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Top: this intricately
woven lidded basket was collected by Beck in 1912 on
Attu Island of the Aleutian Chain, Alaska during his field work
for Arthur Bent.
Bottom: Beck's handwritten tag. From the Museum's collection,
gift of Gibbe Parsons, M.D.
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These Pomarine Jaegers,
both prepared by Beck, show two types of prepared specimens
that are often included in museum collections--an exhibit mount
(above) and a study skin (below).
The former presents the museum visitor with a lifelike representation,
and the latter
involves removal of internal organs, musculature, and most of
the skeleton of the
specimen, replacing the internal body cavity with cotton, excelsior,
or cornmeal.
Mount from the Museum's
collection. Bird skin on permanent loan from MVZ.
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These taxidermy tools
are similar to those Beck used.
The notched spoon is a reproduction based on a description by
Robert Cushman Murphy.
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Letter from Beck to
PGMNH, from the Museum's collection.
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This 20-gauge double-barrel
Fox Model B shotgun was made by the Fox/Savage
Arms Corporation.
Beck probably obtained it after he returned to California in
1929.
Active field collecting is not as prevalent today as it was in
Beck's day.
Many of the PGMNH's more recent bird acquisitions died of natural
causes.
On loan from Gibbe Parsons, M.D.
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Beck's talents extended
to writing articles for publications including
National Geographic Magazine
and Natural History.
These articles were enhanced with photographs taken by Beck,
who routinely photographed the environments where he collected.
Beck also wrote this annotated species list of
Water Birds of the Vicinity of Point Pinos, California, published
by California Academy of Sciences in 1910.
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Read Rollo Beck's 1929 article,
"A
Collector in the Land of the Birds of Paradise:
Collecting Brilliantly Colored Birds Among the Mountains of New
Guinea—
The Problems and Difficulties of an Ornithologist in the
Savage Interior of One of the Greatest of Islands"
on Natural History's
Pick from the Past webpage.
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This rectangular tapa
bark cloth was collected by Beck in the 1920s on the Fiji Islands
during the
Whitney South Seas Expedition. The cloth gets its name from the
sound made while the
sun-dried bark is beaten during processing. From the Museum's
collection, gift of Gibbe Parsons, M.D.
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Nearly 500 cultural objects collected
by the Becks in the Pacific
during the Whitney
South Seas Expedition are now housed in
California Academy of Science's anthropology department.
Their database of Rollo Beck items can be seen here.
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ARTIFACTS IN
THE EXHIBIT
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Exhibit
Home | The
Early California Years (1870-1896)
Collecting
for Lord Rothschild (1897-1898) | Monterey
Bay Collecting (1903-1910)
Academy Galapagos
Expedition (1905-1906) | Collecting
for Bent in Alaska (1911-1912)
Brewster-Sanford
Expedition (1912-1917) | Whitney
South Seas Expedition (1920-1929)
Back
Home in Planada (1930-1950) | Bird
Specimens at the PGMNH
Artifacts
| Map of Beck's
World Travels | Exhibit
Credits | Links
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