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In June 1905, Beck sailed to the Galapagos Islands with other scientist/sailors on California Academy of Sciences' (CAS) 89-foot-long schooner Academy, serving as expedition leader and chief collector. The expedition revisited locations from Darwin's famous 1835 HMS Beagle voyage. The thousands of specimens of flora and fauna collected on this one-and-a-half-year trip include more than 8,000 birds (including Darwin's finches), 800 eggs, close to 4,000 reptiles (including 266 Galapagos tortoises, some still alive), 10,000 plants, 1,000 invertebrate fossils, and 13,000 insects. |
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| The cache not only helped researchers build on Darwin's evolutionary work, but also made up the bulk of CAS' collection after the April 18, 1906 earthquake & the subsequent fire completely destroyed the museum's collection. | ||
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Beck (fourth from
left) and other members of CAS' Galapagos expedition |
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| Read "In Darwin's Wake: The Academy Sets Sail to the Galapagos," an article by Kathleen M. Wong, from the Spring 2003 issue of California Wild, the magazine of CAS. | ||
| Read excerpts from some of the original field notes from the 1905-1906 CAS Galapagos expedition, and see some of the photographs taken then. | ||
| Read an abstract of Matthew J. James' article, "Rollo Beck: A Glimpse into the Life of an Endangered Species," from Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division 18 (1): 60. | ||
| Read about Sonoma State University geology professor Matthew J. James' own expeditions retracing Darwin's and Beck's footsteps in the Galapagos Islands. | ||
| Read an abstract of Matthew J. James' 2003 seminar, Collecting Evolution: The 1905–1906 Galapagos Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). | ||
| Visit the Charles Darwin Foundation's website. | ||
| See a list of collections related to the Galápagos Islands held by the CAS Special Collections, including a box list of Beck items. | ||
| Read an interview of Matt James by Monterey Seabirding's Roger Wolfe. | ||
| Read Paul R. Arnaud's 1979 A Catalog of the Types of Diptera in the Collection of the California Academy of Sciences, which discusses Rollo Beck's Academy expedition (p. 7) and Dr. Francis X. Williams, entomologist of the expedition. | ||
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ACADEMY GALAPAGOS EXPEDITION (1905-1906) |
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Exhibit
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Early California Years (1870-1896) |
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Page created April 28, 2006. Last updated May 11, 2006. Page copyright 2006 by the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. |
