The American Midland Naturalist: A Living Tribute to its Founder

Abstract

Strikingly few of the thousands of current biological journals carry the word Naturalist as part of their name and those that are so called are usually identified by a geographic or regional epithet. Is the paucity of such journals an indication of the gradual disappearance of naturalists as a group of actiVe biologists or is it a byproduct of the continued fragmentation of biological science and the accompanying specialization of new and existing biological journals? As we reflect on these and other possible reasons, we may well ask What is the function of a Naturalist? Editorial Announcement of The Midland Naturalist, published in April, 1909, contains the following statement of policy: our investigations of biological and kindred subjects at Notre Dame we have for some time realized the desirability of having some ready medium of publications for matter appertaining to those branches of Natural History to which attention has been given. In this venture, therefore, we are meeting, first of all, a demand of our own. Though there is such a vast field for research on the plant and animal life of our Middle Western country, studies in general biological science and related science subjects will not be excluded from our interest. Articles on General Morphology, Ecology, Histology, Physiology, Taxonomy, and the History of Botany and Zoology, etc., will at all times be welcomed to these pages. It is hoped, however, that the Midland Naturalist will meet with some welcome, and prove a stimulus and help to many a Midland nature student, not only in colleges and universities, but also to the equally interested and efficient workers in private life outside of schools. title pages of all volumes published since bear ample testimony of this far-sighted editorial policy, guided for the first twentyfive years by the late Rev. Julius Arthur Nieuwland, C.S.C., the journal's founder and first editor. Father Nieuwland was also a very active contributor, especially to the early volumes. In addition, he edited for publication rare and classical works of Natural History, issued in conjunction with the journal. While studying in Washington, D. C., Father Nieuwland became acquainted with Professor Edward Lee Greene, then Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution engaged in writing his famous Landmarks of Botanical History. During his long and fruitful career