Browse Projects
100% Complete
33 Total pages
56 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, Nevada, Oregon, and North Dakota, November 7-December 12, 1907
In the mid-1880's, naturalist Vernon Orlando Bailey (1883-1942) had began sending his collections of birds and mammals to Clinton Hart Merriam, head of the newly formed Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy at the United States Department of Agriculture. Bailey joined the USDA a few years later and quickly rose to the position of chief field naturalist. North Dakota and Oregon were two states in which Bailey conducted intensive biological surveys. Please help us to transcribe this field book of his work there and help to make it easier to access and use.
100% Complete
55 Total pages
124 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, New Mexico and Arizona, July 11-October 7, 1908
If you were a naturalist heading to the Southwest to survey the wildlife and vegetation, would your field notes start when you got there? Vernon Orlando Bailey (1864-1942) started his 1908 field journal from his departure point in Virginia Beach, Virginia - over 1,900 miles away. This chief naturalist for the United States Department of Agriculture was constantly keeping notes about the flora and fauna around him. Whether it was a stop along his train route or in the expedition region, Bailey kept diligent notes. In this field book, he recorded the species observed or collected, their location and elevation. He notes the quantity found sometimes using abbreviations like "abu" for abundant and "com." Others are difficult to make out. Can you help us transcribe Bailey's field book?
100% Complete
58 Total pages
32 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, 1907
In the 400 miles between Santa Rosa, Arizona and Escondido, California, you would expect to find a variety of plant and animal life--but how would you even begin to keep track of it all? Take a cue from naturalist Vernon Bailey's field book, where he kept track of specimen lists on this same journey in 1907. Bailey was chief naturalist with the Bureau of Biological Survey, and collected specimens and recorded observations from locations across the country. Join other digital volunteers in transcribing Bailey's field work to make it accessible for present-day researchers.
100% Complete
33 Total pages
57 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, New Mexico, October 12-November 15, 1908
The personal notes of specimens naturalist Vernon Bailey observed or collected while in the American Southwest in the summer and fall of 1908 couldn't be contained in a single field book. This is the second volume of his field journal from that time. Please join other volunteers who are helping us to transcribe his observations from this time. For tips on deciphering his handwriting and abbreviations, it might be useful to look at what volunteers have already done with the first volume.
100% Complete
44 Total pages
71 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, July 9-August 18, 1909
If it just so happens that a work trip takes you through your childhood home town, would you stop and visit? On assignment in the summer of 1909, Vernon Orlando Bailey (1864-1942), chief naturalist with the Bureau of Biological Survey was headed to the Dakotas and Montana. His train trip out to him straight through his hometown of Elk River, Minnesota. And that is where these field notes begin. The notes transition quickly to the states of his assignment and include observations made in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota. Does this pique your interest? Join in with other volunteers to help us transcribe Bailey's sometimes challenging handwriting and learn a bit about the fauna and flora of this region.
100% Complete
59 Total pages
22 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, Oklahoma and New Mexico, August - November, 1906
Keeping track of things you pick up can be a challenge for some of us, and no problem for others. For Vernon Bailey, chief field naturalist with the Bureau of Biological Survey, his work involved collecting and observation expeditions across the country. His field notes were essential for keeping track of what he had seen, the specimens he had collected and settings they were in when collected. The notes in this project cover late summer and early fall of 1906, beginning near Chelsea,Oklahoma and ending near Silver City, New Mexico. Please join us in transcribing this work as we seek to make it more accessible to researchers and scholars.
100% Complete
61 Total pages
22 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, Oregon and Washington, 1897 and Washington, D.C., 1898
Have you ever seen a bobcat up close, close enough to touch? Did it live to tell the tale? During his time as chief field naturalist for the Bureau of Biological Survey, Vernon Bailey (1864-1942) contributed over 13,000 specimens to the Biological Survey, curated specimens collected by fellow field agents and also designed two types of traps that left the animals and birds caught for examination unhurt. "The Mammals and Life Zones of Oregon" is one of his outstanding publications. Please help us transcribe one of the field log books Bailey kept of his work in Oregon to make it more accessible to fellow researchers and scholars.
100% Complete
41 Total pages
9 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, Oregon, 1896, and West Virginia, 1897
Travel was part of the job for chief field naturalist Vernon Bailey of the United States Bureau of Biological Survey. In the two years prior to 1896, he had collected and observed specimens in Michigan, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. In 1896, he returned to Oregon to continue his work and was then dispatched to West Virginia the following year. Always observant, Bailey was regularly collecting and observing biodiversity specimens during his travels, which explains why the first specimen in this field book comes from Nebraska. Please help us transcribe this latest Bailey field book to increase the amount of access we can give to researchers of all kinds.
100% Complete
49 Total pages
13 Contributing members
Bailey - Field notes, Washington, D.C. and New Mexico - 1940
In the summer of 1940, 75-year old Vernon Orlando Bailey returned to New Mexico to his observations of the wildlife in the Southwest that had been a focus of his decades long career as Chief Field Naturalist for the United States Department of Agriculture. The Zuni Mountains there form part of the Continental Divide, and its wildlife provided opportunities to perfect the animal traps Bailey had designed to leave captured animals unhurt. This personal field book also includes notes from the spring of 1940 when Bailey was in Washington, DC, and notes about lectures and meetings he attended during this period. Join up with other volunteers to transcribe another one of this naturalist's field journals.
100% Complete
27 Total pages
13 Contributing members
Bailey - Manitoba and North Dakota, June - July 1912
Rarely one to complain on his various journeys, mammalogist Vernon Orlando Bailey wrote one very cringeworthy entry on June 28, 1912 about mosquitos. And it is not for the faint of heart. Bailey describes how the “bloodthirsty” insects covered his netting and crawled into his sleeping bag. He explained that “there were quarts of dead mosquitos in my bed in the morning.” Anyone else feel an uncontrollable need to scratch an itch that wasn’t there a minute ago? If you are a volunpeer who can’t get enough of Bailey, perhaps you came across another very similar journal, in which Bailey recorded the same days during this trip. Join in on the fun, and if you have any idea why Bailey may have used two journals, please do share!
100% Complete
101 Total pages
32 Contributing members
Bailey - Nevada, November 1890 - February 1891
What do your winter holidays look like? Are you with family and friends someplace warm? Naturalist Vernon Bailey was on expedition and gives this account "Dec. 25. Christmas. Nelson & I worked all day at skins & got them done late in the evening, then went to a dance but none of us could dance." Join us in this transcription project and see how Bailey and his colleagues handled the ups and downs of stormy weather in the Intermountain West in the winter of 1890.
100% Complete
32 Total pages
14 Contributing members
Bailey - New Mexico, October - November 1908
Vernon Orlando Bailey records his field notes for the last three weeks of his trip to the American Southwest in this journal. As a chief naturalist for the United States Bureau of Biological Survey, he worked with a corps of fellow naturalists to build a comprehensive biodiversity survey of North America at the end of the nineteenth century. Join our volunpeers to wrap up the second journal of Bailey's field work in 1908.
