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

THE EARLY CALIFORNIA YEARS (1870-1896)

Beck was born in Los Gatos, California on August 26, 1870, and grew up in among the apricot and prune orchards of Berryessa, where he worked trapping gophers before & after school.

Though his formal education lasted only to the eighth grade, he learned to identify birds, prepare skins, and mount specimens from Frank Holmes, a neighbor who had studied with ornithologist T.S. Palmer.

In 1894, he joined the American Ornithologists' Union and the newly formed Cooper Ornithological Club.

His nautical education began in the mid 1890s aboard Captain Sam Burtis' schooner, which plied its trade between Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands. Early field work took Beck to Lake Tahoe and the Yosemite Valley.

Cooper Ornithological Club, Northern Division, meeting at San Jose on August 3, 1895.
Left to right (upper row): W.E. Bryant, D.A. Cohen, R.S. Wheeler, C. Chamberlain, R.H. Beck.
Lower row: W.H. Osgood, W.O. Emerson, C. Barlow, U.S. Clark.
Photo from The C.O.C.: A History by Harry S. Swarth.

THE EARLY CALIFORNIA YEARS (1870-1896)

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