Collection Guide
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Stephens (Frank) Field Notes Collection
LA.1994.0412
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library
Title: Frank Stephens Field Notes Collection
creator:
Stephens, Frank, 1849-1937
Identifier/Call Number: LA.1994.0412
Physical Description:
.5 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): ca. 1881-1929
Abstract: The Frank Stephens Field Notes collection consists of notebooks, travel diaries, and species lists from collecting trips.
In addition, the collection includes biographical material, a small number of photographs, one hand-drawn map, and photocopies
of Stephen's letters to William Brewster (originals are housed at the Harvard University's Ernst Mayr Museum of Comparative
Zoology).
Container: 177
The collection includes handwritten and typescript field notes created by Frank Stephens; the bulk of the material dates from
the period 1878 to 1929 and includes journal entries of collecting trips in the southwestern United States and Baja California,
Mexico. The collection is described in three series. Series I consists of Stephens's handwritten field notebooks and loose
sheets (some typescript) of field notes and collection lists. It also includes a hand-drawn map. Series II consists of biographical
material and photographs. Series III consists of two reprints of the
Transactions of San Diego Society of Natural History relevant to Stephens's collecting activities.
Frank Stephens was born on April 2, 1849 near Portage in Livingston County, New York, the eldest of four sons of Nelson and
Julia Benson. While Stephens was a teenager, the family moved to the Midwest, farming in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and
Kansas. Stephens moved to Colorado in 1874, where he married Elizabeth Fowler and studied taxidermy with ornithologist Charles
E. Aiken. In the early 1880s, Stephens worked in mining communities in southwest New Mexico and Arizona while collecting
for Aikens and for William Brewster of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Stephens moved to California in 1876 and
settled in Witch Creek, San Diego County, California, farming, collecting, and working intermittently for the U. S. Biological
Survey. He collected for Donald Ryder Dickey and C. Hart Merriam, among others. He was a collector for the U. S. Department
of Agriculture's 1891 Death Valley Expedition. After his first wife's death in January 1898, Stephens married Kate Brown
in August 1898; she accompanied him on several collecting trips including the 1907 Alaska expedition sponsored by Annie Alexander
of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ). Stephens also participated in Joseph Grinnell's 1910 MVZ expedition on the Colorado
River. A frequent contributor to
The Condor, Stephens published his magnum opus
California Mammals in 1906. He was an early member of the San Diego Society of Natural History and the first curator of mammalogy for the San
Diego Natural History Museum; he was also a founding member of the San Diego Zoological Society. He is credited with collecting
at least 45 type specimens. Stephens was struck by a street-car in San Diego and died ten days after the accident on October
5, 1937 in San Diego.
The collection is open to researchers by appointment. Contact the Research Library Director, San Diego Natural History Museum.
Copyright may be reserved. Consult the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library Director for more information.
[Identification of item], Frank Stephens Field Notes Collection (LA 1994.0412). Research Library, San Diego Natural History Museum.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Baja California (Mexico: Peninsula)
Field notes
Geology
Mammalogy
Natural history -- California -- San Diego County
Natural history -- California -- Imperial County
Natural history -- California -- San Bernardino County
Anthony, A. W. (Alfred Webster), 1865-1939
Bailey, Vernon, 1864-1942
Brandegee, Townshend Stith, 1843-1925
Brewster, William, 1951-1919
Brown, Evan Tollitt, 1886-1964
Dixon, Joseph S., 1884-1952
Fenn, W. J. (Walter James), 1862-1961
Fisher, A. K. (Albert Kenrick), 1856-1948
Funston, Frederick, 1865-1917
Grinnell, Joseph, 1877-1939
Huey, Laurence M. (Laurence Markham), 1892-1963
Jones, L. Hollister (Louis Hollister), 1889-1972
Klauber, Laurence Monroe, 1883-1968
Koebele, Albert, 1853-1925
Merriam, C. Hart (Clinton Hart), 1855-1942
Nelson, Edward William, 1855-1934
Paine, Frederick W., 1865-1936
Palmer, T. S. (Theodore Sherman), 1868-1955
Ricksecker, Lucius Edgar, 1841-1913
Stephens, Kate (Kate Brown), 1853-1953