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University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library

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1150 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113, USA
bentley.ref@umich.edu

Joseph Beal Steere Papers, 1861-1941

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Summary

Creator:
Steere, Joseph Beal, 1842-1940
Abstract:
Naturalist, professor of zoology and paleontology at the University of Michigan. Autobiography and biographical material; correspondence, diaries and travelogues, and writings concerning in part his collecting expeditions for the University Museum to South America, China, the Philippines, and other parts of the Far East; also papers reflecting his thoughts on science, religion, philosophy and evolution; and photographs.
Extent:
4 linear feet
1 oversize volume
1 oversize folder
Language:
English.
Call Number:
85831;AC;Aa;2;UAm
Authors:
Finding aid prepared by: Gael Graham and Elaine Watson

Background

Scope and Content:

The papers of Joseph Beal Steere consist of four feet of manuscript and visual material, one oversize volume, and one oversize folder covering the years 1861-1941. The collection is organized into seven series: Autobiography/Biography, Professional and Published Correspondence, Diaries and Travelogues, Writings, Photographs, and Correspondence with family and friends (1861-1926).

Biographical / Historical:

Joseph Beal Steere was born February 9, 1842, in a house on Bean Creek, in the township of Rollin, Lenawee County, Michigan. His parents, William Millhouse Steere and Elizabeth Cleghorn Steere (nee Beal), were of pioneer Quaker stock. Both had brief careers as teachers before they married and turned to farming. In 1848 the Steere family moved by railroad and canal to Covington, Kentucky, on account of the father's poor health. In 1849 they moved again, to a spot twelve miles from Cincinnati.

After the entire family recovered from a bout with typhoid the next year, the Steeres returned to Michigan by wagon. In 1851, when Joseph was nine years old, he was sent to live with his uncle, to work to earn his keep.

In 1853 the Steeres moved to the "Miner Settlement" in Bloomer Center, Montcalm County. Steere recalled that school became important to him at this time. He had always enjoyed reading, but now he began to push himself to excel.

In 1858 Dr. George Pray, one of the earliest graduates from the University of Michigan, moved to a farm not far from the Steere home. Pray made a generous offer to prepare any interested student for college. Joseph Steere took up his offer, and he began to study with Dr. Pray on a weekly basis.

Steere was nineteen when the Civil War broke out. He wanted to enlist, but he was unable to, in part because of his father's opposition. So he remained at home and studied and taught school.

During the Civil War Steere moved to Ann Arbor, where he lived with Dr. Pray. Believing that he needed further formal education, Steere obtained permission to attend Ann Arbor High School. While two of his brothers did ultimately fight for the Union, Steere's enthusiasm to participate was tempered by his desire to receive an education. He never did enlist.

While in Ann Arbor, Steere became acquainted with the town's first botanist, Miss Mary Clark, who ran a girls' school. Steere had been interested in the workings of the natural world since childhood, but it is possible that his friendship with Miss Clark was instrumental in directing him toward a career in natural history.

After Steere was graduated from high school, he worked on his father's farm until he passed the University of Michigan entrance exam. He began his college education in September, 1864. Although he had become interested in natural history, he entered the University of Michigan Law School in 1868. He earned his degree two years later.

He did not practice law. Instead he embarked on an extensive world tour to gather collections for the University of Michigan Museum. His mother's cousin, Rice A. Beal--owner and publisher of the Ann Arbor Courier--agreed to pay for the expedition if Steere would write letters from his journey to be published in the Courier. Steere's travels lasted more than four years, taking him across the Andes (by horse and by foot) into Peru, and then east to China, Formosa (Taiwan), the Philippines, the Malaccas, and the Dutch Moluccas.

Steere shipped home thousands of specimens of birds, reptiles, mammals, and plants. On the Island of Marajo he excavated huge prehistoric burial mounds. He obtained rare manuscripts from Formosa, and he studied fifteen previously unknown tribes along the Amazon. He was especially interested in native dialects, and he compiled phonetic studies of several different languages.

His work in the Philippines was particularly notable. Many of the islands he visited had never been scientifically studied. He added at least sixty species of birds to the known Philippine avifauna, and he did extensive work on the distribution of animals throughout the archipelago.

In 1875, when Steere reached Singapore, he received word that he had received the University of Michigan's first honorary doctorate, in recognition of his scientific achievements. At the same time he was made an Assistant Professor.

The following year the Regents appointed Steere Assistant Professor of Paleontology and Curator of the Museum to which he had donated his collection. This was the first such museum to be built on the campus of a state university, and, consequently, a large variety of contributions began to pour into the new museum, including the Chinese collection that had been exhibited at the World's Industrial Fair, 1884-1885, in New Orleans. (In April of 1876, shortly after assuming his new responsibilities at the University of Michigan, Steere had spent some time in the British Museum collecting and perfecting data for his own collections.)

In 1879 Steere became a full Professor of Zoology and Paleontology. During that year he returned to the Amazon with a party of male university students. In the space of three months they collected over a thousand specimens of birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish.

In 1887 Steere requested a year's leave of absence, and again leading a party of five younger men, he returned to the Philippines. Three years later he went back to the Amazon, this time under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. He studied the Hypurinas, Jamadi, and Paumari Indians.

Steere resigned from the University in 1894. He had been asked to resign by the Regents, possibly, as he maintained, because his outspoken stance on temperance had angered the local German community.

After retiring, Steere spent the rest of his life on his farm near Ypsilanti. In 1901, however, he was again in the Amazon region, collecting for the Smithsonian's exhibition for the International Exposition in Buffalo. He continued to take an interest in scientific trends, and he carried on correspondence with his former colleagues and with people working for Prohibition.

Steere was an intensely religious man. He was active in the Methodist Sunday School and in the temperance movement. He sided with the Darwinists in the great nineteenth century debate over evolution versus creationism, but he was a strong proponent of what he called "argument from design." He believed that the natural world provided ample proof of the existence of a Designer, for he felt that life was too meticulously formed and intricately linked to be merely the result of fortuitous and random accidents.

Steere's later writings reflect his thoughts on religion, philosophy, and evolution. He began an autobiography when he was 89 years old, a work that showed a fine memory for detail, particularly details from his childhood years. He wrote some verse and numerous moralistic children's stories--many of them with animals living in authentic woodland settings.

Steere married Helen Buzzard on September 30, 1879. Before their marriage she had been the principal of the first ward school of Ann Arbor. The couple had five daughters and four sons.

Steere died on December 7, 1940. He was ninety-eight years old. Accolades for his lifetime accomplishments came from, among others, the University of Michigan, from the community of natural sciences, and from the Philippine National Council.

Acquisition Information:
The collection came in three accessions. In 1973, the Museums Library (Donor No. 2658 ) transferred its holdings of Steere papers; in 1984, Mary Louise Steere donated additional material; in 1990, Betty Steere Abercrombie donated additional material left by her aunt, Mary Louise Steere (both accessions included in Donor No. 7062 ).

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:
Evolution -- Religious aspects.
Naturalists -- Religious life -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Philosophy.
Scientific expeditions.
Travelers.
Voyages and travels.
Zoology.
Expeditions and surveys.
Indians of South America.
Formats:
Photographs.
Diaries.
Names:
University of Michigan. Dept. of Zoology.
University of Michigan -- Faculty.
University of Michigan. University Museum.
University of Michigan. Class of 1868.
University of Michigan -- Expeditions and surveys.
Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Beal family.
Buzzard family.
Steere, Joseph Beal, 1842-1940.
Agassiz, Alexander, 1835-1910.
Allen, J. A. (Joel Asaph), 1838-1921.
Angell, James Burrill, 1829-1916.
Bartlett, Harley Harris, 1886-1960.
Baur, George.
Beal, Junius E. (Junius Emery), 1860-1942.
Beal, William James, 1833-1924.
Beecher, Charles Emerson, 1856-1904.
Blair, William McCormick, 1884-1982.
Brigham, Edward Morris.
Brightman, Edgar Sheffield, 1884-1953.
Butler, Amos W. (Amos William), 1860-1937.
Case, E. C. (Ermine Cowles), 1871-
Cassino, Samuel Edson, 1856-1937.
Chapman, Howard Rufus, 1868-1942.
Clark, Mary H., -1875.
Cooley, Charles Horton, 1864-1929.
Cooley, Thomas McIntyre, 1824-1898.
Cope, E. D. (Edward Drinker), 1840-1897.
Derby, Orville A. (Orville Adelbert), 1851-1915.
Dewey, John, 1859-1952.
Dutcher, William, 1846-1920.
Elliot, Daniel Giraud, 1835-1915.
Fairchild, David, 1869-1954.
Ferguson, Alfred Lynn, 1884-
Frieze, Henry S. (Henry Simmons), 1817-1889.
Günther, Albert C. L. G. (Albert Carl Ludwig Gotthilf), 1830-1914.
Hargitt, Edward.
Harrington, Mark Walrod, 1848-1926.
Hartt, Charles Frederick, 1840-1878.
Heath, Edwin R.
Heath, Ivon D.
Henderson, William D., 1866-
Hinsdale, W. B. (Wilbert B.), 1851-1944.
Holmes, William Henry, 1846-1933.
Hornaday, William Temple, 1854-1937.
Hubbard, Bela, 1814-1896.
Hubbard, Edward K.
Hubbard, E. W.
Jackson, Walter Hinckley, 1840-1930.
Jenney, William Le Baron, 1832-1907.
Johnston, Clarence Thomas, 1872-1970.
Jones, I. Winter.
Kelley, Alfred.
Kellogg, James Lawrence, 1866-1938.
Leete, Frederick Deland, 1866-1958.
Merriam, C. Hart (Clinton Hart), 1855-1942.
Penna, D. S. Ferreira.
Phelps, William Henry, 1872-1939.
Roth, Filibert, 1858-1925.
Ruthven, Alexander Grant, 1882-1971.
Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913.
Senier, Alfred, -1918.
Sharpe, Richard Bowdler.
Shufeldt, Robert W. (Robert Wilson), 1850-1934.
Steere, Isaac.
Steere, Joseph Hall, 1852-1936.
Van Deman, Henry Elias, 1845-1915.
Ward, Henry A. (Henry Augustus), 1834-1906.
Waterhouse, Frederick Herschel.
Wenley, R. M. (Robert Mark), 1861-1929.
Whitman, Charles Otis, 1842-1910.
Wilder, Burt Green, 1841-1925.
Wilgus, Horace L. (Horace La Fayette), 1859-1935.
Wilson, Robert.
Winchell, Alexander, 1824-1891.
Wood, W. W.
Woolridge, C. W.
Places:
Amazon River.
China -- History -- 1861-1912.
China -- History -- Republic, 1912-1949.
East Asia.
Philippines -- History -- 1812-1898.
South America.
Philippines -- History -- 1812-1898.
South America.

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Donor(s) have transferred any applicable copyright to the Regents of the University of Michigan but the collection may contain third-party materials for which copyright was not transferred. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.

PREFERRED CITATION:

item, folder title, box no., Joseph Beal Steere Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

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Collection

Joseph Beal Steere Papers, 1861-1941
Call Number 85831;AC;Aa;2;UAm
Total components 110
Last indexed 2023-12-08