GRINNELL, Joseph

Joseph Grinnell (1877-1933)

GRINNELL, Joseph (1877-1939), Oklahoma-born naturalist, field biologist and ornithologist who moved to southern California at age 7. After graduation from Pasadena High School in 1893, Grinnell enrolled in the college division of Throop Polytechnic Institute where he began his scientific training. In 1896, his studies were interrupted by an opportunity to go to Alaska, where Grinnell spent two years studying and collecting birds. Alaskan tourists and ornithologists, including Joseph Mailliard, visited Grinnell to view the bird skins. Upon his return to California, he finished his last year at Throop.

Grinnell sailed to Avalon, Santa Catalina Island from San Pedro on March 26, 1897. He stayed over night, and the following day, March 27, 1897 he sailed to San Clemente Island, where he spent the first night at Smugglers Cove. Grinnell then collected birds from March 28-April 3, 1897, until his return to San Pedro via Avalon, where he spent the night of April 3. On April 4, 1897 he returned to San Pedro.

May 11-June 9, 1897, with the support of the Pasadena Academy of Sciences, Grinnell participated in a three-week-long expedition to Santa Barbara, San Nicolas and San Clemente islands. On this trip Grinnell collected birds, eggs and lizards on Santa Barbara Island May 13-18, 1897 before transiting to San Nicolas Island where he collected both birds and lizards May 19-May 25, 1897. From San Nicolas Island, Grinnell returned briefly to Santa Barbara Island on May 27, 1897 and took the opportunity to collect two island night lizards. (These specimens were subsequently lost at the California Academy of Sciences during the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.) From Santa Barbara Island Grinnell transited to San Clemente Island for where he collected specimens from May 28-June 5, 1897 before returning to the mainland.

Grinnell's work resulted in the first publication of the Pasadena Academy of Sciences. A set of bald eagle eggs he collected on San Clemente Island on April 1, 1897 is in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at U.C. Berkeley.

August 26, 1903 Grinnell sailed from San Pedro Harbor on a trip in which he visited Santa Catalina Island (August 26-27, 1903), Anacapa Island (August 29, 1903), and Santa Cruz Island (August 31-September 4, 1903), returning to San Pedro September 5. In addition to collecting birds on this trip, he also collected plants on Anacapa Island and at Fry’s Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. A Santa Cruz Island flicker he collected on September 2, 1903 is in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the United States National Museum. Grinnell returned to Santa Catalina Island on November 24, 1904 and noted: “Birds in general, both residents and migrants, very much fewer than in December 1897.”

In 1905 Grinnell became editor of Condor, publication of the Cooper Ornithological Society, a post he retained for 33 years.

Directory of Members, Cooper Ornithological Club, May 1914:

Joseph Grinnell. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 1894.

Grinnell married Hilda Wood (1883-1963) in 1906, and in 1908 they moved to Berkeley where Grinnell became director of the newly established University of California’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. In 1909 he donated all of his own collections to the museum. The Grinnells had four children:

Willard Fordyce (1907-1983)
Mary Elizabeth (1908-1988)
Stuart Wood (1909-1982)
Richard Austin (1918-1998)

Grinnell died in Berkeley, California on May 29, 1939 at age 62. During his career, Grinnell influenced dozens of future scientists and published more than 500 books and articles in the field of biology. He may be best known for his work on California mammals. Grinnell named the Santa Cruz Island vireo, Vireo maillairdorum “for Messrs. Joseph and John W. Mailliard, whose conscientious work with the western birds deserves at least this slight token of our recognition.” Nine birds, four mammals, and two insects area named for Ginnell.

Joseph Grinnell collected birds, herps, mammals and plants on six California Channel Island. There is no evidence he visited San Miguel or Santa Rosa islands.

ANACAPA ISLAND (1903)
SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND (1897, 1900, 1908)
SAN NICOLAS ISLAND (1897)
SANTA BARBARA ISLAND (1897)
SANTA CATALINA ISLAND (1897, 1898, 1903, 1904, 1908)
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND (1897, 1903)

BAJA CALIFORNIA ISLANDS

ISLAS CORONADOS (1902, 1908, 1922, 1930)
ISLA NATIVIDAD (1897)

Grinnell's island specimens are located in at least ten institutions:

California Academy of Sciences [CAS], San Francisco, CA
Carnegie Museum of Natural History [CM], Pittsburgh, PA
Delaware Museum of Natural History [DMNH], Wilmington, DE
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County [LACM], Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology [MCZ], Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology [MVZ], UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History [NMNH], Washington, DC
Royal Ontario Museum [ROM], Ontario, Canada
University of California Herbaruim [UC], Berkeley, CA
University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates [UWYMV], Laramie, Wyoming

Palmer, T. S. Nomenclature of California Birds in Condor 30(5):267-268 September-October 1928:

GRINNELL, Joseph. “Born at Old Fort Sill, Oklahoma, February 27, 1877. Well known as one of the most active members of the Cooper Ornithological Club, editor of the Condor and Director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology since its foundation in 1908. He is author of: A Check List of California Birds, 1902; Bibliography of California, 1915, and many other papers on the birds and mammals of the west coast. Dr. Grinnell is a serious student of specimen and geographic distribution, has inspired much of the field work that has been done on the birds of California in recent years, and has described many new forms of the Pacific coast. His work is commemorated in the names of the Coast Pigmy Owl (Glaucidium g. grinnelli) and Grinnell's Woodpecker (Xenopicus a. gravirostris) from California; Lanius l. grinnelli from Lower California; Regulus c. grinnelli from Alaska; Agelaius p. grinnelli from Lower California; Regulus c. grinnelli from Alaska; Agelaius p. grinnelli from Salvador; and the extinct Eagle (Geranoaetus grinnelli) from the Pleistocene of Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles.”

1897. Grinnell, Joseph Description of a new towhee from California Auk 14(3):294-296, July 1897

1897. Grinnell, Joseph Report on the Birds recorded during a visit to the Islands of Santa Barbara, San Nicolas and San Clemente in the Spring of 1897 Pasadena Academy of Sciences 1:1-26 1897

[original in SCIF archives]

1898. Review: Grinnell on the Birds of Santa Barbara, San Nicolas and San Clemente Islands, California Auk 15(1):73, January 1898

1898. Grinnell, Joseph Grinnell on the Birds of Santa Barbara, San Nicolas and San Clemente Islands, California Auk 15:73, 1898]

1898. Grinnell, Joseph Land Birds observed in Mid-Winter on Santa Catalina Island, California Auk 15(3):233-236 July 1898

1898. Grinnell, Joseph The San Nicolas Rock Wren Auk 15(3):237-239 July 1898

1898. Grinnell, Joseph Birds of the Pacific Slope of Los Angeles County Pasadena Academy of Sciences 1898

1899. Grinnell, Joseph The Rhinocerous Auklet at Catalina Island The Condor 1(2):17-18, March-April 1899

1902-1905. Grinnell, Joseph Joseph Grinnell Notebook #12. August 5, 1902-April 29, 1905. Spiral-boud copy.

Aug. 26-Sept. 4, 1903: Santa Catalina, Anacapa, Santa Cruz Islands

Nov. 24: Santa Catalina Island

[copy in SCIF archives]

1903. Grinnell, Joseph & F. S. Daggett An Ornithological Visit to Los Coronados Islands, Lower California Auk 20(1):27-37. 1903

1903. Grinnell, Joseph The Santa Cruz Island Vireo The Condor 5(6):157, November-December 1903

1905. Grinnell, Joseph The Flycatcher from the Santa Barbara Islands The Condor 7(2):51-52, 1905

1906. Grinnell, Joseph The Empidonax from Santa Cruz Island The Condor 8(3):74, 1906

1906. Grinnell, Joseph The Catalina Island Quail Auk 23(3):262-265 July-September 1906

1908. Grinnell, Joseph Catalina Quail The Condor 10(2):94, 1908

1908. Grinnell, Joseph Some Birds of Anacapa Island The Condor 10(3):130, May 1908

1909. Grinnell, Joseph Bibliography of California Ornithology Pacific Coast Avifauna No. 5, May 15, 1909

[original in SCIF archives]

1909. Grinnell, Joseph. Two Waders of Note from Santa Catalina Island The Condor 11(4):139, 1909

1913. Grinnell, Joseph. A distributional list of the mammals of California Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 3: 265-390, August 28, 1913.

[original in SCIF archives; ex-lib M. D. Daily]

1914. Grinnell, Joseph An account of the mammals and birds of the Lower Colorado Valley University of California Publications in Zoology 12(4):51-294. pls. 3-13, 9 text figs. Stapled wraps. March 20, 1914.