3.51 cu. ft. (7 document boxes) (1 oversize folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scientific illustrations
Field notes
Drawings
Manuscripts
Black-and-white photographs
Date:
circa 1871-1916, 1934 and undated
Descriptive Entry:
This collection documents Mearns' career as a field naturalist and expedition member and consists of correspondence, 1898-1909, including photocopies of letters written
by Mearns while he served on the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition of 1909; biographical material on Mearns and his family; field notes, research notes, specimen lists,
photographs, and related materials concerning Mearns' field work, 1871-1911; and correspondence, photographs, drawings, and research data regarding Mearns' work on the United
States-Mexican International Boundary Survey, circa 1891-1907. This finding aid also describes Mearns' papers housed in the Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History
(see Series 6, Boxes 8-27).
Historical Note:
Edgar Alexander Mearns (1856-1916) was an army surgeon and field naturalist. He developed an early interest in natural history, studying the flora and fauna around
his home in Highland Falls, New York. Mearns was educated at Donald Highland Institute, Highland Falls, and in 1881 graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
New York. In 1883, he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Medical Corps of the Army and assigned to duty at Fort Verde, Arizona. He was transferred to Fort Snelling,
Minnesota, in 1888. In 1891, Mearns was assigned to serve as medical officer with the United States-Mexican International Boundary Survey. From 1892 to 1894, Mearns explored
the boundary line from El Paso, Texas, to San Clemente Island and collected 30,000 specimens of flora and fauna which were deposited in the United States National Museum (USNM).
From 1894 to 1903, Mearns continued his natural history investigations while stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia; Fort Clark, Texas; Fort Adams, Rhode Island; and Fort Yellowstone.
He also conducted field research in the Catskill Mountains and Florida during this period. Between 1903 and 1907, Mearns served two separate tours of duty in the Philippine
Islands. While in the Philippines he made natural history collections and participated in expeditions to the three highest mountains in the islands, Mount Apo, Grand Malindang,
and Mount Halcon. After returning to the United States, Mearns served at Fort Totten, New York, until his retirement from the Army on January 1, 1909. Later in that year,
he was invited by Theodore Roosevelt to accompany the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition as naturalist. From 1909 to 1910, Mearns explored parts of British East Africa
from Mount Kenia to the White Nile. Mearns' last expedition was in 1911, when he served as a naturalist with the Childs Frick Expedition to Africa.
Mearns' primary biological interests were ornithology and mammalogy. He was a founding member of the American Ornithologists Union and in 1909 was appointed honorary associate
in zoology of the USNM.
5. Migration Reports received up to March 31, 1886. Includes: lists of observers and their stations, correspondence regarding their observations; and 1885 American Ornithologists' Union Committee on Migration.
Container:
Box 14 of 27
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7083, Edgar Alexander Mearns Papers
6. American Ornithologists' Union Committee on Migration, Fort Lyon, Colorado, by Platt M. Thorne, 1886. Includes a list of birds observed by Thorne with comments.
Container:
Box 14 of 27
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7083, Edgar Alexander Mearns Papers
Foster, Mercedes S. 1985. "Pre-nesting cooperation in birds: another form of helping behavior." In Neotropical Ornithology. Buckley, Paul A., Foster, Mercedes S., Morton, Eugene S., Ridgely, Robert S., and Buckley, Frances G., editors. 817–828. Washington DC: American Ornithologists Union. In Ornithological Monographs, no. 36.
Folder 6 Sadler, A. -Saitlstrom, L. A. Correspondents include: William Edwin Safford (1883-1893), concerning Safford's work collecting ethnological artifacts in South America; John Hall Sage of the American Ornithologists Union (1890-1898).
Container:
Box 110 of 154
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
Inquiries related to specimens should be directed to the appropriate museum registrar.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 189, Smithsonian Institution, Assistant Secretary in charge of the United States National Museum, Correspondence and Memoranda
The administration of the United States National Museum required curators to submit regular reports on the activities of the departments, divisions, and sections. Prior
to about 1900 these reports were often made monthly and semiannually as well as annually. The reports were traditionally submitted to the Director of the National Museum to
be used in preparing the published Annual Report of the United States National Museum. The individual reports, however, were not reproduced in their entirety in the published
Annual Report and generally contain more information than is to be found in the published version.
Reports were stored by the Office of Correspondence and Reports (later known as the Office of Correspondence and Documents), and then by the Office of the Registrar.
Includes reports submitted to the Director of the United States National Museum by curators and administrators.
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
8.5 cu. ft. (16 document boxes) (2 half document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Field notes
Diaries
Manuscripts
Black-and-white photographs
Date:
1887-1957 and undated
Descriptive Entry:
These papers document Preble's personal life and careers with the Bureau of Biological Survey and the American Nature Association, and include general correspondence,
primarily incoming; published and unpublished manuscripts for scientific and conservation work; addresses and reports by others; field notebooks, diaries, lists and checklists
for his field explorations and local observations; research notes for his scientific publications on mammals and birds of the northwest; auction catalogs for skins; newsclippings
and photographs; and biographical information on Preble.
Historical Note:
Edward Alexander Preble (1871-1957) was a naturalist and conservationist who conducted major field explorations of the birds and mammals of the northwest regions of
Canada and the United States. Preble was born in Sommerville, Massachusetts, and developed a strong interest in natural history during his youth in Wilmington, Massachusetts,
and summers in Ossipee, New Hampshire. Early natural history contacts included Frank Blake Webster and Frank Harris Hitchcock. Preble graduated from high school in Woburn,
Massachusetts, in 1889. Through his acquaintance with Hitchcock, Preble was appointed a field naturalist with the Bureau of Biological Survey in 1892 under Clinton Hart Merriam.
Preble was appointed assistant biologist in 1902, biologist in 1924, and senior biologist in 1928.
Preble began his field work career with Vernon Orlando Bailey in Texas, and worked in Georgia, Maryland, Oregon, Washington, and Utah, conducting life zone samplings. In
1900 Preble began his major field explorations for the bureau with a trip to the Hudson Bay region of Canada with his brother, Alfred Emerson Preble. In 1901 the Preble brothers
traveled and collected in the Athabaska-Mackenzie (Canada) regions. In 1903 and 1904 the brothers continued their explorations of this region with Merritt Cary, and Edward
Preble remained in the Mackenzie River region alone through the winter of 1903-1904. The results of these explorations were published by Preble in A Biological Investigation
of the Athabaska-Mackenzie Region, U.S. Department of Agriculture, North American Fauna 27, 1908. Preble also traveled through the Athabaska-Mackenzie region to the Barren
Grounds with Ernest Thompson Seton in 1907.
In 1910 Preble, accompanied by George and Samuel Mixter, explored the Stikine River in Alaska, as well as Alberta, British Columbia, Montana, and North Dakota. Preble was
sent to investigate the status of the elk in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1911. In 1913, Preble led a big-game hunt in British Columbia for Charles Robert Cross. In 1914 Preble,
Wilfred Hudson Osgood, and George H. Parker served on a federal commission to study and report on the fur seals of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. In addition to the report,
published in 1915, Preble also compiled A Biological Investigation of the Pribilof Islands, U.S. Department of Agriculture, North American Fauna 46, 1923. Preble's
last major field exploration was an investigation of the status of waterbirds of the Athabaska and Peace River deltas with Luther J. Goldman in 1934.
Preble kept detailed field diaries and notebooks with observations on the animals and birds he was studying, flora and physical surroundings, weather, routes and distances
traveled, individuals encountered, sketches of trapper and Indian life, and Indian terms for animals and plants. Most of these trips are represented in the collection. Preble's
research for the Bureau of Biological Survey resulted in faunal surveys and conservation/wildlife management reports, with few systematic or taxonomic studies.
In addition to field explorations, Preble always recorded observations of the local flora, fauna and physical surroundings in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the Washington,
D.C., area. Preble lived in Washington, D.C., but also owned a cabin in Fairfax, Virginia, and a farm in Ossipee, New Hampshire. With Waldo Lee McAtee and Alexander Wetmore,
Preble conducted local bird counts for the Audubon National Society which were published in Bird-Lore.
Preble served as chairman of the Editorial Committee for the American Society of Mammalogists' Journal of Mammalogy from 1930 to 1935, was made a fellow of the American
Ornithologists' Union (AOU) in 1935, and was a member of its Bird Protection Committee.
In his later years with the Bureau of Biological Survey as senior biologist, Preble became very interested in wildlife management and conservation. In 1925 Preble was appointed
consulting naturalist for Nature Magazine, and in 1935 he retired from government service to become associate editor. Until his death in 1957, he edited, reviewed,
and wrote articles for Nature Magazine, the publication of the American Nature Association. He maintained contacts with other conservationists through the American
Humane Association, the Emergency Conservation Committee, the National Parks Association, the Committee on Wildlife and the Committee on Preservation of Natural Conditions
of the National Research Council, and the Permanent Wild Life Protection Fund.
Preble published extensively throughout his life. In a bibliography published in 1965, McAtee credits Preble with 239 published items of 1500 pages in the form of articles,
books, reports, annotations, and edits of other works. Preble published several major faunal surveys for the Bureau of Biological Survey as well as a few systematic revisions
and wildlife management reports. He published bird counts and observations in The Auk and Bird-Lore, and wrote many articles for Nature Magazine and other
scientific and conservation journals. He also annotated three narratives of early explorers in the northwest, Samuel Hearne, David Thompson, and Thomas Hutchins (unpublished).
Although Preble was considered a dilatory correspondent, the collection contains a large volume of incoming correspondence, especially from Charles Christopher Adams, Harold
Elmer Anthony, Rosalie Edge, Francis Harper, William Temple Hornaday, Roderick Ross MacFarlane, Clinton Hart Merriam, Olaus Johan Murie, Wilford Edwin Sanderson, Ernest Thompson
Seton, J. B. Tyrrell, and Richard W. Westwood. There is little outgoing correspondence since Preble usually wrote letters by hand.
Folder 3 Diary, 1895-1899, of trips to British Columbia, Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Northwest Territory, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Washington, D.C. Contains lists of birds and mammals sighted; observations on flora, fauna, and phy...
Container:
Box 11 of 18
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7252, Edward Alexander Preble Papers
Folder 7 Diary, 1928, of trips to Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Contains observations on flora, fauna and physical surroundings, local and family history notes, and lists ...
Container:
Box 14 of 18
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7252, Edward Alexander Preble Papers
Folder 8 Diary, undated, of trips to New Hampshire, New York, Ontario, and Washington, D.C. Contains observations on flora and fauna, research notes for Elizabeth Hanson and her captivity manuscript, and notes from American Ornithologists' Union meetin...
Container:
Box 14 of 18
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7252, Edward Alexander Preble Papers
PHOTOGRAPHS AND NEWSCLIPPINGS, 1900-1948, AND UNDATED. ARRANGED BY SIZE AND SUBJECT.
Type:
Archival materials
Note:
This series consists of newsclippings; a photograph album for Preble's 1900 trip to Hudson's Bay; prints of people, outdoor scenes, boats, flora, fauna, and buildings;
and large panoramic group photographs from meetings of the American Ornithologists' Union and the American Society of Mammalogists. All negatives have been removed from the
collection. Other photographs and newsclippings can be found in series 1, 2, and 3.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7252, Edward Alexander Preble Papers
![View Folder 7 Diary, 1928, of trips to Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Contains observations on flora, fauna and physical surroundings, local and family history notes, and lists ... digital asset: Diary, 1928, of trips to Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. [Image nos. SIA2018-054940 to SIA2018-055041]](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=120&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/electronicresource.gif "Diary, 1928, of trips to Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. [Image nos. SIA2018-054940 to SIA2018-055041]")
