This historical work chronicles the lives, adventures, and discoveries of America's great explorer/naturalists--Lewis & Clark, Martha Maxwell, John James Audubon, John Muir, William Gambel, Thomas Say, Robert Kennicott and John Townsend. Regardless of the formidable obstacles and travails, these naturalist-explorers provided an invaluable scientific foundation as to how the plants, animals, and environment of the American West coexist. From identifying new species to discovering prehistoric fossils, this book celebrates these intrepid trailblazers who boldly navigated and documented the untrammeled, awe-inspiring frontier west of the Mississippi.

Beginning with the trailblazing expedition of Lewis and Clark, Early American Naturalists tells the stories of men and women of the 1800s who crossed the Mississippi River and encountered the new life of the western New World. Explorers profiled include John James Audubon, Martha Maxwell, and John Muir.

"In California's Frontier Naturalists, Richard Beidleman has eloquently chronicled the history of explorations and discovery that revealed the grand legacy of California's biodiversity. More than just a series of scholarly essays about naturalists, collections, and species, this book provides lively insight into the motivation that lured diverse naturalists to California's 'natural cornucopia', their personalities, their remarkable experiences, and their lasting contributions."—Dieter Wilken, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Chronicles the story of American naturalists who came of age and stumbled toward a profession in the years after the American Revolution. --from publisher description.

Newly expanded and in full color, this groundbreaking book argues that early American natural historians had a distinctly poetic sensibility, producing work that had a visionary intensity. Covering naturalists from John James Audubon to PT Barnum, it considers not only natural history writing, but also illustrations, photographs, and actual collections of flora and fauna. Photography and all associated expenses made possible by a generous grant from Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund

Includes a section on Maria Martin, a young woman from Charleston, who married Audubon's youngest son, John Woodhouse, and who "assisted in the artwork for volumes 2 and 4 of [Audubon's] The birds of America and acted as Bachman's amaneunsis during his collaboration with Audubon on The quadrupeds of North America."--Page 9.

A collection of the writings of 25 women naturalists of the late 19th through early 20th century, with biographical profiles. Writings by naturalists including Susan Fenimore Cooper, Alice Eastwood, Ynes Mexia, E. Lucy Braun, and Rachel Carson recount travels and findings and discuss vanishing species and deforestation. Includes bandw photos. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"A biography of Theodore Roosevelt focusing on his career as a naturalist, his role as a pioneer for wilderness engagement, and an early advocate for museum building"--

Interposed between the natural world in all its diversity and the edited form in which we encounter it in literature, imagery and the museum, lie the multiple practices of the naturalists in selecting, recording and preserving the specimens from which our world view is to be reconstituted. The factors that weigh at every stage are here dissected, analysed and set within a historical narrative that spans more than five centuries. During that era, every aspect evolved and changed, as engagement with nature moved from a speculative pursuit heavily influenced by classical scholarship to a systematic science, drawing on advanced theory and technology. Far from being neutrally objective, the process of representing nature is shown as fraught with constraint and compromise. With a Foreword by Sir David Attenborough Contributors are: Marie Addyman, Peter Barnard, Paul D. Brinkman, Ian Convery, Peter Davis, Felix Driver, Florike Egmond, Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Geoff Hancock, Stephen Harris, Hanna Hodacs, Stuart Houston, Dominik Huenniger, Rob Huxley, Charlie Jarvis, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Shepard Krech III, Mark Lawley, Arthur Lucas, Marco Masseti, Geoff Moore, Pat Morris, Charles Nelson, Robert Peck, Helen Scales, Han F. Vermeulen, and Glyn Williams.