HovsgolNuurHadag.jpg by Yaan, via Wikimedia Commons

A little snapshot of Lake Hovsgol in Mongolia - a research site for aquatic ecologist, Clyde Goulden, from the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Keep questioning!
Sara 

A snapshot of Samuel Rhoads’ publications, drawings, and field notes (Image courtesy of Kim Custer at the Haddonfield Historical Society)

Thesis, thesis, thesis, thesis! 

Keep questioning,
Sara 

Image courtesy of Davidson, J. P. (2002). Bonehead mistakes: The background in scientific literature and illustrations for Edward Drinker Cope’s first restoration of Elasmosaurus platyurus. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. 152, p. 220 (via JSTOR)

Fossil remains of Plesiosaurus macrocephalus, a large marine reptile similar to Elasmosaurus platyurus.

An awesome rendering of naturalist, Titian Ramsey Peale (via Wikimedia Commons)

Adding this one to my file for the Academy. I spent some time talking to my thesis adviser this morning (thanks, Skype!) and have really kicked it into gear in terms of getting things done. Thank goodness for vacation time! I’m not usually the type to actually get things done during vacation, but I suppose there’s a time for everything!

Keep questioning,
Sara 

A snapshot of Dolan’s 1941 exhibit of specimens from the second expedition to China and Tibet (Ewell Sale Stewart Library, Coll. 64, Box #2, Folder #7)

Adding more to the thesis… I’ll finally be done the Google Earth file in a few days. I just need to carve out some time to dedicate to it.

The past few weeks have been rough. I have been trying to effectively manage my time, only to find that I have too little of it to spare for my thesis. My attention has been on my classes and part-time jobs, and I’ve been choosing to spend my scarce free time with family or simply relaxing.

As much as I love the Academy, it’s so hard for me to get there on a weekly basis, which has allowed my enthusiasm for the project to dwindle. Hopefully, as the semester winds down, I will be able to visit more, and knock out a huge chunk of the project. I need injections of motivation, especially as the excitement of winter vacation and the holidays is mounting….

Wish me luck & keep questioning,
Sara 

Gauging Wetlands, ANSP’s 200 Stories

Wetlands ecologist Dr. Tracy Quirk monitors a New Jersey wetlands with a surface elevation table that rests on the stable benchmark (the gray cylindrical object that is located in the center near the bottom margin of this photograph).

Led by Academy wetland ecologist Dr. Tracy Quirk, a team from the Patrick Center for Environmental Research is conducting long-term intensive monitoring of wetlands along the Delaware Bay and New Jersey Barnegat Bay. Wetlands are important because they protect coastal communities from storm surges and flooding, and they serve as habitats for fish and wildlife. Wetlands also help to reduce watershed nutrient inputs to estuaries and coastal oceans, which improves water quality and habitat for shellfish and fish. By identifying changes in the marshes’ surface elevation above sea level, plant communities, plant biomass, and soil and water chemistry, the team hopes to gain a better understanding of the health of wetlands, how humans impact wetland health, and whether wetlands are going to be sustainable in the future.

In this photograph, Quirk performs wetland monitoring using a surface elevation table at Island Beach State Park in Barnegat Bay, NJ. In this process, the team jackhammers stainless steel rods, or pins, down into the marsh until they meet resistance, leaving a stable benchmark against which Quirk can measure the elevation of the wetlands over time.

Learn more about the work of the Patrick Center.

Evolution at the Circus, ANSP’s 200 Stories

The letter from P. T. Barnum to Joseph Leidy requesting an evaluation of his new circus elephant, Jumbo. Ewell Sale Stewart Library & Archives coll. 1.

The Academy Archives contain close to 3,000 handwritten letters from individuals who sought the opinion of the Academy’s Dr. Joseph Leidy (1823–1891), the pre-eminent scientist of his time. Among the most legendary and unusual correspondents is circus showman P.T. Barnum. Barnum’s letter came about after his purchase of Jumbo, an elephant that he believed to be the largest in the world. While touring in Philadelphia, Barnum wrote to naturalist Leidy to request an evaluation of this extraordinary creature’s size.

Philadelphia
April 28, 1882
Prof. Leidy D[ea]r Sir,
I hope you will examine the Jumbo & write me to Arlington House Washington whether you think he is really an ordinary [or extraordinary] Elephant.
Truly,
P. T. Barnum

Barnum’s letter was newly revealed when Brooke Dolan Archivist Clare Flemming shared the collection of Leidy’s correspondence with scholar Brandon Zimmerman. Not satisfied with reading a list of signatories, the scholar asked to see the actual letters. He may have been the first to recognize the Barnum letter as having been written by the famous showman. A typo in the Academy’s Guide to Manuscripts listing the letter as belonging to “N.T. Barnum” may have caused other scholars to overlook Barnum’s letter.

That’s Some Nerve!, ANSP’s 200 Stories

Commercially produced stereoview of Angelo Heilprin (center) and two “French gentlemen of Martinique” on the lower slope of Mont Pelée: Ewell Sale Stewart Library & Archives Coll. 147, Expedition no. 53.

When he first learned of the devastating 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée in Martinique, Academy geologist Angelo Heilprin (1853–1907) realized the importance of studying the seismic forces involved. He also wondered how having this knowledge could help geologists learn about future eruptions. He took the first steamer to the island and made his famous ascent of the active volcano. Despite falling rocks and the hazard of deadly gases, he remained in the vicinity for four hours. He returned to the summit a second time to record more data and to take photographs. His calm demeanor during this hazardous work won him praise and spread his fame as a fearless scientist throughout the world. American journalist George Kennan, who accompanied Heilprin on his first ascent, described him as “the nerviest and pluckiest man I ever knew.”

Science Up Close, ANSP’s 200 Stories

Dr. Marina Potapova examines one of the German booklets in the Academy’s Diatom Herbarium.

Academy researchers are well-known in the science world for their explorations of diatoms, microscopic algae that are abundant in all aquatic habitats on Earth and produce approximately one-fifth of all organic matter on the planet. Scientists study diatom diversity to understand many things about the area in which the diatoms were collected, including rock age, climate changes over time, human land use, watershed modification, and water quality. Studying diatom diversity also can lead to the development of new uses for these organisms, including biofuel production and medications.

Here at the Academy Diatom Herbarium, we keep a series of little old booklets published in Germany between the 1830s and 60s. These booklets hold the key to the knowledge of diatom diversity. Instead of text and illustrations, the pages contain tiny, glued-in packages with pieces of aquatic plants, dried mud, or little specks of dust dried on glass. These specimens, which are used to describe certain species, are called “types.” When a contemporary researcher investigates a group of diatoms and suspects that some species have already been described, he or she takes a small portion of the type specimen and studies it using modern methods. This process helps distinguish species that have been described in the past from newly discovered species. The study of type specimens helps scientists reveal the true diversity of diatoms and find multiple applications for these resources.

Edgar Allen Poe at the Academy, ANSP’s 200 Stories

Daguerreotype showing the interior of the Academy of Natural Sciences, ca. 1840, Ewell Sale Stewart Library & Archives, Coll. 9

This image may be the earliest interior photograph taken in the United States and is almost certainly the first taken inside a museum. It’s a daguerreotype, a form of early photography developed by Louis Daguerre. Philadelphia inventor Paul Beck Goddard had dramatically enhanced this process a year after the French announced it in 1839. Exposure times were reduced from one hour to minutes.

This daguerreotype, taken by Academy member Goddard himself, features a teenage Joseph Leidy (center), who would later become one of the leading American scientists of his time. The young man seated on the right—known for his keen interest in natural history, chemistry, and phrenology (not to mention his writing talent)—is Edgar Allan Poe.

The Academy still is a haven for successful writers. To see some of our scientists’ work, visit We Wrote the Book, an exhibit located outside our Ewell Sale Stewart Library & Archives. The exhibit features a sample of the hundreds of books written by men and women with ties to the Academy of Natural Sciences.  

Don’t Serve Leidy Anything He Can Dissect, ANSP’s 200 Stories

Joseph Leidy’s illustration of a parasitic fluke from a boa constrictor Library & Archives Coll. 12 D box 4 vol. 5

Academy naturalist Joseph Leidy was well-known for his tendency to examine anything and everything that came to his attention. During one evening party, the curious scientist opted to dissect rather than feast on a dish of terrapin turtles.

Leidy reported on the parasites he found in these turtles in Entozoa of the Terrapin, a short article published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1888. After discussing the variety of threadworms and flukes that he discovered, Leidy informs the reader that most of the terrapin is largely free of parasites and suitable for eating by “rejecting the head, intestines and bladder; or if it is thought desirable to use the intestines they should be slit open and cleansed of the content.”

AMA Founded at the Academy of Natural Sciences, ANSP’s 200 Stories

The Academy of Natural Sciences was located at Broad and Samson streets in Philadelphia when the American Medical Association was founded. Ewell Sale Stewart Library & Archives Coll. 49.

In the spring of 1847, hundreds of delegates from twenty-eight states gathered at the Academy of Natural Sciences to found the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. Nathan S. Davis, whose 1845 resolution to the New York Medical Association called for a national medical convention, led the group. Attendees not only founded the largest association of medical doctors and students in the country, but also they accomplished many other victories for modern medicine—all at the Academy! Delegates adopted the first code of medical ethics and established the first nationwide standards for preliminary medical education and the MD degree. They established further measures to fulfill the association’s aspirations to advance science, create standards for medical education, develop a program of medical ethics, and improve public health.

History is still in the making at the Academy. Mark your calendars for Bicentennial Weekend, March 24–25,  2012, and be the first to see our major exhibit, The Academy at 200: The Nature of Discovery. This spectacular exhibit celebrates the Academy’s groundbreaking discoveries of the past and present and provides a glimpse into our future as of one of the world’s greatest natural history museums.

From River Giants to the Toothpick Fish, ANSP’s 200 Stories

A sampling of the thousands of catfishes included in the All Catfish Species Inventory

Did you know that catfishes are found all over the world? They range in size from the miniature candirú or toothpick fish of the Amazon to the Mekong River’s giant catfish, the world’s largest freshwater fish at 10.5 feet and 660 pounds. Catfishes are easily recognized by their tell-tale “whiskers,” also known as barbels, which ichthyologists use in part to group these creatures and distinguish them from all other fishes.

Academy Ichthyologists Drs. John Lundberg and Mark Sabaj Pérez were among the six principal investigators on an All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI), an international effort aimed at identifying and classifying the world’s catfishes. More than 450 ichthyologists and students from 53 countries discovered and described nearly 400 new species of catfishes, raising the total number of species to over 3,400. Many new species were based on specimens collected by John and Mark during fieldwork in North and South America, Africa, and Asia. John and collaborators also assembled a catfish tree of life that uses anatomical, DNA, and fossil evidence to trace the evolution of the major catfish lineages. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and was one of four flagship projects in the Foundation’s Planetary Biological Inventories (PBI) program. The projects are intended to stimulate taxonomic research and to raise awareness of the diversity of life on Earth before much of it is lost.

Learn more about the All Catfish Species Inventory!

Philly Birds Flock to the Academy, ANSP’s 200 Stories

Some of the local victims of window kills in the Academy’s Ornithology Collection

While our scientists gather many bird specimens on expeditions around the world, we also gather specimens closer to home. Each year, more than 100 million birds are killed in collisions with buildings, communication towers, and wind turbines. Though anecdotal information gathered over the last few decades suggests that “window kills” are not extremely common in Philadelphia, we have partnered with the Philadelphia Zoo and Audubon Pennsylvania to investigate window kills in Center City for the past few years. Our aim was to identify which buildings and what times of year pose the greatest danger to migrating birds and to attempt to mitigate this problem.

Voucher specimens are prepared, catalogued, and databased in the Academy’s bird collection and are made available to researchers around to world who are working to answer a multitude of biological questions. Like many specimens in our collections, these birds came to the Academy for a specific project, but they can be studied for centuries to come.

Are you a history buff with a passion for science? Learn about the history of ornithology at the Academy.