By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Blunt-nosed Sucker, July 28th, 1886, Verde, Arizona. SIA RU 7184. Courtesy of the Division of Fishes, National Musem of Natural History. It seems I’ve already said quite a bit about Edgar Alexander Mearns (1856-1916), the naturalist who collected birds, mammals, plants—you name it—throughout the... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project U.S.S. Albatross logbook June 26, 1909, 4am. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU7184, box 1, folder 24. No neg number. This summer was filled with milestones, not only for our Project, but for others as well. The exciting news in July that Old Weather, a crowd-sourcing... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Images of Platanthera (Habenaria) orbiculata, 1914. Page 35. RU7375, image SIA2012-8776, Smithsonian Institution Archives. When I travel to a new place, I often keep a journal. Although my journals are self-indulgent—how I feel, what I think, what something means to me (yawn)—I can’t help... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project If you’ve been reading our blog and viewing our Flickr sets, there should be no doubt in your mind the important role photographs have played in the field. My most recent example of photographs documenting field research is found in the Charles Lewis Gazin... Continue reading

C21_3411 White-browed shortwing (Brachypteryx montana), 2012, by Naturelly, Retrieved from Flickr (The Commons): http://www.flickr.com/photos/51995830@N02/7062972975/ By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Deep within the forests of Luzon, Philippines, lives the Brachypteryx, a bird so wily that even an experienced naturalist like Edgar A. Mearns (1856-1916) named it “one of the most... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Doris Mable Cochran (1898-1968), measuring a turtle shell. This image is from the Smithsonian Institution Archives Women in Science set on the flickr Commons. See more women in science highlighted on The Bigger Picture this month. Why should Doris Cochran receive only brief notes?... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Both this image and the one below come from Stevan J. Arnold's journal and field notes, April 1963-September 1965. I apologize to our readers because an important event occurred without comment on our blog. In addition to being the beginning of the Chinese New... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project As a librarian, I have a certain appreciation for indices. It might surprise (or appall) non-librarian folk out there, but creating indices can actually be a full-time job. They’re called indexers—those who painstakingly review a document to extract key terms that may be used... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project There were few days in James Eike’s life that were not “glorious”, “wonderful”, or “perfect,” according to his own description. It’s Eike’s apparent enthusiasm for life that first inspired an extraordinary interest in me for his field books. My curiosity became admiration for so... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Handwritten English translation of two pages containing the last entry of Kreutzfeldt's journal, June 18 to October 23, 1853, from Smithsonian Instiution Archives (SIA) Record Unit number 7157. This journal is the only item in Kreutzfeldt’s collection. SIA2011-2257 and SIA2011-2258. Frederick Kreutzfeldt woke the... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project As a resident of DC since 2003, I’m familiar with this city’s love affair with Giant Pandas. What I didn’t know until recently is that this Panda obsession is largely thanks to revolutionary research on Panda biology and reproduction conducted by Dr. Devra Kleiman,... Continue reading

By Sonoe Nakasone, Field Book Project Last month, Simon Sherrin’s five minute presentation on Museum Victoria’s Field Guide to Victorian Fauna iPhone app at the Ignite Smithsonian conference caught my attention. Museum Victoria’s Field Guide is an easy to download, easy to use, application for the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad... Continue reading