The Sowerby-Clark Expedition to the Shansi and Kansu Provinces of Northern China, 1908-1910, was organized by American adventurer Robert Sterling Clark as a scientific expedition with the intention of creating a detailed topographical map of the expedition route, study the flora and fauna native to the region, and collect meteorological and geological data. Including the preparations, the expedition lasted roughly eighteen months and went through Shansi [Shanxi], and Shensi [Shaanxi], North China and Ordos desert, Mongolia, September 30, 1908 – January 19, 1909; south of Si-an-fu; in Kansu [Gansu] and Shensi, May-August 1909; Tai-yuan Shansi, October and November; the mountainous district north west of Tai-yuan-fu, Shansi, covering winter months of 1909-1910. In total, the group covered nearly 2000 miles. Along with Clark, other participants included British naturalist Arthur de Carle Sowerby, physician, meteorologist, and entomologist Captain H.E.M. Douglas of the Royal Army Medical Corps, photographer George A. Grant, artist Nathaniel H. Cobb, and Mrs. Adels Sowerby. The expedition collected a variety of mammals for the United States National Museum collection. Other specimens collected included birds, insects, plants, and fish.
Source:
Clark, Robert Stirling. (1912) Through Shên-kan: The account of the Clark Expedition in North China, 1908–9. University of California Libraries.
