Clinton Hart Merriam
Clinton Hart Merriam | |
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US Board of Geographic Names American Society of Mammalogists Anthropological Society of Washington American Society of Naturalists | |
Author abbrev. (botany) | Merriam |
Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a branch of zoology referring to the study of mammals.
Early life
Clinton Hart Merriam was born in
Although born in New York City, where his parents were staying the winter, the family home and place where Merriam spent his boyhood days was "Locust Grove," a homestead in Lewis County, New York. It was located near the Adirondack Mountains, where Merriam's interests in the natural world flourished.[1] Encouraged by his father, who gave the young Merriam a muzzle-loading rifle and an old storeroom to keep his trophies, Merriam began a collection of natural specimens at a young age, learning the basics of taxidermy from a retired army surgeon.[2] At the age of fifteen, Merriam's father took him to see naturalist Spencer F. Baird at the Smithsonian Institution, who was impressed with the boy's collection.[2] Professor Baird would have a lasting impact on Merriam's career as a naturalist, and he supported Merriam's entrance into the scientific community by setting up lessons with the taxidermist John Wallace, recommending Merriam to the Hayden Geological Survey, and providing assistance in Merriam's first publication following the expedition.[1]
1872 Hayden Expedition
Through the recommendation of Professor Baird, the 16-year-old Merriam was appointed as naturalist of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1872.[3] In June 1872 Congress had appropriated another $20,000 for completion of the notable Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.[4] It had contributed to the founding of Yellowstone National Park.[2] Both were part of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (1871-1877).[4] Beginning in Ogden and the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, the expedition pushed between the Teton Basin and up through Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana and into the newly established Yellowstone National Park.
Merriam returned from the expedition with 313 bird skins and 67 nests with eggs.[1] His report from the trip appears in the Sixth Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories and marks his first major contribution to the zoological literature.[1][5] Following the expedition, Lt. George Wheeler, a rival of Hayden's in surveying the American West, tried to poach Merriam for his own survey, putting Merriam in the midst of an old feud between the two explorers.[2][4] A third expedition, without Merriam, explored Colorado in 1873.[6] Again Professor Baird stepped in on behalf of Merriam, resolving the issue by recommending that Merriam return to school to prepare for college.[2]
Education
Merriam followed Professor Baird's advice and prepared for college in 1872 and 1873 by attending Pingry Military School in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts.[1]
In 1874, Merriam attended the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he studied natural history and anatomy.[1][2] While at Yale, he joined St. Anthony Hall.[7] Among the faculty there, Merriam received instruction from such prominent figures as Alpheus Hyatt Verrill, Sidney Irving Smith, and Daniel Cady Eaton. During this time, Merriam published a short paper entitled "Ornithological Notes from the South," following a trip to Florida with his father.[1][8]
Around this time, Merriam also published "A Review of the Birds of Connecticut,"[9] significant in that it recognized that the distribution of birds' ranges is governed by temperature during the breeding season; as well as a number of short papers from observations of birds near his Locust Grove house.[1]
From assisting a Dr. Bacon in New Haven with surgeries, Merriam developed an interest in anatomy, and Merriam and his roommates would practice dissections of human cadavers obtained through a New York morgue.
In 1878, while at medical school, Merriam helped organize the Linnaean Society of New York and served as its first president.[1] Merriam also was an early member of the Nuttall Ornithological Club and an early contributor to its bulletin.[1]
Merriam graduated with his M.D. from Columbia University in 1879 and returned to Locust Grove to practice medicine.[1]
Medical career and continued study of wildlife
From 1879–1885, after earning his M.D., Merriam returned to Locust Grove to practice medicine as a country doctor, becoming quite successful in the endeavor.[1][10] During this time, Merriam invented scientific and surgical instruments as well as wrote a medical treatise, though the manuscript was unfortunately lost on the way to the printer.[10] While practicing medicine, Merriam corresponded with his naturalist colleagues, and continued to build his collection of animal specimens, with a growing interest in mammals.[1]
In 1881, he published a "Preliminary List of the Birds of the Adirondacks," followed by an exhaustive "Mammals of the Adirondacks" in 1884, which set a new standard for local wildlife studies, particularly in mammalogy, which was not then a well-established field.[1] At this time, Merriam became interested in the underlying questions of species distribution, and hired a clerk to search meteorological records and compute monthly mean temperature in preparation.[1] Merriam met with prominent figures in the sciences, including famed geologist and paleontologist James Hall and Charles Doolittle Walcott of the US Geological Survey, in an attempt to enlist their aid in securing state funding from the New York legislature for a statewide biological survey, but this effort was ultimately unsuccessful.[1]
Merriam continued to expand his private collection of mammal specimens through correspondence, purchase from local taxidermists, and sometime placing orders for the collection of certain species.[1] Through these efforts he met Vernon Bailey, a farmer's boy from Elk River, Minnesota with an impressive ability to collect species considered rare at the time, such as the vole.[1] Merriam continued to employ Bailey as a collector throughout his career, remotely or as a travel companion, and Bailey would eventually marry Merriam's younger sister, Florence, in 1899. By 1884, the year Merriam described his first new species, Atophyrax bendirii (the marsh shrew), Merriam's working collection of mammals numbered over 7,000 specimens, rivaling any public collection at the time.[1] Besides his zeal for collection and Bailey's mammal-collecting ability, Merriam's large mammal collection and emergence as a leader in mammalogy was aided by the invention of the "cyclone" deadfall trap, which made the systematic collection of small mammals a possibility.[1][11]
In 1883, growing interest in ornithology in the US precipitated the formation of the
Zoology
In 1886, he became the first chief of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the
In 1899, he helped railroad magnate
Some species of animals that bear his name are Merriam's canyon lizard (
His detail-oriented taxonomy and thorough field work were influential with zoologists for many years.[15]
The standard author abbreviation Merriam is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[16]
American mammalogy
He began his career in natural science, at the age of 16, with an 1872 Harden Survey. At 18, he published a report of his biological studies on mammals and birds. Following his induction into natural sciences, Merriam studied at Yale and received his M.D from Columbia in 1879.
After college he began a brief career in medicine, but in 1883 his early fascination with the study of mammal species was revived, and he became one of the founding members of the
As head of the Bureau, Merriam inaugurated the North American Fauna series, in which he described 71 new species and several new genera of mammals. After revising brown and grizzly bears of North America, he named an additional 84 species. Merriam visited the
Circa 1910 he began to focus on the ethnology of the peoples native to California.[20]
Native Americans
During Merriam's multiple trips to western North America to research and catalog biological organisms, he came to rely on the indigenous "locals" (Native Americans) for valuable information about the mammals he was studying. Through these inquiries and encounters, Merriam tried to learn Native languages to communicate with his contacts. He also became fascinated with the Native American cultures of California. As the North American Indian populations decreased dramatically in the late 19th century, Merriam realized that the people, languages, culture, and knowledge of these diverse tribes was being lost. He became determined to collect information about the Native American tribes of California before it was too late. Merriam stunned his colleagues in East Coast academic institutions by abandoning his career in mammalogy for anthropological and linguistic field work, for which he had no formal training. When Merriam's friend Harriman died, his widow offered Merriam an open academic grant and encouraged him to study whatever he pleased. Funded by the Harriman family, Merriam's focus shifted to studying and assisting the Native American tribes in the western US. His contributions on the myths of central California and on ethnogeography were noteworthy. Merriam is credited for collecting in his field notes a vast amount of information on the languages and customs of tribes that would otherwise have been unstudied. Merriam published many papers on his findings, and used his findings to advocate for California tribes; the majority of his field notes remain unpublished, and are largely stored in the basement of the University of California Berkeley Anthropology Museum, where they were transferred from The Smithsonian Institution, Merriam's academic home base.[citation needed]
Personal
Merriam married Virginia Elizabeth Gosnell, his secretary at the time, on October 15, 1886.[1] Though he initially had qualms about her poor grammar and marrying beneath what he saw as his social level, he loved her and thought highly of her, ultimately encouraging her education.[2] Virginia Elizabeth was Merriam's lifelong companion, often traveling with him during his field work in California.[1] They had two daughters, Dorothy and Zenaida, the latter of whom would sometimes travel with her parents during Merriam's field work prior to her marriage.[1]
Merriam's sister
His grandson
See also
- Category:Taxa named by Clinton Hart Merriam
- C. Hart Merriam Base Camp Site
- Mount Merriam
- Merriam Peak (California)
Bibliography
- Bean, Lowell John. 1993. "Introduction". In The Dawn of the World: Myths and Tales of the Miwok Indians of California, by C. Hart Merriam, pp. 1–12. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
- Kroeber, A. L. 1955. "C. Hart Merriam as Anthropologist". In Studies of California Indians, by C. Hart Merriam, pp. vii–xiv. University of California Press, Berkeley.
- Sterling, Keir B. 1974. The Last of the Naturalists: The Career of C. Hart Merriam. Arno Press, New York.
- Anon (1942). "[Merriam, C. H.]". Entomol. News. 53: 150.
- Anon (1942). "[Merriam, C. H.]". Science. 95: 318.
- Daubunnire, R. F. (1938). "[Merriam, C. H.]". Quart. Rev. Biol. 13: 327–332.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Osgood, Wilfred (1944). "Biographical Memoir of Clinton Hart Merriam (1855-1942)" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs. XXIV. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hunter, Cathy (2012-09-27). "Clinton Hart Merriam: From Teenage Taxidermist to National Geographic Founder". National Geographic (blogs). Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
- ^ Smithsonian Institution Botany.si.edu: "Hayden's U. S. Geological Survey: Expedition to Yellowstone (1872)"
- ^ a b c SIarchives.si.edu: Smithsonian Institution Online Archives − "Group portrait photograph of Hayden Survey Party, 1872.", with text.
- ^ Merriam, Clinton Hart (1873). "Report on the Mammals and Birds of the Expedition". Sixth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories: 661–715. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ Smithsonian Institution Botany.si.edu: Hayden's US Geological Survey: Expedition to Colorado"
- ^ Negus, W. H. (1900). "Delta Psi". In Maxwell, W. J. (ed.). Greek Lettermen of Washington. New York, New York: The Umbdenstock Publishing Co. pp. 231–234.
- S2CID 84726853. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ Merriam, Clinton Hart (1877). A Review of the Birds of Connecticut. New Haven, Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse, & Taylor, Printers.
- ^ JSTOR 25161015.
- ^ Miller, Gerrit S. (1929). "Mammalogy and the Smithsonian Institution". The Smithsonian Report for 1928: 405–406. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
- ^ JSTOR 4081567.
- ^ "The American Ornithologists' Union", Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, VIII (4): under cover, October 1883
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Merriam", p. 176).
- ^ Sterling, Keir B., ed. (1997). "Merriam, Clinton Hart". Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists. Greenwood Press.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Merriam.
- ^ Sterling, Keir (1973). Last of the Naturalist (Revised ed.). Columbia University.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Clinton Hart Merriam: Honorary Member, President" (PDF). American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
- ^ Sterling, Keir (1973). Last of the Naturalist- The Career of C. Hart Merriam (Revised ed.). Columbia University.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 9780585276847.
- JSTOR 4081288. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
- ^ Reed, Charles (1965). "Imperial Sassanian Hunting of Pig and Fallow-Deer, and Problems of Survival of These Animals Today in Iran" (PDF). Postilla: 17. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
External links
- C. Hart Merriam, Dawn of the World: Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan Indians of California (1910)
- C. Hart Merriam, Indian Village and Camp Sites in Yosemite Valley, Sierra Club Bulletin (1917)
- USDA Merriam National Wildlife Research Center
- Biographical Memoir of Clinton Hart Merriam by Wilfred H. Osgood for the Academy of Sciences
- C. Hart Merriam Collection of Native American Photographs, ca. 1890–1938 at The Bancroft Library
- Guide to the C. Hart Merriam Papers, Volume 1 and Volume 2 at The Bancroft Library
- C. Hart Merriam Collection at Princeton University
- USGS North American Bird Phenology Program: Clinton Hart Merriam
- Works by or about Clinton Hart Merriam at Internet Archive
- Works by Clinton Hart Merriam at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)