Exploring Expedition Research Articles

Practice of the systematization and centralization of archive fund materials of the PJSC ALROSA geological exploration complex

Effective usage of information accumulated over decades of geological exploration requires a tool that allows cataloging, describing, and providing access to both paper and electronic versions of the materials. Despite gradual digitalization of all the major geological exploration processes, there still remains large volume of the materials from previous years on paper media (technical reports, projects, etc.). They continue to be systematically digitized, while new reporting materials are generated in digital form. In addition, thematic scientific articles and publications are annually published. How to combine all the materials and to ensure quick and convenient access to them? There exist various ways to achieve this goal. The Vilyuisk Geological Exploration Expedition (VGRE) of PJSC ALROSA has taken the path of developing a dedicated information system «EFB GRK» designed to store and get access to the information on geological reports, scientific works, articles, etc. Each type of the documents is provided by its own attribute information; several types of the documents are grouped into thematic sections. The system allows one to obtain information on the availability of the projecting and reporting documentation in the archive funds with ability to order and receive and to trace the movement of such documentation.

Intersensorial Race Science and Exploration in the Age of Jackson

This essay examines the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 through the methodological lenses of sensory history and phenomenology. This expedition included naval personnel as well as a scientific corps and represents the overlapping interests of the United States Armed Forces and academic organizations like the Smithsonian Institution in the Age of Jackson. Applying a phenomenological approach to the Ex. Ex. clarifies the role of the senses in making race in the period spanning Indian removal and Manifest Destiny. Using a corpus of published accounts, diaries, letters, artworks, and artifacts, I contend that the Ex. Ex. used olfactory disgust, sonic boundaries, and attitudes surrounding touch and gustation to categorize Pacific Islanders as racialized others through the sensorium. Such racial scientific work laid the foundations for later racial scientific ideas in psychophysics and anthropology in the twentieth century.

“Hombres que vivían como las mujeres” en la Alta California del siglo XVIII: <i>Coyas</i> / <i>joyas</i>, <i>cuút</i> o <i>uluqi</i>, ¿sodomitas, hermafroditas o amaricados?

Objective/context: This article analyzes testimonies of religious and military men, produced between 1770 and 1812, which give an account of Chumash, Juaneño and Yuma indigenous men of Alta California who were in the habit of dressing as women and joining them in the tasks corresponding to the feminine roles in these societies. The documents analyzed include two military diaries on the exploration expeditions and three chronicles of Franciscans who, starting in 1769, were in charge of founding missions in this area. Methodology: Through a gender perspective analysis, we examine the terms and categories used in the sources to describe and give meaning to the sexual roles and practices of the Coyas/Joyas, Cuút or Uluqi. Originality: The few works dedicated to the analysis of California Indians “in the habit of women” have focused on the missionary discourse or on the denunciation of the supposed “extermination” of dissident sexual practices. This paper argues that while the testimonies unanimously condemned these practices, they differed in the categories used to name and classify them and, thus, in the meaning attributed to them, which resulted in different legal and theological implications. Conclusions: The existence of men who dressed as women persisted, according to the sources analyzed, until the beginning of the 19th century in the region from the Gila and Colorado rivers to the Santa Barbara canal in northwestern New Spain. The categories of sodomy, amaricados or hermaphrodites, and male-female were understood under the single-sex model. And, although by the end of the eighteenth century, the principles of modern legal medicine were beginning to change, the meaning given to the Coyas/Joyas was linked to the justification of the advances or difficulties of colonization rather than to the scientific debates of the time.

Flying by the river side: Survey of bat distributions and environmental contexts along a 1000‐mile river corridor, Green and Colorado Rivers, USA

AbstractAimEmerging research shows how bioindicators, specifically bats, can serve as a means for monitoring conservation and management of riparian corridors for multiple taxonomic groups. To track changes in the composition or abundance of bioindicator species, researchers must attain a baseline in species presence and relative activity. We examined the spatial and temporal patterns of bat community composition and activity along a 1000‐mile river corridor to determine species diversity trends by latitude and habitat.LocationColorado River Basin.MethodsHere we describe the results from an acoustic bat survey conducted opportunistically on the 2019 Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition. This broad, 1000‐mile survey provides a baseline for species distributions over a large geographic range.ResultsIn total, we collected 63 nights of acoustic data over 70 days and recorded over 59,000 files equating to 45,363 caLL files (≥2 pulses). 18,490 (41% of caLL files) were identified as species (n = 19 bat species). We applied non‐metric multidimensional scaling to characterize spatiotemporal patterns of activity between species, as well as compared bat activity among river features and local environmental conditions (i.e., temperature and time since sunset) using an information theoretic approach.ConclusionSpecies composition varied by physiographic region and adjacent river habitat, thus providing a quantifiable measure of determining habitat quality along this major river system and providing baseline information for using bats as bioindicators of habitat quality.

Enoch the Explorer: 1 Enoch 17–36 in Its Hellenistic Context

Abstract The journeys undertaken by the antediluvian patriarch Enoch, in 1 Enoch 17–36, engage closely with a well-known contemporary practice of Hellenistic courts: the dispatching of expeditions of exploration. Such reframing can situate this early Jewish apocalypse more fully within its third-century BCE intellectual, cultural, and political ecosystem and also make space for Judean thought in the history of ancient geography.

Marine mammals of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842: history and taxonomy

The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, in some ways, represents the beginning of American marine mammal biology. The expedition returned home with information on at least twelve marine mammal specimens (mostly small cetaceans or pinnipeds), seven of which were considered new species at the time. Commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the expedition covered over 80,000 miles, surveyed new waters and lands, and brought back thousands of scientific specimens. Official publications of the expedition by Titian Peale and John Cassin cover the birds and mammals collected. The squadron’s publications, and the journals of its officers and scientists also contain a good deal of information about sightings of marine mammals. Of particular interest were whaling operations and grounds, and the expedition did much to help expand the whaling prospects of the United States around the globe, with a focus on the South Pacific islands. Though largely forgotten today, the “U. S. Ex. Ex.” played an important early role in establishing American influence in marine mammal biology and global whaling operations.

The development of Western Siberia is a state scale project of the second half of the 20th century

The development of Western Siberia is one of the most large-scale scientific, industrial and socio-economic projects of the country in the 20th century. The state approach, scientific substantiation, production of the necessary equipment, organization of transport and exploration work were linked into a single integrated state project. As part of the USSR Ministry of Geology, the Main Directorate for Oil and Gas Exploration was created, and on January 15, 1948, an order was signed to organize the first oil exploration expedition in Tyumen. In January 1950, the Scientific and Technical Council of the USSR Ministry of Geology adopted a master plan for the study and development of the West Siberian Plate, including the placement of 26 reference wells, regional seismic profiles and prospecting in the area of ​​reference wells on its territory. As a result, the gas fields of the Berezovskiy region and the Shaimskoe, Megionskoe and Ust’-Balykskoe oil fields were discovered. Efficient organization of work and the state approach made it possible to discover large oil reserves in the Shirotny Ob region and unique natural gas reserves in the north of Western Siberia in a short time. In December 1963, a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on preparation for the trial operation of deposits, on the creation of infrastructure for the development of geology and oil production, research and industrial institutes was adopted. Achievements of geologists have provided the necessary basis for the creation of the largest fuel and energy complex. It was associated with the social and economic development of the region and the country

Language as a Specimen.

Language was never studied by linguists (or philologists) alone. The greater part of the languages of the world was first known in the West through the reports of missionaries, explorers, and colonial administrators, and what they documented reflected their specific interests. Missionaries wrote catechisms, primers, dictionaries, and Bible translations (especially Lord's Prayers); for explorers and administrators, language was one aspect among many to cover in their accounts of faraway regions. Peoples were identified by their language; toponyms served for geographic description; names of plants and animals were gathered together with specimens and images of plants and animals. In this context, linguistic materials were equally described as "specimens." This article investigates the various ways in which language material was used and conceived of as a specimen, and the global trajectories of these "specimens." Especially the role of naturalist explorers deserves closer attention in this regard. What they did, throughout the late 18th and 19th century, was gathering language material as one kind of specimen among others, Forster in the Pacific, Humboldt, Martius, and d'Orbigny in South America, and Peters in Mozambique. Two large-scale expeditions from the mid-19th century stand out as examples: the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), whose collections later filled the Smithsonian Institution, and the Austrian-Hungarian Novara expedition (1857-1859).

Botuobinskite and mirnyite, two new minerals of the crichtonite group included in Cr-pyrope xenocrysts from the Internatsionalnaya kimberlite

AbstractTwo new mineral species of the crichtonite group: botuobinskite, ideally SrFe2+(Ti4+12Cr3+6)Mg2[O36(OH)2] and mirnyite, ideally SrZr(Ti4+12Cr3+6)Mg2O38, occur as inclusions in mantle-derived Cr-pyrope xenocrysts from the Internatsionalnaya kimberlite pipe, Mirny field, Siberian craton. Botuobinskite forms needle- and blade-like acicular crystals up to 1 mm in length and up to 30 μm in diameter, a large platy inclusion (700 × 700 × 80 μm) and roughly isometric grains (up to 80 μm). Mirnyite occurs as needle-and blade-like elongated inclusions (up to 1 mm). Both minerals are jet-black, opaque and exhibit a metallic lustre. In plane-polarised reflected light, botuobinskite and mirnyite are greyish-white with a weak brownish tint. Between crossed polars, the new species show distinct anisotropy in shades of bluish grey to greenish-brown. Neither bireflectance nor pleochroism is observed. Calculated densities for botuobinskite and mirnyite are 4.3582(5) and 4.3867(3) gm/cm3, respectively. The crystal structures of botuobinskite and mirnyite have been refined (R = 0.0316 and 0.0285, respectively) from single crystal X-ray diffraction data. The minerals are trigonal, crystallise in the space group R$\bar{3}$ (No. 148) and are isostructural with other members of the crichtonite group. The unit cell parameters are a = 10.3644(8) Å, c = 20.6588(11) Å and V = 1921.9(2) Å3 for botuobinskite and a = 10.3734(8) Å, c = 20.6910 (12) Å and V = 1928.2(2) Å3 for mirnyite, with Z = 3 for both. The Raman spectra of the minerals show strong peaks at 133, 313 and 711 cm–1. Infrared spectroscopy data for botuobinskite indicates H–O stretching of the hydroxyl groups. Botuobinskite and mirnyite have been approved by the IMA–CNMNC under the numbers 2018-143a and 2018-144a, respectively. Botuobinskite and mirnyite are named after the Botuobinskaya exploration expedition and Mirny town, respectively. The minerals may be considered as crystal-chemical analogues of other crichtonite-group species occurring in the lithospheric mantle (i.e. loveringite, lindsleyite and mathiasite). Both species commonly occur in intimate association with Cr-pyrope as well as other peridotitic minerals and exert an important control on the partitioning of incompatible elements during mantle metasomatism.

BOOK REVIEW • Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II

Although Thomas Jefferson had recognized the need for mapping and charting the waters of the young United States in 1807, it wasn’t until 1830 that the US Navy established the Depot of Charts and Instruments, which later became the US Naval Hydrographic Office. At the beginning, the Depot was a clearinghouse for navigational equipment and the few foreign charts that were available. The Depot didn’t make its own charts until 1837, with the first one covering Georges Shoal and Bank, from ship tracks provided by Lt. Charles Wilkes. Wilkes later led the famous 1838 US Exploring Expedition that provided the United States its first worldwide mapping coverage (Heynen, 1978).

First record of sponge-associated deep-sea polychaete (Polynoidae: Bathymoorea) on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge

We identified a rarely found deep-sea polynoid polychaete Bathymoorea, in association with a hexactinellid sponge (Dictyaulus sp.) during our marine mineral exploration expedition in the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). The genus Bathymoorea appears to be restricted to the deep sea and currently includes two valid species described from the northeast Pacific region. The polychaete specimen was part of the megabenthos sample collected in a benthic sledge associated with a sponge from a water depth of 2358 m. The sponge-associated Bathymoorea is described and illustrated based on a single specimen and is the first occurrence of the genus Bathymoorea in the Southwest Indian Ocean. The morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of Bathymoorea using Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit 1 (COI), 16S, and 18S gene sequences confirmed the monophyly clade for the SWIR specimen. Our finding extends the known geographical distribution of the genus Bathymoorea to the Indian Ocean.

“Out of Cuba” – The Additional Botanical Expeditions of Brother Marie-Victorin Across the Caribbean (1940–1942)

Brother Marie-Victorin was the founder of the Montreal Botanical Garden, and one of the most important figures in the botanical history of Canada. Between 1938 and 1944, he undertook seven major plant exploration expeditions to Cuba that resulted in the discovery of several new Cuban endemics. Archival research carried out in the Division de la Gestion de Documents et des Archives (University of Montreal) revealed that during his voyages to Cuba, he made three major side-trips in 1940, 1941, and 1942 to other regions of the Caribbean. Specifically to Barranquilla (Colombia), Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Yucatan (Mexico). We could not find any of his written accounts of his 1940 voyage to the Yucatan; however, we were able to find a collection of photographic slides. An unpublished 33-page travelogue of his 1941 trip to Colombia, Jamaica, and Trinidad was discovered, studied, and translated into English, with annotations. Furthermore, we examined and interpreted two of his published papers that described the 1942 visits to Haiti and Puerto Rico. During these three “out-of-Cuba” voyages, no plant material was collected; however, Brother Marie-Victorin's written accounts and the 502 photos that he took provide unique insights into Caribbean society of the 1940s, as well as on the naturalists and botanists working in the region, and the plants and habitats they encountered. Brother Marie-Victorin's records highlight racial discrimination against those of African descent in Jamaica and Trinidad. It appears that these trips did not lead to major botanical research initiatives. Furthermore, the few collections that he made for potential propagation in botanic gardens or botanical institutes are not currently being grown any longer. The trips had clear leisure aims and they were centered on learning about the society, the flora, and plant science research activities of the visited areas.

A Review of the United States Exploring Expedition Crustacea Type Specimens in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Crustacea type specimens from the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 present in the Yale Peabody Museum are reviewed and figured. These specimens are of historic and scientific value to the public and research communities. The five lots reviewed consist of a brachyuran crab, a caridean shrimp, and three lots of amphipods described by expedition member James D. Dana. Publishing on these accounts is an attempt to highlight these important specimens while complementing the publicly accessible collections data that is currently available.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE AND SURVEYS. MODERNITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF M. P. KUCHERA

The paper presents a brief analysis of the territorial, quantitative, and qualitative scope of M. P. Kuchera’s explorations; organizational principles, methodological principles, and practical techniques for ensuring the functioning and livelihood of his archaeological exploration expedition are defined. The peculiarities of the methodology, research methods and style of the researcher’s scientific investigations are characterized.
 Due to visiting and detailed examination in different years of numerous Old Rus sites in different lands of Rus-Ukraine the scientist could to conceptualize and formulate a probable typology of Old Rus settlements and fortifications as well as to build a well-founded dating scheme of Old Rus kitchen pottery. The conscious understanding of necessity of the development of source base and research interest required the most comprehensive coverage of the entire scope research object. At least twice M. P. Kuchera set such tasks and successfully fulfilled them: he created a comprehensive, consolidated and complete study of the Old Rus settlements of Ukraine and the Zmievy Walls.
 A brief description of the author’s personal exploration experience within the scope of the student scientific Early Slavic archaeological expedition and as part of the expedition of M. P. Kuchera is presented.
 The combination and understanding of previous experience, strategies and methods allowed the author to synthesize, develop and implement the program of complex multi-year and multi-seasonal archaeological explorations of the historical Ovruch Volost. The concentrated description of the main principles and features of exploration in the Ovruch project, their key methods and results is provided. Multiple trips, observation in dynamics, monitoring of the state of preservation are some of the main components of the field research strategy of the expeditions of the Ovruch project. The main result was a more than tenfold increase in the number of archaeological sites known in this area before the start of work. Such drastic qualitative and qualitative changes prompted the development of a new special scientific and practical field of archaeological knowledge — the study and assessment of the degree of archaeological research (SAD). The methods of SAD ensure the determination of the archaeological potential of the territory, the creation of its detailed regional models, special techniques and methods of studying and assessing the level of accounting and protection of the historical and archaeological heritage objects of the certain region, the identification and assessment of risks and threats to them.
 Finding the critical modern state of study, recording and preservation of domestic archaeological sites makes it obvious the need to develop and implement urgent and large-scale tasks in this field, first of all, to find out at least approximate parameters of the real archaeological potential of the relevant territories of the state. This task requires specially designed, planned and implemented broad and detailed archaeological exploration.
 In the paper the author once again emphasizes the vital need for the development and implementation of the National Program of Archaeological Survey of Ukraine and the corresponding changes in the strategy and tactics of scientific research of the Instituteof Archaeology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Early Studies of Marine Microalgae in the Philippines

The early documented marine microalgae from the Philippines were done between 1853–1925. A total of 801 taxa were identified and distributed into three phyla, i.e. the Cyanobacteria, the Rhodophyta, and the Bacillariophyta. About 99% of these taxa belong to the Bacillariophyta. Of the 797 total diatom taxa identified by early scientists, there are only 281 species that are accepted as current valid names based on AlgaeBase and DiatomBase. These accepted diatom taxa belong to 63 genera. The three genera with the greatest number of species in decreasing order are Amphora (46), Biddulphia (29), and Campylodiscus (16). Out of the 797 diatom species, 190 species have the Philippines as the type locality and these specimens are deposited in the United States (US) – specifically, at the Farlow Herbarium and in the US National Museum in Washington, DC and in London, England at the Diatom section of the British Museum of Natural History. All these algal materials were part of the collection of four different naval scientific exploring expeditions that visited the Philippines in 1842–1910 – namely, the US Exploring (Wilkes) Expedition (1842), the HMS Challenger (1874–1875), the Italian Cruiser Vettor Pisani (1884), and the USS Albatross (1907–1910). The greatest number of microalgae collected was 743 by USS Albatross, followed in decreasing order by HMS Challenger (57), US Exploring Expedition (17), and Vettor Pisani (1). These early collections of marine microalgae provided invaluable contributions in laying the groundwork for the development of Philippine phycology.

Keeping Ourselves Collected: Culture Labs Confront the Smithsonian’s Imperial Legacy

ABSTRACT The Smithsonian Institution’s public narrative often glosses over the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842), the historic endeavor led by Charles Wilkes that seized over 4000 specimens, artifacts, and human remains throughout Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the western coasts of the Americas, which later became the foundation of the Smithsonian’s collections. Today, the Smithsonian is revered for holding one of the world’s most expansive collections, a world-class resource for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Yet, the framework of the Smithsonian as a flagship for American exceptionalism is in growing tension with campaigns to highlight communities of color which are increasingly intersectional, fluid, and diasporic. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center has met these challenges by introducing Culture Labs to instill emerging practices and community principles. This paper investigates the history and implications of museum programming and education practices that engage and transmute the imperial legacies of institutions.

Первое русское географическое описание восточной части Арктической зоны Европейского северо-востока России

The paper considers an important evidence of the geographical study of the territory of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra of the XVII century. The first Russian geographical description of the eastern part of the Arctic zone of the European North- East of Russia was carried out during a geological exploration expedition in 1672 from the Pustozersk prison to the Polar Urals. The expedition was led by the subdeacon of the Pustozersk prison of the Log Hut (voivodeship office) Fyodor Popov. He also made a detailed description of the route of the expedition. The description lists all large and small rivers, indicating the direction of their flow, lakes, mountains and hills. Important details are given in the description of mountain rivers: the presence of rapids and others. The description was submitted to the Novgorod Command – the central department that managed this territory. A unique document with the text of the description has been preserved in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts.

Poe-Related PhD Dissertations (2017–2021)

Poe-Related PhD Dissertations (2017–2021)

(2807) Proposal to conserve the name Acalypha wilkesiana against A. tricolor (Euphorbiaceae)

(2807) Acalypha wilkesiana Müll. Arg. in Candolle, Prodr. 15(2): 817. Aug (sero) 1866 [Angiosp.: Euphorb.], nom. cons. prop. Typus: Fiji, [Viti Levu], Rewa, “Unit. Stat. explor. exped. under Capt. Wilkes” (G-DC barcodes G00324021 & G00324022; isotypi: GH barcode GH00045512, K barcode K000959008, US Nos. 1944717 & 1944718 [barcodes 00096423 & 00096424]). (=) Acalypha tricolor Veitch ex Mast. in Gard. Chron. 1866: 483. 26 Mai 1866, nom rej. prop. Neotypus (hic designatus): “Hort. Veitch, New Hebrides [Vanuatu]”, Jul 1844 (K barcode K001235482). In late August 1866, Johannes [Jean] Müller [“Argoviensis”] described Acalypha wilkesiana Müll. Arg. (in Candolle, Prodr. 15(2): 817. 1866) from material collected in Fiji during the United States Exploring Expedition commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes, 1838–1842. This species is not known from the wild, but has long been cultivated as an ornamental in Melanesia (Pax & Hoffmann in Engler, Pflanzenr. IV. 147 XVI (Heft 65): 153. 1924; Fosberg & Sachet in Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 45: 10. 1980); by 1866 it was being grown in Europe (Nicholson, Ill. Dict. Gard. 1: 7. 1885). It is now popular throughout the world, being grown for its showy, usually multicolored leaves that sometimes have unusual shapes. It has escaped from cultivation and become naturalized in tropical and subtropical parts of Africa, the Americas, and Asia (Govaerts & al., World Checkl. Euphorb., https://wcsp.science.kew.org, accessed 20 Jan 2021; Levin in FNA Ed. Comm., Fl. N. Amer. N. Mexico 12: 165. 2016). Among the synonyms of Acalypha wilkesiana listed by Seemann (Fl. Vit.: 225. 1867) and some later authors (e.g., Pax & Hoffmann, l.c.) is A. tricolor Hort., with no reference to a place of publication. However, as shown by Mabberley (in Feddes Repert. 101: 275. 1990), this name was published in The Gardeners’ Chronicle (Gard. Chron. 1866: 483. 1866) in reference to a plant given that name by the nurseryman and plant collector John Gould Veitch. The article was not signed, but appears to have been written by the newspaper's editor, Maxwell Tylden Masters, to which the International Plant Names Index (https://www.ipni.org/n/337889-1, accessed 19 Jan 2021) attributes the name. Although the description is brief (an Acalypha “with ovate acuminate leaves of a brownish-green cast, and some of the portions as if they had been stained with red lead”), it is diagnostic of A. wilkesiana. The description of A. tricolor presumably was based on a living plant as it was in a report of new plants at the “Exhibition of Flowers […] on Tuesday last at South Kensington”, and no type has been designated previously. However, there is a specimen of A. wilkesiana with variegated leaves (faded, but apparently green and red) in K (stamped “Herbarium Hookerianum 1867”) that bears a handwritten label saying “‘Acalypha tricolor’ Hort. […] Hort. Veitch”, apparently indicating it was grown by Veitch; the label also suggests that the specimen is from a plant collected by Veitch in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in July 1844. There apparently being no original material for the name, the K specimen is here designated as the neotype. Because that issue of The Gardeners’ Chronicle was published on 26 May 1866, about three months before Müller's work appeared, A. tricolor Veitch ex Mast. is a validly published, older name for A. wilkesiana. The name Acalypha wilkesiana or its synonym A. amentacea Roxb. subsp. wilkesiana (Müll. Arg.) Fosberg (in Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 45: 10. 1980) have been consistently used for this well-known and horticulturally important species since 1866 (cf. publication lists at Govaerts & al., l.c.; Plants of the World Online, http://powo.science.kew.org), whereas A. tricolor has never been accepted, although ‘tricolor’ is sometimes used as a cultivar name. In the interest of nomenclatural stability, we propose conserving the name Acalypha wilkesiana Müll. Arg. against A. tricolor Veitch ex Mast. GAL, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1514-1570 VGS, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5348-0648 We thank David Mabberley for calling our attention to his paper, cited above. We are grateful to John McNeill and John Wiersema for their editorial comments. Lynn Gillespie provided valuable comments on an early version of the paper.

Expedition artists paint a picture of science exploration

Patrick Kikut watched as the 18-foot raft carrying his supplies down the Green and Colorado Rivers headed into white water. Then the raft flipped. The walls of Utah’s Cataract Canyon rose above him; his belongings, strapped to the capsized raft, bobbed along in the river before him. Seated in a nearby raft, Kikut was most concerned about the dry box containing his watercolor paints and compositions. “If water gets in there,” he recalls worrying, “all of the watercolors in all the little tins are going to bleed out and I’ll have tie-dye.” Kikut, a painter and lecturer at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, was on the Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition (SCREE), a 70-day, 1,000-mile journey. It was summer 2019, and the expedition marked the 150th anniversary of geologist John Wesley Powell’s first passage down the Green and Colorado Rivers. Paleoecologist Thomas Minckley of the University of Wyoming organized the trip and invited researchers, conservationists, writers, and artists along. As lead artist and one of the few adventurers making the entire journey, Kikut was following in a centuries-old tradition of painters joining researchers on expeditions. Starting in the 1700s, artists became “crucially important members of scientific expeditions,” says Daniela Bleichmar, a professor of history and art history at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Researchers relied on painters to depict plants and animals as they studied new species and, in the following centuries, sweeping landscapes as they explored new terrain. Today, the painter is no longer essential personnel on every expedition. Yet painters continue to join researchers in the field, whether through individual partnerships or artist-in-residence programs, acting as storytellers more than data collectors. The painters have artistic freedom, sometimes even shifting into the abstract. It’s a role that requires not only recording but also interpreting complex, …