Cowboys, scientists, and fossils: The field site and local collaboration in the American West

ISIS

Volumn 99, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 273-303

  Vetter, Jeremy ^a  

^a DICKINSON COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ANIMAL; ARTICLE; DINOSAUR; FOSSIL; HISTORY; INFORMATION CENTER; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; PALEONTOLOGY; RESEARCH; UNITED STATES; UNIVERSITY;

ANIMALS; DINOSAURS; FOSSILS; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; MUSEUMS; PALEONTOLOGY; RESEARCH; UNITED STATES; UNIVERSITIES;

EID: 47749136582     PISSN: 00211753     EISSN: 15456994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/588688     Document Type: Article

References (159)

1. The basic details of the story are related in James H. Cook, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier as Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman (New Haven, Conn..: Yale Univ. Press, 1923), pp. 233-234.
2. Daniel W. Schneider, "Local Knowledge, Environmental Politics, and the Founding of Ecology in the United States: Stephen Forbes and 'The Lake as Microcosm' (1887)," Isis, 2000, 97:681-705.
3. Such dynamics of incorporation and devaluation of local knowledge in the field were by no means limited to Europe and North America, for they characterized the field relationships in the non-Western world just as much or even more. For a relevant comparison case see Elizabeth Green Musselman, "Plant Knowledge at the Cape: A Study in African and European Collaboration," International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2003, 56:367-392.
4. See, e.g., Mark V. Barrow, A Passion for Birds: American Ornithology after Audubon (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998);
5. Elizabeth B. Keeney, The Botanizers: Amateur Scientists in Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: Univ. North Carolina Press, 1992);
6. and Marc Rothenberg, "Organization and Control: Professionals and Amateurs in. American. Astronomy, 1899-1918," Social Studies of Science, 1981, 11:305-325.
7. On the contributions of laboratory technicians see Steven Shapin, "The Invisible Technician," American Scientist, 1989, 77:554-563;
8. and Stephen R. Barley and Beth A. Bechky, "In the Backrooms of Science," Work and Occupations, 1994, 27:85-126.
9. On work in the field see Henrika Kuklick and Robert E. Kohler, eds., Science in the Field, Osiris, 2nd Ser., 11, especially the editors' introduction. On what might well be called the "invisible technicians" of the field, including a study considering the role of scientists' wives in managing camp life on eclipse expeditions and another attending to the contributions of native assistants in African anthropology,
10. see Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, "Gender, Culture, and Astrophysical Fieldwork: Elizabeth Campbell and the Lick Observatory-Crocker Eclipse Expeditions," ibid., pp. 15-43;
11. and Lyn Schumaker, Africanizing Anthropology: Fieldwork, Networks, and the Making of Cultural Knowledge in Central Africa (Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2001).
12. For an insightful study of the reach and diversity of local collectors in the nineteenth-century United States see Daniel Goldstein, '"Yours for Science': The Smithsonian Institution's Correspondents and the Shape of Scientific Community in Nineteenth-Century America," Isis, 1994, 85:573-599.
13. Before doing science became more closely associated with professional career structures, traditional class distinctions were even more important-for example, in the crucial division between gentlemen and artisans in early nineteenth-century Britain. On the delicacy of cross-class cooperation in British natural history see Anne Secord, "Corresponding Interests: Artisans and Gentlemen in. Nineteenth-Century Natural History," British Journal for the History of Science, 1994, 27:383-408.
14. On the role of fieldwork in geology among gentlemanly specialists see Martin J. S. Rudwick, The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentlemanly Specialists (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1985).
15. See also Roy Porter, "Gentlemen and Geology: The Emergence of a Scientific Career, 1660-1920," Historical Journal, 1978, 27:809-836.
16. For an example see Stuart McCook, '"It May Be Truth, But It Is Not Evidence': Paul Du Chaillu and the Legitimation of Evidence in the Field Sciences," Osiris, 1996, 77:177-197.
17. A more general treatment of the problem of credibility in science, focusing on "downstream" contests in the public sphere over where to draw the boundaries between science and other parts of culture, can be found in Thomas F. Gieryn, Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1999).
18. The many works on Cope, Marsh, and their protracted fossil feud include Jane Pierce Davidson, The Bone Sharp: The Life of Edward Drinker Cope (Philadelphia: Academy of Natural Sciences, 1997);
19. Mark Jaffe, The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil War between E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science (New York: Crown, 2000);
20. John H. Ostrom and John S. Mcintosh, Marsh's Dinosaurs: The Collections from Como Bluff, 2nd ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1999);
21. Robert Plate, The Dinosaur Hunters: Othniel C. Marsh and Edward D. Cope (New York: McKay, 1964);
22. Elizabeth Noble Shor, The Fossil Feud between E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh (Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition, 1974);
23. and David Rains Wallace, The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Fraud of the Gilded Age (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
24. For a wider perspective on U.S. vertebrate paleontology in the second half of the nineteenth century see Url Lanham, The Bone Hunters (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1973).
25. For a brief account of the prominent Jurassic component of that second wave see John S. Mcintosh, "The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush," Earth Sciences History, 1990, 9:22-27; for a comprehensive account, based on a thorough investigation of field correspondence and other archival sources,
26. see Paul D. Brinkman, "The Second American Jurassic Dinosaur Rush, 1895-1905" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Minnesota, 2005).
27. For one interesting episode see Brinkman, "Henry Fairfield Osborn and Jurassic Dinosaur Reconnaissance in the San Juan Basin, along the Colorado-Utah Border, 1893-1900," Earth Sci. Hist., 2005, 24:159-174.
28. Similarly, the wealthy financier J. P. Morgan, gave $16,000 per year in special funds for fossil collecting to the American Museum in New York, directed a few years later by his nephew, Henry Fairfield Osborn. See Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 560.
29. Ronald Rainger, "Collectors and Entrepreneurs: Hatcher, Wortman, and the Structure of American. Vertebrate Paleontology circa 1900," Earth Sci. Hist., 1990, 9:14-21.
30. The landmark Homestead Act of 1862 had provided for claims of 160 acres. For a thoughtful summary, along with an insightful discussion of how ranchers influenced and reacted to these changes in land policy, see Karen R. Merrill, Public Lands and Political Meaning: Ranchers, the Government, and the Property between Them (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2002), pp. 40-66.
31. For a brief biography of Holland, which celebrates him for combining "breadth of interest with increasingly rigorous standards for practice" but also aptly describes him as "strong-willed, colorful, and vocal," see Monique Borque, "Holland, William Jacob," in American National Biography, http://www.anb.org.
32. On the formation of the new department at the Carnegie see J. L. Wortman, "The New Department of Vertebrate Paleontology of the Carnegie Museum," Science, 1900, 11:163-166.
33. The fascinating story of Diplodocus carnegii is told with attention to institutional rivalry and class tensions in Tom Rea, Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur (Pittsburgh: Univ. Pittsburgh Press, 2001).
34. On the establishment of Camp Carnegie see "Museum Notes," Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 1901, 1:6;
35. for further details on the Carnegie Museum's fieldwork in Wyoming and neighboring states before 1905 see Brinkman, "Second American Jurassic Dinosaur Rush" (cit. n. 8).
36. For the initial agreement see J. B. Hatcher to W. J. Holland, 9 May 1900, Hatcher Papers, Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh (hereafter cited as CMNH).
37. Felch expressed his willingness to help Utterback in M. P. Felch to Hatcher, 28 Oct. 1900, Hatcher Papers, CMNH. Regarding Utterback's work see Hatcher to Holland, 30 Nov. 1900, Hatcher Papers, CMNH;
38. and "Museum Notes," Ann. Carnegie Mus., 1901, 1:7.
39. Hatcher to Holland, 12 Aug. 1901, Hatcher Papers, CMNH ("play us false");
40. and "Museum Notes," Ann. Carnegie Mus., 1901, 1:254.
41. Hatcher to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 9 May 1904 (requesting permit);
42. A. G. Tonner to Hatcher, 14 May 1904 (quotations); and Hatcher to Holland, 2.1 May 1904 (Peterson's assignment for 1904): Hatcher Papers, CMNH. Despite Hatcher's special effort to gain permission for the Carnegie Museum to work on the Sioux reservation, Peterson never got there. That summer, Hatcher died of a sudden illness, and in a fog of despair over the news of his brother-in-law's death Peterson remained in Nebraska, where he stumbled upon the rich fossil quarry at the Cook ranch, a story recounted in the next section of this essay.
43. See Hal Rothman, Preserving Different Pasts: The American National Monuments (Urbana: Univ. Illinois Press, 1989).
44. On the competition over the discovery and early management of the Rainbow Bridge see Rothman, "Ruins, Reputation, and Regulation: Byron Cummings, William. B. Douglass, John Wetherill, and the Summer of 1909," Journal of the Southwest, 1993, 55:318-340. Rothman argues that proponents of a regulatory worldview in the Progressive Era sought government control over sensitive areas, contesting with local amateurs and state scientists.
45. "Editorial Notes," Ann. Carnegie Mus., 19.10, 6:918;
46. and "Editorial Notes," ibid., 1916, 70:309.
47. On research work at Dinosaur National Monument see Daniel J. Chure and John S. Mcintosh, "Stranger in a Strange Land: A Brief History of the Paleontological Operations at Dinosaur National Monument," Earth Sci. Hist., 1990, 9:34-40.
48. O. A. Peterson to Hatcher, 9 May 1902;
49. and E. S. Riggs to Peterson, 21 July 1906: Peterson Papers, CMNH.
50. For a comprehensive administrative overview of fossil excavations at Agate from a paleontological point of view see Robert M. Hunt, The Agate Hills: History of Paleontological Excavations, 1904-1925 (Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska State Museum, 1984).
51. For a brief, popular account of more recent interpretations of the fossils discovered at the site see Hunt, "Death at a Nineteen-Million-Year- Old Waterhole: The Bonebed at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Western Nebraska," Museum Notes (University of Nebraska State Museum), 1992, no. 83, pp. 1-6.
52. General accounts of the ranch include Dorothy C. Meade, The Story of Agate Springs Ranch (Scottsbluff, Neb.: Business Farmer Printing, 1990);
53. and R. Jay Roberts, "The History of Agate Springs," Nebraska History, 1966, 47:265-293.
54. Sometimes - for instance, on letterhead - the ranch, was called the Agate Springs Stock Farm.
55. E. B. Graham to Harold J. Cook, n.d., Cook Collection, Box 3, Harold J. Cook Folder, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie (hereafter cited as AHC).
56. Erwin H. Barbour, "James Henry Cook," History of Nebraska, 1913, 3:480.
57. Cook apparently avoided taking a side in the earlier fossil war between Marsh and E. D. Cope; see evidence of his assistance to the latter in E. D. Cope to James H. Cook, 29 Oct. 1884, Cook Collection (Second Set), Box 1, AHC.
58. Barbour initially reported these as a new kind of gigantic fossil, speculating that they were neither plants nor mollusks but possibly "some ancient worm": Erwin H. Barbour, "Notice of New Gigantic Fossils," Science, 1892, 19:99-100.
59. Barbour had worked with Marsh at Yale before coming west to launch an independent career in 1889, starting in Grinnell, Iowa, then moving in 1891 to Lincoln, Nebraska. For this and further biographical information on Barbour see C. Bertrand Schultz, "Memorial to Erwin Hinckley Barbour," Proceedings of the Geological Society of America, Annual Report for 1947 (New York: Geological Society of America, 1947), pp. 109-117.
60. Peterson to Holland, 5 July 1904 (wish to return to Pittsburgh);
61. Holland to Peterson, 8 July 1904 (persuasion to remain in the field);
62. and Peterson to Holland, 11 July 1904 (agreement): Peterson Papers, CMNH.
63. For Peterson's concern about his future see Peterson to Charles Schuchert, 18 July 1904;
64. and Peterson to Henry Fairfield Osborn, 25 July 1904: Peterson Papers, CMNH.
65. For Holland's reassurances see Holland to Peterson, 1 Aug. 1904;
66. for Peterson's difficulties see Peterson, to Holland, 10 Aug. 1904: Peterson Papers, CMNH.
67. Published narratives describing the history and significance of Agate, including the diverging interpretations of the site's discovery, are O. A. Peterson, "The Agate Spring Fossil Quarry," Ann. Carnegie Mus., 1906, 5:487-494;
68. and J. Cook, "The Agate Springs Fossil Beds," in Fifty Years on the Old Frontier (cit. n. 1), pp. 233-241.
69. For Peterson's retrospective assessment of Cook's view see Peterson, "Agate Spring Fossil Quarry," p. 487.
70. The museum's position is expressed in W. J. Holland and O. A. Peterson, "The Osteology of the Chalicotheroidea with Special Reference to a Mounted Skeleton of Moropus elatus Marsh, Now Installed in the Carnegie Museum," Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, 1914, 5:189-190.
71. For the scientific description and the name correction see Peterson, "Preliminary Note on a Gigantic Mammal from the Loup Fork Beds of Nebraska," Science, 1905, 22:2.11-212 (the quotations pertaining to Cook's contribution are on p. 2.11);
72. and Peterson, "A. Correction of the Generic Name (Dinochoerus) Given to Certain Fossil Remains from the Loup Fork Miocene of Nebraska," ibid., p. 719.
73. J. Cook, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier (cit. n. 1), pp. 235-236;
74. and Harold J. Cook, Tales of the 04 Ranch: Recollections of Harold J. Cook, 1887-1909 (Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, 1968), p. 184.
75. Holland to Osborn, 9 Nov. 1908, Box 3, Folder 3, American Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleontology, Field Correspondence (hereafter cited as AMNH-FC).
76. H. Cook to J. Cook, 22 Nov. 1908, Box 3, Cook Papers, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska (hereafter cited as AFBNM);
77. and J. Cook to Holland, 4 Dec. 1908, Box 3, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
78. J. Cook to Osborn, 9 Aug. 1907, Box 24, Folder 37, American Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleontology, General Correspondence (hereafter cited as AMNH-GC).
79. Handwritten, note attached to Holland to Osborn, 9 Nov. 1908, Box 3, Folder 3, AMNH-FC; and Erwin H. Barbour, "Report of the Geological Expedition of Hon. Charles H. Morrill, Season of 1906," Science, 1907, 25:73-74.
80. Holland and Peterson, "Osteology of the Chalicotheroidea" (cit. n. 28), p. 190.
81. Regarding Peterson's attempts to dissuade the Cooks from further digging on their own see Peterson to H. Cook, 31 Oct. 1904, 21 Jan. 1905, Box 43, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
82. Barbour to H. Cook, 23 May 1905 (quotation), 3 June 1905, Box 8, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
83. For the announcement of a "supposedly new" species, based on a skull found during the university's 1905 summer expedition, see Erwin H. Barbour, "Notice of a New Miocene Rhinoceros, Diceratherium arikarense," Science, 1906, 24:780-781.
84. Fred B. Loomis, untitled brochure, Oct. 1907, Box 37 (on the work of the Amherst party);
85. Holland to J. Cook, 25 July 1906, Box 33 ("interests of science");
86. and Holland to J. Cook, 23 Mar. 1908, Box 33 ("most unfortunate thing"): Cook Papers, AFBNM.
87. J. Cook to John M. Adams, 1 Sept. 1906, Box 24, Folder 37, AMNH-GC.
88. Holland to J. Cook, 7 Aug. 1906, 25 July 1906 (with Harold's note attached), Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
89. Holland to J. Cook, 17 July 1907, Box 30 (lease offer);
90. William K. Gregory to J. Cook, 17 Aug. 1907, Box 30 (American Museum proposal);
91. and Holland to J. Cook, 28 Aug. 1907, Box 33 (regarding Holland's visit): Cook Papers, AFBNM.
92. J. Cook to Albert Thomson, 4 Nov. 1907, Box 24, Folder 37, AMNH-GC;
93. and Holland to J. Cook, 30 Oct. 1907, Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
94. J. Cook to Osborn, 9 Dec. 1907, Box 24, Folder 37, AMNH-GC;
95. and Holland to J. Cook, 20 Dec. 1907, Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
96. Archival evidence suggests that Harold returned to Agate not solely to file his homestead claim but, more importantly, because of his mother's mental breakdown - a delicate issue that relates to the ranch as an isolated place of family life as well as a scientific field site, about which I will say no more in this essay.
97. Holland to J. Cook, 7 Mar. 1908 (requesting an exclusive lease);
98. and J. Cook to Holland, 11 Mar. 1908 (regarding Harold's claim): Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
99. For a document relating to the filing of the claim see "No of land filing. 85870. Serial number 0858," 27 Aug. 1908, Box 3, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
100. Holland to J. Cook, 23 Mar. 1908, Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
101. J. Cook to Holland, 25 June 1908, Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
102. J. Cook to Holland, 27 Nov. 1908;
103. and Holland to J. Cook, 30 Nov. 1908: Box 33, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
104. J. W. Gidley to H. Cook, 19 July 1909, Box 29;
105. and E. C. Case to H. Cook, 15 Mar. 1912, Box 23: Cook Papers, AFBNM.
106. For brief biographies of Osborn and Matthew that point out their numerous accomplishments and claims to fame see Ronald Rainger, "Osborn, Henry Fairfield," and Rainger, "Matthew, William Diller," in American National Biography, http://www.anb.org.
107. Useful longer accounts of the two American Museum paleontologists include Rainger, An Agenda for Antiquity: Henry Fairfield Osborn and Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, 1890-1935 (Tuscaloosa: Univ. Alabama Press, 1991);
108. Brian Regal, Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002);
109. and Edwin H. Colbert, William Diller Matthew, Paleontologist: The Splendid Drama Observed (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1992).
110. In his brief annual report for 1906, Barbour noted that the university's field party had for two summers "enjoyed all the privileges and hospitalities of this famous ranch," as well as including Harold Cook in the list of members of the party. See Barbour, "Report of the Geological Expedition of Hon. Charles H. Morrill, Season of 1906" (cit. n. 33). For a brief mention of the previous year's invitation to collect on the ranch see Barbour, "Report of the Tenth Geological Expedition of Hon. Charles H. Morrill, Season of 1905," Science, 1906, 25:114-115.
111. Barbour to H. Cook, 14 Nov. 1905, Box 8, Cook Papers, AFBNM ("Harold G. Cook").
112. On the new species, named for Cook, see Erwin H. Barbour, "Notice of a New Fossil Mammal from Sioux County, Nebraska," Nebraska Geological, Survey, 1905, 2 (this unpaginated six-page article is bound between pages 292 and 311);
113. and Barbour, "A New Miocene Artiodactyl," Science, 1905, 22:797-798.
114. For an example of the letterhead see Barbour to H. Cook, 2 Nov. 1905, Box 8, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
115. For pleas on behalf of the state university see Barbour to H. Cook, 17 June 1906, 3 July 1906, Cook Papers, Box 8, AFBNM.
116. Among Harold's publications see Harold J. Cook, "A New Genus of Rhinoceros from Sioux County, Nebraska," Nebraska Geol. Surv., 1909, 5:243-249;
117. and H. Cook, "Some New Carnivora from the Lower Miocene Beds of Western Nebraska," ibid., 1912, 5:259-272.
118. Thomson to Osborn, 2 Sept. 1907, Box 3, Folder 3, AMNH-FC;
119. and H. F. Osborn, "Memorandum of Conversation with Mr. James H. Cook," 3 Oct. 1907, Box 3, Folder 3, AMNH-FC.
120. H. Cook to Osborn, 17 Nov. 1907, Box 24, Folder 37, AMNH-GC.
121. Osborn to W. D. Matthew, 30 June 1908, 30 June 1908 (second letter), Box 3, Folder 4, AMNH-FC.
122. For the offers from the American Museum of Science see Matthew to H. Cook, 14 May 1908, Box 38;
123. and Osborn to H. Cook, 22 July 1908, Box 42: Cook Papers, AFBNM.
124. Harold reported their assessments in H. Cook, Tales of the 04 Ranch (cit. n. 29), p. 201.
125. Osborn's actual view is clear in Osborn to Matthew, 30 June 1908 (second letter), Box 3, Folder 4, AMNH-FC.
126. The concessions for 1908 are spelled out in W. D. Matthew, "American Museum, of Natural History, Memorandum, of Agreement with Harold Cook for season of 1908," 23 June 1908, Box 38, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
127. Regarding the next two years see Matthew to H. Cook, 26 May 1909, 12 May 1910, Box 38, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
128. J. Cook to H. Cook, 30 Oct. 1908, 25 Dec. 1908, Box 3;
129. and J. Cook to Osborn, 11 Mar. 1909, Box 42: Cook Papers, AFBNM.
130. Matthew to Osborn, 25 June 1908; Osborn to Matthew, 8 July 1908;
131. and Matthew to Osborn, 8 July 1908: Box 3, Folder 4, AMNH-FC.
132. H. Cook to Osborn, 21 Jan. 19.10;
133. Osborn to H. Cook, 14 Feb. 1910;
134. and Matthew to Osborn, 15 Feb. 1910: Box 42, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
135. H. Cook to Thomson, 22 Jan. 1911, Box 52, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
136. Regarding Harold's publications see, e.g., Osborn to H. Cook, 11 Oct. 1911, Box 42, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
137. Matthew to Osborn, 11 June 1908;
138. and Osborn to Matthew, 30 June 1908: Box 3, Folder 4, AMNH-FC.
139. Regarding the provision of funds for the shack see Thomson to H. Cook, 14 Oct. 1911, Box 52, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
140. For the various names see Thomson to J. Cook, 6 Jan. 1912; and Thomson to H. Cook, 30 Jan. 1912: Box 52, Cook Papers, AFBNM. East Agate, the name used most frequently, identified not just the American Museum's shack but the whole cluster of buildings, including Harold's adjacent homestead cabin and barns.
141. Matthew to H. Cook, 16 Sept. 1912, Box 38;
142. H. Cook to Matthew, 28 Jan. 1913, Box 38;
143. and Osborn to H. Cook, 10 Feb. 1913, 20 Oct. 1913, Box 42: Cook Papers, AFBNM.
144. Matthew to H. Cook, 14 Feb. 1919, Box 38, Cook Papers, AFBNM (regarding the number of completed skeletons and the number the museum would require for its own purposes).
145. H. Cook to Matthew, 28 July 1914, Box 38, Cook Papers, AFBNM;
146. Matthew to H. Cook, 4 Aug. 1914, Box 38, Cook Papers, AFBNM;
147. and Matthew to Thomson, 4 Aug. 1913, Box 4, Folder 1, AMNH-FC.
148. Osborn to H. Cook, 1 Apr. 1914, Box 42 (on the Senckenberg museum's interest);
149. Matthew to H. Cook, 14 Feb. 1919, Box 38;
150. and Osborn to H. Cook, 3 Apr. 1919, Box 42: Cook Papers, AFBNM.
151. H. Cook to Osborn, 29 Feb. 1916; and Osborn to H. Cook, 11 May 1914: Box 42, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
152. J. D. Figgins to H. Cook, 10 Oct. 1917, 11 Mar. 1919, 19 July 1920, 25 July 1920, 10 Aug. 1920, Box 28, Cook Papers, AFBNM.
153. For overviews of the earlier era of heroic exploration see William Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West (New York: Knopf, 1966);
154. Richard A. Van Orman, The Explorers: Nineteenth Century Expeditions in Africa and the American West (Albuquerque: Univ. New Mexico Press, 1984);
155. and Edward S. Wallace, The Great Reconnaissance: Soldiers, Artists, and Scientists on the Frontier, 1848-1861 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955).
156. For an insightful recent treatment of American polar exploration see Michael F. Robinson, The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2006).
157. The most frequently cited, canonical article in this agency-centered genre, which my interpretation here critiques, is Susan Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer, "Institutional Ecology, "Translations,' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39," Soc. Stud. Sci., 1989, 79:387-420.
158. Rather than insisting on analyzing the constraints posed by hierarchical structures or power relations, as I do, analyses in this genre emphasize how diverse social groups such as scientific researchers and hired field hands collaborate around shared standards and "boundary objects." For a more comprehensive discussion of the collaboration between Joseph Grinnell and Annie Alexander at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, which provides an important comparison case of amateur-professional collaboration on the Pacific coast, see Barbara R. Stein, On Her Own Terms: Annie Montague Alexander and the Rise of Science in the American West (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2001). Though likewise an amateur collaborator, Alexander was more powerful than the Cooks and was also a major patron of museum research.
159. For a more recent example of contestation over fossil bones see Steve Fiffer, Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found (New York: Freeman, 2000).