Pen in Hand: A famous naturalist's journal rediscovered: The lost account of Hart Merriam's 1905 visit to Tehachapi (fwd link)

[Phil Cash Cash]

Tuesday, Sep 10 2013 06:00 AM
Pen in Hand: A famous naturalist's journal rediscovered: The lost account
of Hart Merriam's 1905 visit to
Tehachapi<http://www.tehachapinews.com/lifestyle/x1612517720/A-famous-naturalists-journal-rediscovered-The-lost-account-of-Hart-Merriams-1905-visit-to-Tehachapi>By
JON HAMMOND Contributing writer

Clinton Hart Merriam was one of the most famous American naturalists of his
time: a mammologist, ornithologist, ethnographer, a gifted and energetic
man who was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, the
American Ornithologists' Union, the American Society of Mammologists and
much more. Known to his friends as simply Hart Merriam, he came through the
Tehachapi Mountains more than a hundred years ago and made detailed notes
of the plant and animal life, and documented many words in the Nüwa
(Kawaiisu or Paiute) Indian language. But his field notes were filed away
and disappeared into obscurity. They were unavailable until a few months
ago, when they were rediscovered by researcher Laura Grant of the Kawaiisu
Language and Cultural Center.

Laura had gone to Washington D.C. as part of the Breath of Life Archival
Institute, a two-week program which is designed to help language
revitalizers find and make use of archival materials about Native American
languages. It was in the Library of Congress that Laura discovered the
materials that Hart Merriam's family had bequeathed following his death in
1942. The original documents had been photographed and were available as
microfiche -- the tiny film images that are only about 3 percent of the
size of the originals -- and using the somewhat clunky viewing machines
that are available for enlarging microfiche, Laura selected Merriam's notes
that pertained to the Tehachapi area and had copies made.

She then brought home these copies, and her niece Amanda GrantSmith
transcribed Merriam's often difficult to read handwritten notes and now we
have a detailed account of Hart Merriam's exploration through the Tehachapi
Mountains by horse team and wagon. He took a train from San Francisco down
to Mojave on November 6, 1905.

Access full article below:
http://www.tehachapinews.com/lifestyle/x1612517720/A-famous-naturalists-journal-rediscovered-The-lost-account-of-Hart-Merriams-1905-visit-to-Tehachapi
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20130910/a25416c5/attachment.htm>