60 Facts About Joseph Grinnell

Joseph P Grinnell was an American field biologist and zoologist.

Joseph Grinnell made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as the Grinnell System.

Joseph Grinnell served as the first director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley from the museum's inception in 1908 until his death.

Joseph Grinnell edited The Condor, a publication of the Cooper Ornithological Club, from 1906 to 1939, and authored many articles for scientific journals and ornithological magazines.

Joseph Grinnell wrote several books, among them The Distribution of the Birds of California and Animal Life in the Yosemite.

Joseph Grinnell developed and popularized the concept of the niche.

Joseph Grinnell was born February 27,1877, the first of three children by his father Fordyce Grinnell MD and mother Sarah Elizabeth Pratt.

In 1885 the Joseph Grinnell family moved to Pasadena, California, but the collapse of Southern California's boom forced Dr Joseph Grinnell in 1888 to accept a position at the Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Joseph Grinnell worked in a printing shop in Carlisle and collected his first specimen, a toad, before the family returned to Pasadena two years later.

Joseph Grinnell sent home bird specimens of the San Francisco Bay area, en route to Alaska.

Joseph Grinnell remained in Alaska and continued collecting with the assistance of the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Haines, Alaska.

Joseph Grinnell went on field trips throughout the area, including remote Saint Lazaria Island.

Joseph Grinnell returned to Pasadena in the fall of 1897 where he continued field work in the nearby mountains and canyons.

Joseph Grinnell's second visit to the far north began in 1898 on the schooner Penelope.

Joseph Grinnell spent 18 months in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Joseph Grinnell joined the Long Beach and Alaska Mining and Trading Company to Kotzebue Sound, Alaska.

Joseph Grinnell landed at Cape Blossom in Kotzebue Sound in July 1898.

Joseph Grinnell collected and observed the summer migrant bird life; Gambel's sparrow, barn swallow, and Savannah sparrow, among others.

Joseph Grinnell sailed on the Penelope to Cape Nome in July 1899.

At Cape Nome, Joseph Grinnell's job was amalgamating the gold using mercury.

Joseph Grinnell was graduated from Pasadena High School in 1893 and enrolled in Throop Polytechnic Institute that autumn, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1897.

In 1901 Joseph Grinnell received his master's degree from Stanford University.

Joseph Grinnell worked on that project for the next 38 years.

Joseph Grinnell was finishing the third installment to Bibliography of California Ornithology when he died in 1939.

Joseph Grinnell supported himself at Stanford by teaching at Palo Alto High School and working in Stanford's Hopkins Seaside Laboratory.

At Hopkins, Joseph Grinnell taught embryology in the summer of 1900 and in the summers of 1901 and 1902, ornithology.

Joseph Grinnell accepted an offer as biology instructor at Throop Polytechnic during this time.

Joseph Grinnell was one of Grinnell's students at Throop and later his teaching assistant in zoology.

Joseph Grinnell wrote articles for publications in The Condor and the Journal of Mammalogy and was a member of the American Ornithologists' Union and the California Academy of Sciences.

Joseph Grinnell believed that Grinnell was the right choice as director to the point that she was prepared to withdraw the endowment if UC officials objected to Grinnell.

Joseph Grinnell endorsed Dixon as a member of Alexander's expedition, as they discussed Alaska.

Joseph Grinnell invited Alexander to his home to view his collections, which she did before returning to Oakland.

The name Annie M Alexander seemed familiar and Grinnell found reprints among his papers from paleontologist John C Merriam to Alexander, thanking her for her work and financial support.

Alexander and Joseph Grinnell believed the fauna and flora of the western territory was fast disappearing as a result of human impact, thus detailed documentation was essential for both posterity and knowledge.

Joseph Grinnell advocated for Stanford while Alexander, impressed by the University of California paleontology lectures she had attended, determined that the museum would be at UC.

Joseph Grinnell named the museum and in 1909, donated his collection of mammals, his bound files of The Auk, The Condor and other publications.

Joseph Grinnell gave his entire collection of bird specimens to the museum in 1920.

Joseph Grinnell deferred to Alexander's wishes in almost every aspect of the museum's business.

Alexander, in turn, expected Joseph Grinnell to devote all his time and energy to the enterprise, to continue research and publishing, in addition to the duties of director.

In 1908, Alexander had written to Joseph Grinnell asking for a recommendation of someone suitable for the upcoming 1908 expedition.

Joseph Grinnell was listed as editor beginning with the January 1906 issue, replacing Walter K Fisher.

Joseph Grinnell was one of the most influential, serving during the magazine's early years of development.

Joseph Grinnell implemented "simplified spelling" which used phonetics, and can be seen in early-edition phrases.

The magazine under Joseph Grinnell's tenure expanded from 175 to 223 current-format pages, and as of 1993, at 1,100 pages per year, is the largest of any major ornithological journal.

Joseph Grinnell developed and implemented a detailed protocol for recording field observations.

The Joseph Grinnell System is the procedure most often used by professional biologists and field naturalists.

The survey team of eight researchers, including Grinnell and Joseph Dixon, produced 2,001 pages of field notes and 700 photographs.

Joseph Grinnell documented 133 species and the resurvey team reported 140 bird species.

The relative lack of leaf litter and decayed ground cover in Joseph Grinnell's time was considered to make the occurrence of hot and lasting fires in the forest impossible.

Joseph Grinnell worked on conservation issues in the latter part of his life.

Joseph Grinnell tried to change National Park Service policies on predator control and on forest management.

Joseph Grinnell studied and published on the Point Lobos area on the California coast, and during the last two years of his life, studied animal life at Hastings Reserve in Santa Lucia Mountains of Carmel Valley, California.

Joseph Grinnell was not the only advocate for education in the national parks.

Joseph Grinnell was awarded the Cornelius Armory Pugsley Medal in 1954 for his contributions to parks and conservation.

Joseph Grinnell argued in "Animal Life as an Asset to National Parks" against several park service management policies; one of which was the predator control program.

Joseph Grinnell was aware of the possible extirpation of the wolverine in California by 1937, if not earlier, for he wrote a summary of all documentation, sightings, captures and stories on wolverines in Fur-bearing Mammals of California, with the last known sighting listed at 1924.

Joseph Grinnell began long-term faunal surveys on the Hastings ranch in upper Carmel Valley, Monterey County at the end of 1936 through 1939.

Joseph Grinnell died on May 29,1939, in Berkeley, California, at age 62.

Joseph Grinnell authored or co-authored 554 published works, beginning in 1893 until 1939.

Joseph Grinnell co-authored several articles with his younger sister, Elizabeth J Grinnell.