Joseph and Hilda Wood Grinnell Papers, 1886-1967

Summary

Creators:

Grinnell, Joseph, 1877-1939

Abstract:

Consists of materials reflecting the Grinnell's work in the fields of natural history and ecology. The bulk of the collection is made up of diaries, field notes, and materials relating to early conservation efforts in California. Also included are drafts of articles by Joseph Grinnell regarding the natural history of the west, personal and professional correspondence of the Grinnell's, including Joseph Grinnell's work as editor of The Condor, the publication of the Cooper Ornithological Society.

Extent:

Number of containers: 11 boxes, 1 volume, 1 oversize folder Linear feet: 5 , 8 digital object (10 images)

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

The Joseph and Hilda Wood Grinnell Papers, 1886-1967, consist of materials reflecting their work in the fields of natural history and ecology. The bulk of the collection is made up of diaries, field notes, and materials relating to early conservation efforts in California. Also included are drafts of articles by Joseph Grinnell regarding the natural history of the west, personal and professional correspondence of the Grinnell's, including Joseph Grinnell's work as editor of The Condor, the publication of the Cooper Ornithological Society, and a collection of the correspondence of philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander.

Very little of Joseph Grinnell's professional correspondence is included in this collection, with the exception of letters relating to the Cooper Ornithological Society. Hilda Grinnell's correspondence relates to natural history and conservation issues and includes letters from prominent naturalists including E. Raymond Hall and Alden H. Miller. Also included is correspondence between Mrs. Grinnell and Annie Montague Alexander along with letters written by Miss Alexander to her childhood friend, Martha Beckwith, who was also acquaintance of the Grinnell's for many years.

In the 1890's, Joseph Grinnell made two trips into Alaska to research native birds. His diaries and field notes from these trips are included in this collection, as well as letters written to his family during his travels. Also of note is a draft entitled "The Kotzebue Sound Gold Rush," an account of the second trip, which he spent working as a cook in a mining camp in the Klondike region, collecting specimens and recording field observations in his spare time.

By the mid 1920's Grinnell's focus began to shift toward the protection of wildlife species in the western United States. His research in conservation work impacted the policies of the National Park Service as well as the California Fish and Game Code. His philosophy is outlined in his 1925 article "A Conversationist's Creed as to Wild-Life Administration." The collection also includes materials relating to his involvement as a member of the Committee on Rodent and Wild Life Control appointed by President Robert G. Sproul in 1932 to investigate animal poisoning in California.

This collection includes very little material relating to Dr. Grinnell's administrative or academic work at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, with the exception of copies of reports to the University, a small amount of zoology course material and a manuscript for a history of the museum by written by Mrs. Grinnell. Papers relating to his tenure at the MVZ can be found in the Records of the Museum of Vertabrate Zoology, 1908-1949. Other materials relating to the Cooper Ornithological Club and its publication, The Condor, can be found in the Joseph Grinnell Papers, 1884-1938, BANC MSS C-B 995.

Biographical / historical:

Joseph Grinnell was born on February 27, 1877 near Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory at the Kiowa, Comanche and Wichita Indian Agency, where his father served as government physician. After living for a short time in Tennessee and in the Dakota Territory, the family settled in Pasadena, California in 1885. Grinnell attended school in Pasadena and received his B.A. from Throop Polytechnic Institute (now Caltech) in 1897.

Grinnell made two trips to Alaska in 1896-97 and 1898-99, where he conducted field studies and collected avian specimens. In 1900 he published a paper on these findings entitled "Birds of the Kotzebue Sound Region, Alaska." Some of the letters and notebooks from the second trip were published by his mother, ornithologist Elizabeth Grinnell as Gold Hunting in Alaska.

In 1901, after earning his M.A. from Stanford, he began teaching in the biology department at Throop. In 1906 he married Hilda Wood, a former student. While teaching at Throop Grinnell met Annie Montague Alexander, who was about to embark on a collecting trip to Alaska. Miss Alexander had been preparing to found a museum at the University of California for the collection and study of vertebrates. This goal was realized in 1908 with the opening of the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Grinnell was appointed the museum's first director, a position he held until his death. During his tenure at the Museum, Grinnell donated his collection of 8,000 birds and 2,000 mammals to the University.

After receiving a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1913, Grinnell was appointed as assistant professor in the Department of Zoology at Berkeley, and as full professor in 1920. He published more than 500 papers in his lifetime, primarily on California birds and other wildlife. Much of Dr. Grinnell's focus in his later years was on the protection of California's native plant and animal species. He helped to formulate the California Fish and Game Code and his conservation studies were instrumental in the effort to form the Point Lobos State Reserve and the Frances S. Hastings Natural History Reservation.

He served as president of the American Ornithologists' Union from 1929-1932 and of the American Society of Mammalogists from 1937-1938. Dr. Grinnell was editor of The Condor, the publication of the Cooper Ornithological Society from 1906 until his death in Berkeley on May 29, 1939.

Hilda Wood was born in Tombstone, Arizona Territory on May 29, 1883. She grew up in Glendora, California and received a B.S. from Throop in 1906. After her husband became director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in 1908, the couple moved to Berkeley where they raised three sons and a daughter. In 1913 she earned an M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mrs. Grinnell assisted her husband in his work, accompanying him on countless field trips as well as helping to prepare his manuscripts for publication. After his death, she carried on his efforts to promote the study and conservation of wildlife, especially of the native flora and fauna of California. For over twenty years she served as secretary of the Northern Division of the Cooper Ornithological Club and was head of the Nature Department at Camp Sugar Pine (San Francisco Girl Scout Council).

In 1940 Mrs. Grinnell was appointed Bibliographer at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. She published a bibliography of the writings of C. Hart Merriam in 1943 and helped to edit Joseph Grinnell's A Bibliography of California Ornithology, published after his death. Other publications of Mrs. Grinnell's include A Synopsis of the Bats of California, and a biography of Annie Montague Alexander published by the Grinnell Naturalists Society. She also contributed articles to The Condor and The Gull (Audubon Society of the Pacific). She was a member of the American Ornithologists' Union, the American Society of Mammalogists and the California Academy of Sciences.

Hilda Wood Grinnell died on June 7, 1963.

Acquisition information:

The Joseph and Hilda Wood Grinnell Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Mary E. Grinnell on July 18, 1972 and March 12, 1982.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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