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Inventory to the papers of Rollo Howard and Ida Menzies Beck at the California Academy of Sciences Library
MSS.036
MSS.036
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Title: Beck (Rollo Howard and Ida Menzies) collection
Collection number: MSS.036
Repository:
California Academy of Sciences, Special Collections
55 Music Concourse Drive
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
Languages: Materials are in English.
Physical Description:
17.88 Cubic feet
1 records center carton, 52 archives boxes (some oversize, some glass negative boxes), 1 rolled item
Date (inclusive): 1885-1985
Abstract: Consists of papers relating to Rollo Beck's life, primarily but not exclusively his life as a collector. Included are papers
relating to expeditions to the Galápagos (5 starts, 4 completed trips), South America and parts of the Caribbean, the South
Seas, and Alaska (two trips). The collection includes negatives, prints and lantern slides of his travels, as well some of
his life as a farmer.
Creator:
Beck, Ida Menzies, 1883-1970
Creator:
Beck, Rollo Howard, 1870-1950
Rollo Howard Beck was born August 26, 1870, in Los Gatos, California. When he was six, his family moved a few miles to Berryessa,
now a district of San Jose, California. Over an active career that lasted nearly 60 years, Beck became the best known bird
and reptile collector of the time, despite having only completed school through part of eighth grade.
After leaving school Beck went to work for several local farmers, one of whom was also an amateur ornithologist. From him
Beck learned to prepare skins and to identify birds using Elliott Coues' Key to North American Birds. He joined both the American
Ornithologists' Union and Cooper Ornithological Club (now Society) in 1894, establishing lifelong contact with other ornithologists
both locally and nationally.
In 1897 Beck joined the Webster-Harris Expedition, financed by the Hon. Walter Rothschild. This trip went to the Galápagos
where Beck learned a great deal about finding and collecting tortoises and birds, Rothschild's twin passions. In 1901 and
1902 Beck financed two more collecting trips to the Galápagos Islands, searching for specimens to sell to Rothschild and to
others.
The first expedition Beck led for the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) was a three and a half month collecting expedition
to the Revillagigedos Islands, off the coast of Baja California, in 1903.
In 1905, CAS asked him to lead an expedition to the Galápagos. A ship, three fulltime crew and 7 other collectors who also
served as sailor-scientists were assembled by the Academy. The expedition was gone for 17 months and was in the islands for
a year and a day - the longest Galápagos collecting expedition. They returned with 76,000 items – birds, tortoises, insects,
reptiles, snails, marine mammals, plants and rocks. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, which destroyed almost everything
held by the Museum, occurred while they were gone, so their collections formed the basis of the new California Academy of
Sciences.
Beck married Ida May Menzies in August 1909. They lived in Berryessa and Pacific Grove, California for the next few years.
From 1907-1912 Beck collected water-birds inland and sea birds along the California coast and out to sea for CAS and also
for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California, Berkeley. He invented "chumming" for sea birds. Taking
some meat scraps with him in a small boat he would row due west for a few miles, tossing out scraps every so often. He would
then reverse course, collecting the sea birds that appeared along this food-rich track. He established records for many sea
birds which hadn't been previously recorded in northern California.
In 1911 he was employed to go to Alaska for a five and a half month trip with A.C. Bent and Alexander Wetmore, both notable
ornithologists. There they collected around islands and around Nome. Again in 1919 he was asked by the American Museum of
Natural History (AMNH) to collect in Alaska.
Beck worked for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) from 1912-1917, collecting all around the coast of South America
and offshore islands, and through the Caribbean. Mrs. Beck accompanied him for much of the time in spite of her chronic seasickness.
In 1920 the AMNH asked him to lead the Whitney Expedition to the South Seas. Again Mrs. Beck accompanied him and he led this
expedition until 1928. Immediately after leaving this expedition Mr. Whitney asked him to continue to collect New Guinea,
alone. The Becks spent another 9 months doing this, and then returned to California in 1930.
In 1924 he had purchased a fruit farm in Planada CA, near Merced. After returning from the Whitney Expedition he spent the
rest of his life farming and observing and collecting birds in central California. He died November 22, 1950, at age 80. Ida
Beck stayed on the farm for several years, then moved to San Jose CA to live with relatives. She died in 1970, age 87.
Organized into the following series: Series 1: Biographical Materials; Series 2: Corresponence; Series 3: Field Journals and
Notes; Series 4: Legal, Financial, and Related Papers; Series 5: Other Papers; Series 6: Photo Lists and Photographic Materials.
Access is unrestricted.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Most of the papers and many of the photographs were donated to the California Academy of Sciences by Beck family members in
1969, 1985 and 1986.
Arrangement varies by series.
Rollo Howard and Ida Menzies Beck papers, California Academy of Sciences Library, San Francisco, CA
All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.
Consists of papers relating to Rollo Beck's life, primarily but not exclusively his life as a collector. Included are papers
relating to expeditions to the Galápagos (5 starts, 4 completed trips), South America and parts of the Caribbean, the South
Seas, and Alaska (two trips). The collection includes negatives, prints and lantern slides of his travels, as well some of
his life as a farmer.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American Museum of Natural History.
Cooper Ornithological Club of the Pacific Coast.
Beck, Rollo Howard, 1870-1950
California Academy of Sciences.
Scientific expeditions--South America.
Scientific expeditions--New Guinea, Dutch.
New Guinea.
Alaska.
South America.
Scientific expeditions--Oceania.
Galapagos Islands.
Scientific expeditions--Alaska.
Oceania.
Scientific expeditions--Galapagos Islands.