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

BACK HOME IN PLANADA (1930-50)

After several decades of collecting museum specimens in remote & exotic destinations under harsh & challenging conditions, the Becks returned to California. They purchased property in rural Merced County, and set about growing apricots, almonds, and figs in their orchards.

Beck, surrounded by specimens.
Photo by John Howell Studio, reproduced in the March-April 1948 issue of The Condor.
In the 1940s, the Becks lived on and off in Pacific Grove, buying and selling houses on Cedar, Hillcrest, Eardley, and Granite streets. During these years, he collected and mounted many of the specimens now on display in the Monterey County bird exhibit.
A checklist of the birds in the PGMNH prepared by Beck is available in PDF format here. This is a two-sided trifold.


Letters from Beck to PGMNH, from the Museum's collection.
In 1948, Beck was elected to honorary membership in the Cooper Ornithological Society. He collected and prepared over 1,500 bird skins for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), sending his last batch of specimens only three months before he died in 1950.
View MVZ's collection database.
Visit Don Roberson's extensive Monterey County Birds webpage.

BACK HOME IN PLANADA (1930-50)

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

Page created April 28, 2006. Last updated May 9, 2006.
Page copyright 2006 by the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.