Edward William Nelson

Edward William Nelson in Alaska

Edward William Nelson (born May 8, 1855 in Manchester , New Hampshire , † May 19, 1934 in Washington, DC ) was an American naturalist and ethnologist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " EWNelson ".

Live and act

Nelson's parents were William Nelson and Nancy Martha Wells. His father died in the Civil War . In 1868 his mother moved with him and his younger brother Fred to Chicago , where they became homeless in the Great Fire in 1871 . In 1876 Nelson studied biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore . In 1877 he joined the United States Sigmal Corps. Spencer Fullerton Baird was responsible for recruiting intelligence officers with a science qualification at remote research stations to study flora and fauna for him. Nelson worked in St. Michael , Alaska until June 1881 .

In 1881 Nelson participated as a naturalist on board the USRC Corwin in a search expedition for the missing USS Jeanette to Wrangel Island . Nelson published his discoveries in the Report upon Natural History Collections Made in Alaska between the Years 1877–1881 (1887). He also described his ethnological expeditions in The Eskimo about Bering Strait (1900).

In 1890 Nelson accompanied the zoologist Clinton Hart Merriam , head of the Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy at the United States Department of Agriculture, on an expedition to the Valley of Death . In 1891 he went to Mexico and conducted field studies of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna there for the next 14 years. He was accompanied by Edward Alphonso Goldman for ten years . In the following years he worked until his retirement in 1929 in the Bureau of Biological Survey (forerunner of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ), which he directed between 1916 and 1927.

Nelson was president of the American Ornithologists' Union , the American Society of Mammalogists, and the Biological Society of Washington . He published over 200 scientific publications and wrote, among other things, the first descriptions of the Dall sheep , the Mexican wolf , the Sinaloas tern , the Mexicanonymphe , the Omilteme cottontail rabbit and the red-faced hummingbird .

Taxa named after Nelson

The animals named after Edward Wiliam Nelson include the Nelson's antelope pebble ( Ammospermophilus nelsoni ), the Mexican grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos nelsoni ), the Amargosa toad ( Anaxyrus nelsoni ), Nelson's kangaroo rat ( Dipodomys nelsoni ) and Nelson's milk snake ( nelsoni ).

Works (selection)

• 1883: Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin in Alaska and the NW Arctic Ocean in 1881 . by Revenue-Cutter Service United States. Publisher Govt. Print. Off. Washington, Published 1883
• - Medical and anthropological notes on Alaska, by Irving C. Rosse .
• - Botanical notes on Alaska, by John Muir .
• - The birds of Bering sea and the Arctic ocean, by Edward W. Nelson
• - List of fishes known to occur in the Arctic ocean, north of Bering strait, by Tarleton H. Bean (ichthyologist).
• 1886: Contributions to the natural History of Alaska: results of Investigations made chiefly in the Yukon District and the Aleutian Islands
• 1887: Report upon natural history collections crade in Alaska, between the years 1877 and 1881 ; No. III. Edited by Henry W. Henshaw, Publisher Govt. Printing Office Washington, 1887
  • Part I - The Birds of Alaska
  • Part II - Mammals of Northern Alaska - with Frederick William True
• 1899: Revision of the squirrels of Mexico and Central America
• 1899: Natural History of the Tres Marias Islands, Mexico
• 1900: The Eskimo about Bering strait Extract from the eighteenth annual report or the Bureau of American Ethnology. Publisher: USGPO Washington, 1900
  • Map of the Distribution of the Eskimo about Bering Strait by EW Nelson 1898
• 1909: The rabbits of North American
• 1921: Lower California and its natural resources
• 1927: The book of birds: birds of town and country, the warblers, and American game birds
• 1930: Wild animals of North America: intimate studies of big and little creatures of the mammal kingdom
• 1930: The wilderness of Denali: explorations of a hunter-naturalist in northern Alaska
• Books by Edward W. Nelson in Internet Archive - online

literature

• Edward Alphonso Goldman: Edward William Nelson - Naturalist, 1855-1934. In: The Auk. A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology. Vol. 52 (2nd quarter). April 1935 ( online ; PDF; 879 kB)

Web links

Commons : Edward William Nelson  - Collection of Images

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Edward William Nelson at the IPNI
• Biographies of People Honored in the Names of the Reptiles and and Amphibians of North America
• Personal Papers and Special Collections in the Smithsonian Institution Archives: Edward William Nelson and Edward Alphonso Goldman Collection