Edward W. Nelson - Alaska, May 26, 1877 - May 13, 1878

For Edward William Nelson, a youthful enthusiasm for the outdoors and a formative experience on a fossil-collecting trip in college led him to Washington DC as he sought assistance from Spencer Baird in securing a position as a field naturalist. The result of this, a four-year stint as a weather observer with the US Army Signal Corps in Alaska, came with a charge to "... secure an unbroken series of meteorological observations, and, in addition, to obtain all the information possible concerning the geography, ethnology, and zoology of the surrounding region." An earlier Transcription Center project tackled the first year of Nelson's field notes—join your fellow volunpeers in digging in to the next twelve months of his work.