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Catalog Data

Record type:
Expedition name
Place:
United States
California
Arizona
Nevada
Utah
Mojave Desert
Sierra Nevada
Tejon Hills
San Luis Obispo
Monterey
Date Range:
1891 - 1891
Description:
The Death Valley Expedition was the first biological survey to commence from an 1890 act of Congress. The act appropriated funds to send expeditions to discover the geographic distributions of plants and animals in the United States. Roughly 100,000 square miles of southern California and adjoining portions of Nevada, Southwestern Utah, and Northwestern Arizona were part of the expedition’s focus. The Mohave Desert, the Sierra Nevada, parts of the Tejon Mountains, and areas of Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties were all explored in detail. The expeditionary force consisted of 20 men in total. Botanist Frederick Vernon Coville—the first curator of the U.S. National Herbarium—accompanied the expedition. He collected plants and, in accordance to the wishes of Congress, noted areas where different species flourished or faded. Retired U.S. Army General and botanist, Frederick Funston, and zoologist Edward William Nelson also took part in the expedition. Naturalist C. Hart Merriam was also part of the survey, during which he collected 6,000 specimens of mammals, 4,500 insects, roughly a thousand birds, reptiles, amphibians, a number of fish, mollusks, and some 25,000 plants.
Source:
Coville, F.V. Botany of the Death Valley Expedition. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1893.
Humphrey, H.B. Makers of North American Botany. New York: The Ronald Press Co, 1961.
Merriam, C.H. The Death Valley Expedition: A Biological Survey of Parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Washington, D.C.: Government PrintingOffice, 1893.
Topic:
Botany  Search this
Ornithology  Search this
Zoology  Search this
Herpetology  Search this
Mollusks  Search this
See more records related to participants:
Coville, Frederick V. (Frederick Vernon), 1867-1937
Merriam, C. Hart (Clinton Hart), 1855-1942
Funston, Frederick, 1865-1917
Nelson, Edward William, 1855-1934
See more records related to this expedition:
Death Valley Expedition (1891)
Data Source:
Smithsonian Field Book Project
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:auth_exp_fbr_EACE0015