Robert Cushman Murphy was not only one of the twentieth century's great ornithologists, but also one of his field's most-ranging travelers. Visiting every continent—with the notable exclusion of Africa and the notable inclusion of Antarctica—Murphy's diaries and journals, which number at least 36 volumes, offer nearly six decades (1912-1971) of detailed observations of Australia, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Those volumes include glimpses of the Florida everglades in the early-twentieth century ("Florida Fisheries, 1919"), post-war London ("European Trip, May - August 1950"), postcolonial India ("Around the World: A Circumnavigation"), and Antarctica in the early-1960s ("Operation Deep Freeze: Antarctic Cruise, 1960"). Although Murphy proves most adept in his observations of wild life, he also captures a sense of the people and places he encounters through the generous inclusion of ephemera such as newspaper clippings, photographs, postcards, programs, and sketches. In fact, many of his later journals more closely resemble scrapbooks than diaries. Perhaps most notably, Murphy maintains a journal related to one of the last whaling voyages by sailboat in the Atlantic, "The Way of the Sperm Whaler" (June 1912-1913). In addition to typed and handwritten entries feature with detailed technical data on processing whales at sea, Murphy includes dozens of original photos, and a wealth of ephemera, including even a piece of sperm whale skin. (The American Philosophical Society also possesses the signed publication of the journal, A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat, 1967.) Read in tandem with the Grace E. Barstow Murphy diaries (Mss.B.M957.g), researchers will discover a textured record of mid-century conservation.
 

From a geographical trip of the American Geographical Society of New York to the west coast, Frank Spooner Churchill furnishes firsthand accounts of national parks and the U.S. west at the turn of the twentieth century. Maintained on various scraps of paper contained in six folders—some of them addressed to his wife and son—Churchill records a month of travels in significant detail (8/28-10/5/1912). He visits major national parks (many of which listed in Locations), and tours a number of U.S. cities, including San Francisco, where he discusses the 1906 earthquake, and Salt Lake City, where he visits a Mormon church (9/24/1912). Notably, Churchill enthusiastically explores indigenous sites, including Indian burial mounds near Saint Louis (8/28/1912) and a pueblo outside Santa Fe (9/29-9/30/1912). Throughout his travels by automobile, train, and boat, Churchill proves a studious observer of travelers. He talks presidential politics with his hosts (9/1/1912), records a lengthy entry on an "attractive fellow" named Baldwin (9/11/1912), and even muses about the differences between European and American men, the latter whom "talk little and do much" (9/16-18/1912). Finally, researchers interested in early-twentieth century material culture will discover a bounty of ephemera interwoven with his entries, including a telegram, a brochure from Lake Washington, newspaper clippings Seattle Daily Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, and dozens of other items in the box.
 

Luna Bergere Leopold Papers contain a truly remarkable set of field notes and journals traversing some 75 years (1931-2006). The son of the famous conservationist Aldo Leopold, Luna Loeopold enjoyed a long and multidisciplinary career in his own right, contributing to the fields of meteorology, hydrology, geomorphology, and conservation more broadly. The APS holds two sets of materials that provide rich, nearly daily insights into his long career: Leopold's field notebooks and personal journals. Maintained in 71 numbered volumes—101 volumes total—the field notebooks begin in 1937 and end in 2006, just a day before his death. Given the volume of material, researchers would be well-advised to us the two indices, hand-bound by Leopold, to navigate these volumes. (Thankfully, the APS finding aid is also unusually granular.) In addition to detailed field measurements, readings, and professional travels, Leopold often uses these notebooks to record personal reflections. Arguably the jewel of the collection, however, is a set of 12 large, meticulously illustrated personal journals that collect decades (1931-2003) of personal stories, work perspectives, and travelogues. These journals are so packed with photographs, illustrations (many of them quite remarkable in their draftsmanship), and other ephemera that they might be better described as ornate scrapbooks, and some items have been relocated into separate folders. Scholars new to the collection may choose to begin research with the field notebooks and personal journals by tracing Leopold's wide-ranging twentieth-century travels. In addition to decades of intensive field work in the American west, Leopold spent extensive time in Hawaii prior to statehood (1947-48), visited India shortly after Independence (1955), and conducted a 1970 worldwide trip that carried him to Kenya, Nepal, Japan, and Israel (to which he would return in 1974 and 1983).
 

The travel journals of Harvard professor, curator, and evolutionary biologist George Gaylord Simpson ought to be near the top research lists of scholars investigating twentieth-century history, travel, conservation, anthropology, and paleontology. Available in seven boxes of handwritten journals, typed pages, carbon copies, and countless ephemera, Simpson's travel writings provide textured insights into his life, research, intellectual, philosophical, and political positions. Over the course of six decades of journaling (1924-1984), Simpson records at least 36 distinct expeditions, traveling to every continent and documenting discoveries in extraordinary detail and literary style. (Consider the locations identified with this note representative rather than comprehensive of his diverse travels.) Noteworthy journals include: Depression-era trips to Patagonia (1931, 1934), an extended tour of Venezuela in the late-1930s (1938-39), trips to Brazil and the Amazon basin (1954-56, 1983-84), a tour to Spain under Franco (1960), expeditions in North Africa and the Middle East just before the Six Day War (1967), visits to Australia (1951, 1968), Fiji (1968), Indonesia (1975), Papua New Guinea (1976), trips to the Galapagos (1970, 1974), expeditions to the Arctic (1974) and Antarctica (1971-73), a trip to Soviet Union during the Cold War (1977), and a tour of China after its economic reforms (1980).; In his travels, Simpson's mastery of detail is matched only by his curiosity and literary flourish. For example, during his 1938-39 Venezuela tour, he discusses everything from population density (4/25/1939) and the work of Catholic missionaries with indigenous populations (1/15/1939) to the sweet coffee in Barquisimeto (9/21/1938) and his method for killing an opossum without damaging its skin (10/6/1938). At times, his reflections blur the boundaries of prose and poetry. In a collection of reminders from his time in Los Robles, he lists: "The noise they make to shoo animals--This can't be written even approximately, something like the clearing of a throat long and viciously. The sound of rain falling on canvas, on bushes, everywhere, the roar of flooding gullies, and slip and thud of landslides. The sound of pigs slashing and shearing by night outside the kitchen. The smell of fresh, heavily roasted coffee being ground…Hillsides brilliant yellow and pale green with mecutera" (12/19/1938). Researchers may anticipate discovering such redolent entries scattered throughout Simpson's journals, as suggested by Selected Quotations. Although items are not individually cataloged, scholars may choose to begin to mine this rich collection using Anne Roe Simpson's "Note on travel diaries."
 

In his detailed journal of a trip to America in the late-nineteenth century (1880), English Quaker Richard Beck offers comments on Philadelphia society and its institutions, as well as a record of his travels around America, particularly by rail. Along the way, he crosses paths with naturalist Titian Peale and artist Henry Ulke. This volume is noteworthy in two regards. First, it contains a wealth of memorabilia, including advertisements, photographs, playbills, menus, as well as Beck's own original pencil and watercolor sketches. Second, it features thoughtful and often comparative assessments of the people and places he visits. In fact, no detail can escape Beck's attentive eye. Alongside descriptions of Colorado rock formations (4/30/1880), Yosemite redwoods (6/2/1880) and the development of Salt Lake City (5/15/1880), Beck intersperses comments on American hairstyles (2/27/1880), eyeglasses (3/2/1880), libraries (4/20/1880), and that great American pastime, baseball (7/8/1880). This volume may interest scholars of postbellum material culture, late-nineteenth century Philadelphia, and the American West.