker was the first to suggest several possible reasons for the cyclic variation in returning salmon stocks. Biologists are still collecting evidence to determine the correct explanation. The Fraser sockeye are on a four-year cycle maybe because most of the fish mature at age four. Farther north age five stocks are common. Pink salmon are known to have a two-year life cycle, while for coho salmon age three is typical. Chinook salmon or “spring” salmon may return at age ranging between two to seven years.

  Ricker is best known for his mathematical model of fish population dynamics, called the “Ricker Curve”, which he first described the 1950s classic on the computation of fish population statistics.

  The Ricker Curve

  The Ricker Curve is still used all over the world to determine average maximum catches for regional fisheries. Each curve represents a different type of fish population. This is what governments use to decide how many days commercial fishers can be allowed to fish for salmon or cod so that there are enough fish left to reproduce themselves in subsequent years. A line of natural replacement was established, which along this line, spawning adult fish are replaced by an equal number of progeny. Ricker defined natural equilibrium as the point when spawning fish equals progeny. In the absence of no commercial fishery, this would be where the fish population would naturally tend. In natural systems, fish do not exceed this level because of crowding. As a result spawning beds are disturbed and eggs die. At the top of the Ricker curve one can reduce the population to 40% of the natural equilibrium by fishing, but some fish, like salmon, produce many more mature progeny when their spawning grounds are less crowded. The point of maximum sustainable catch on any Ricker Curve is shown by the curving dotted line. This is the distance between the curve and the natural replacement line is the greatest at this point. Anywhere to the left of this line you are overfishing and will reduce the next generation’s harvest.

  Dr. William (Bill) E. Ricker was a Founding and Honorary member of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. He passed away on September 8, 2001 in Nanaimo, British Columbia after a lifetime of scientific endeavour and scholarly achievement. He was 93.

Back to top

• Will Scott
  
Back to top

• Joseph Swain - June 16, 1857 – May 19, 1927

  Joseph Swain

  Joseph Swain was born on June 16, 1857 in Pendleton, Indiana. He graduated with both a bachelor's degree (1883) and a master's degree (1885) from Indiana University. Swain's teaching career began at Indiana University where he served as instructor in mathematics and biology, 1883-1885; as associate professor of mathematics, 1885-1886; and professor, 1886-1891. When David Starr Jordan left Indiana University to assume the role of President at Leland Stanford University, Swain followed him as professor of mathematics from 1891-1893. He returned to Indiana University when offered the role of President from 1893-1902.>/p>

  Swain was a member of the Quaker faith, and, though successful at Indiana University, he felt a strong impulse to accept an invitation from Swarthmore College to serve as their President from 1902-1921. He retired from that institution as President Emeritus. Swain died on May 19, 1927.

Back to top