Henry Baker Tristram

Henry Baker Tristram (1908)

Reverend Henry Baker Tristram FRS ( May 11, 1822 - March 8, 1906 ) was an English clergyman, Bible scholar, traveler and ornithologist .

Born in the parish of Eglingham , near Alnwick , Northumberland , Tristram studied at Durham School and Lincoln College , Oxford . In 1846 he was ordained a priest. Because he suffered from tuberculosis, he was forced to live abroad for the sake of his health. From 1847 to 1849 he was Secretary to the Governor of Bermuda . He explored the Sahara and visited Palestine in 1858 . He returned there in 1863 and 1872 and divided his time between natural history observations and the identification of biblical places. In 1873 he became canon of Durham Cathedral . In 1881 he traveled again to Palestine, Lebanon , Mesopotamia and Armenia . He went on a trip to Japan to visit his daughter Katherine Tristram, who was a missionary in Osaka .

Tristram was a co-founder of the British Ornithologists' Union and in 1868 he became a member of the Royal Society . His travels and contacts enabled him to amass an extensive collection of bird skins , which he later sold to the World Museum Liverpool .

Tristram's publications include: The Great Sahara (1860), The Land of Israel, a Journal of Travels with Reference to Its Physical History (1865), The Natural History of the Bible (1867), The Daughters of Syria (1872) , Land of Moab (1874), Pathways of Palestine (1882), The Fauna and Flora of Palestine (1884), Eastern Customs in Bible Lands (1894) and Rambles in Japan (1895).

A number of bird species have been named after him, including the tristram wave runner , tristram's woodpecker , tristram star , tristram hammer and tristram mistletoe , as well as the Middle Eastern cichlid genus Tristramella . He himself published the first scientific descriptions of bird species such as the Seychelles scops owl , the common warbler and the Moab sparrow .

Books

• The Great Sahara: Wanderings South of the Atlas Mountains . John Murray, London 1860 Archives
• A winter ride in Palestine . 1864.
• The Land of Israel; A Journal of Travels with Special Reference to Its Physical History . London 1865 Archives
• The Topography of the Holy Land . London 1871.
• The Daughters of Syria. A narrative of efforts by the late Mrs. Bowen Thompson for the evangelization of the Syrian females . London 1872.
• The Land of Moab. Travels and Discoveries on the East Side of the Dead Sea and the Jordan . New York 1873 Archives
• Pathways of Palestine . 1882
• The Survey of Western Palestine. The Fauna and Flora of Palestine . London 1885 Archives
• Catalog of a collection of birds belonging to HB Tristram . Durham 1889 Archives
• Eastern Customs in Bible lands . Hodder and Stoughton, London 1894. Archives
• A Visit to Bashan and Argob . London 1895.
• Rambles in Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun . Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, Chicago, Toronto 1895 Archives
• Chapters in Natural History . London 1927.

Web links

• Making of America edition of The land of Moab; travels and discoveries on the east side of the Dead sea and the Jordan (Engl.)