Have you ever dreamed of studying seals and other marine wildlife up close? Here are two of Smithsonian biology curator Frederick William True's notebooks containing field notes and daily entries on seals and other wildlife on St. Paul Island, Kelaire, the Lukanin rookery, Polovina, the Tolstoi rookery, and St. George's Island in Alaska during the summer of 1895. His entries are dated and written in a narrative style. Join other digital volunteers in transcribing his observations of wildlife and surrounding environments. One contains extended description of interactions between mother and cub seals as well as a sealing event and birds seen (with sketches). The second includes observations of seal populations (cows, bulls, and pups); sealing; numbers relating to sealing with some sketches. It is possible that one of the books belonged to Leonhard Stejneger or another participant of the expedition since inscriptions on the two notebooks place the author at different places on the same day.
Have you ever dreamed of studying seals and other marine wildlife up close? Here are two of Smithsonian biology curator Frederick William True's notebooks containing field notes and daily entries on seals and other wildlife on St. Paul Island, Kelaire, the Lukanin rookery, Polovina, the Tolstoi rookery, and St. George's Island in Alaska during the summer of 1895. His entries are dated and written in a narrative style. Join other digital volunteers in transcribing his observations of wildlife and surrounding environments. One contains extended descriptions interactions between mother and cub seals as well as a sealing event and birds seen (with sketches). The second includes observations of seal populations (cows, bulls, and pups); sealing; numbers relating to sealing with some sketches. It is possible that one of the books belonged to Leonhard Stejneger or another participant of the expedition since inscriptions on the two notebooks place the author at different places on the same day.
Frederick William True (1858-1914) was born in Middletown, Connecticut, on July 8, 1858. His brother was Alfred Charles True, a leader in American agricultural education. True attended the University of the City of New York and received his B.S. degree in 1878. Later that year, he received a position as a clerk with the United States Fish Commission. While with the Fish Commission, he served as custodian of the agency's exhibits at the Berlin Fisheries Exposition of 1880. Frederick William True joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1881 as Librarian and Acting Curator of Mammals in the United States National Museum (USNM). He remained with the Institution until his death in 1914. Two years after joining the Smithsonian, he became curator of Mammals in 1883 and remained in charge of the division until 1909. In addition to those duties, he was curator of the Division of Comparative Anatomy from 1885 to 1890, executive curator from 1894 to 1897, and head of the Department of Biology from 1897 to 1911. From 1911 to 1914, True was assistant secretary of the Smithsonian in charge of the library and International Exchange Service. During this period, the Smithsonian Institution was actively engaged in displaying exhibits at the many expositions that were being held. True was responsible for the preparation of the Smithsonian exhibits for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at Nashville, 1897; the Omaha Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898; the Pan American Exposition at Buffalo, New York, 1901; the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition at Charleston, 1902; the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 at St. Louis; and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition at Portland, Oregon.
True originally began his zoological studies with the invertebrates, but bad eyesight forced him to revise his plans and he turned to the study of mammals. His specialties were cetaceans and related groups. Later, he took up the study of fossil cetaceans and, in addition to publishing many important works in the field, helped build up the Museum's collections in this area. The Smithsonian Institution Archives holds a number of True's personal papers.
