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Brewster-Sanford Expedition (1912-1917) | Whitney South Seas Expedition (1920-1929)
Back Home in Planada (1930-1950) | Bird Specimens at the PGMNH
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COLLECTING FOR BENT IN ALASKA (1911-1912)

Life Histories of North American Birds, ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent's monumental 21-volume series, was initiated by the Smithsonian Institution in 1910.

The next year, Beck, Bent, and Alexander Wetmore (who later served as head of the Smithsonian) traveled to Alaska on board a revenue cutter to collect northern avifauna for the project. They gathered and prepared specimens at several of the Aleutian Islands (including Unalaska), the Bering Seas islands, and Nome on board the Polar Bear and the Mary Sachs.

Bent's work spanned his lifetime and was originally published from 1919 to 1968 as National Museum Bulletins, and later reprinted by Dover Press. The work still stands as the foundation for modern North American bird compilations.

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.

COLLECTING FOR BENT IN ALASKA (1911-1912)

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