Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Steere, Joseph Beal

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I)

 

Born: 1842, Rollin, Michigan, U.S.A.. Died: 1940, Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.A.

 

career:

B.A from Michigan in 1868, B. of Laws degree in 1870, and the honorary degree Ph.Dr Michigan in 1875; ornithologist who travelled in S. America, in China and Formosa from 1870-73, and in the Philippines and the Moluccas from 1874-75; from 1876-93 Instructor and later Asst Professor and Professor of Zoology in the University of Michigan. He led a scientific expedition to Brazil in 1879 and visited the Philippines once more in 1887/88.

Author of ‘Fifty new species of Philippine Birds’, etc.

Some ferns were named after him.

 

Collecting localities:

Philippines, 1874-75.1 Leaving Hongkong (May 1874) for Manila, Luzon; crossing the island by way of Mauban and Lucban to the Pacific (Mt Ma-hay-hay near Laguna Bay); Palawan eastside, Puerto Princesa (by steamer in July, staying a month); crossing Balabac (Aug.-Sept.), remaining a month; SE. corner of Mindanao, staying for one month and a half at Zamboanga and Dumalon; Basilan (2 weeks); Mindanao: Zamboanga, Dumalon, and trip to the island of Santa Cruz (in Davao Gulf); Luzon: Manila (few days in Dec.); Panay , visiting Ilo Ilo and mountains in the interior (Dec.); Guimaras; Negros; Zebu (= Cebu); Negros; Bohol; Cebu; Luzon: Manila, leaving in April 1875 for Singapore; Moluccas: Amboina (= Ambon),3 staying about 20 days, making some trips in the hills; Ternate (July).-Philippines, 1887-88.2 Paragua or Palawan (Aug.-Sept. 1887), Mindanao, Zamboanga (Oct.), Basilan (Nov.), Mindanao (Dec.), Guimaras (Dec.), Panay (Jan. 1888), Negros (in the mountains) and Siquijor (Febr.), Cebu and Bohol (March), Samar and Leyte (Apr.), Masbate and Marinduque (May), Mindoro (June), Luzon (July).

 

collections:

Herb. Univers. Michigan [MICH], ferns only;4 dupl. in Herb. Kew [K]: Peru, Philippines, 170 ferns (acq. 1876). His collections include ferns from the Moluccas.3

 

literature:

(1) J.B. Steere: ‘Expedition to the Philippines’ (Nature 14, 1876, p. 297-298); ‘An American naturalist in the Far East. Excerpts from letters written from Formosa, the Philippines, and the East Indies during the years 1874 and 1875’ (Michig. Alumn. Quarterly Rev. 45, no 9, 1938, p. 47-61 + portr.).

(2) J.B. Steere: ‘The Philippine Islands’ (Nature 39, 1888, p. 37-38); ‘A month in Palawan’ (Amer. Naturalist 22, 1888, p. 142-145); ‘Six weeks in southern Mindanao’ (l.c. p. 289-294); ‘Observations made in the central Philippines’ (Lc. p. 622-626, 779-784); ‘The Philippine Islands’ (Science 12, 1888, p. 84); ‘A month in the eastern Philippines’ (Amer. Naturalist 23, 1889, p. 102-107); ‘Notes from the Philippine Islands’ (Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 16, 1889, p. 217-218); ‘A list of the Birds and Mammals collected by the Steere expedition to the Philippines, with localities, and with brief preliminary descriptions of supposed new species’ (Ann Arbor 1890, 30 pp.); ‘A visit to the Philippine Islands of Masbate and Marinduque’ (Amer. Naturalist 25,1891, p.731-734); ‘The island of Mindoro’ (l.c. 25, 1891, p. 1041-1054). Ornithological results in Ibis 3, 1891, p. 301-316.

(3) Collected Drymoglossum fallax v.A.v.R., cf. C. Christensen in Dansk Bot. Ark. 6, 1929, p. 86; cf. also sub 4, Harrington l.c.

(4) M.W. Harrington: ‘The tropical ferns collected by J.B. Steere in the years 1870-75’ (Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 16, 1878, p. 25-37).

Hook. Icon. Plant. 37,1886/87, t. 1623, and 1664.

E.B. Copeland: ‘Notes on the Steere collection of Philippine ferns’ (Philip. Journ. Sci. C. Bot. 2, 1907, p. 405-407); ‘The Philippine ferns collected by J.B. Steere’ (l.c. 60, 1936, p. 19-25).

 

biographical data:

Bretschneider, Hist. Bot. Disc. China 1898, p. 702; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; portr. in Michig. Alumn. Quarterly Rev. 45, no 9, 1938, p. 49); Ann. Rep. Nat. Res. Counc. P.I. 1940-41, p. 124.