John Kirk Townsend

John Kirk Townsend (August 10, 1809 – February 6, 1851) was an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.

Townsend was a Quaker born in Philadelphia, the son of Charles Townsend and Priscilla Kirk. He attended Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania and was trained as a physician and pharmacist. He developed an interest in natural history in general and bird collecting in particular. In 1833, he was invited by the botanist Thomas Nuttall to join him on Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth's second expedition across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Townsend collected a number of animals new to science. These included birds such as the mountain plover, Vaux's swift, chestnut-collared longspur, black-throated grey warbler, Townsend's warbler and sage thrasher, and a number of mammals such as the Douglas squirrel; several of these were described by Bachman (1839)<ref name="Bachman">Bachman, J. (1839) Template:Webarchive Description of several new Species of American quadrupeds. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 8, 57-74.</ref> from samples collected by Townsend. Townsend collected skulls of indigenous people, procured by stealing them from graves. <ref name="John Kirk Townsend letter to Samuel George Morton">Template:Cite web</ref>

Family

John Kirk Townsend was the son of Charles Townsend and Priscilla Kirk, he had five brothers and four sisters. His sister Mary, a naturalist with an interest in entomology, wrote a popular book called "Life In the Insect World" in 1844.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Mary and another sister, Hannah, wrote The Anti-Slavery Alphabet in 1846, which was sold at the Anti-Slavery Fair in Philadelphia.<ref name=":0" /> His brother Edward was President of the Philadelphia Institution for Instruction of the Blind and helped organize the Philadelphia Dental College.<ref>"Early American Nature Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia," by Daniel Patterson, Roger Thompson, J. Scott Bryson, 2008</ref>

Oregon

While at Wyeth's Fort William in Oregon, Townsend served as the appointed magistrate to the first public trial by Europeans in Oregon.<ref name="OSU">Template:Cite web </ref> This occurred when the post's gunsmith, Thomas J. Hubbard, attacked and killed the fort's tailor in an argument over a young native girl.<ref name="OSU"/> The gunsmith was acquitted by a jury when they ruled the death was justifiable homicide.<ref name="OSU"/>

Work

Townsend collected numerous animal specimens during his travels.<ref name="Beolens" /> He sent many of these back to John James Audubon for further assessment and characterization.<ref name="Beolens" /> Audubon gave Townsend broad authority in naming specimens that he collected.<ref name="Beolens" /><ref>Audubon, John James, Birds of America, 1827 to 1838</ref>

On his return, Townsend wrote The Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River and a Visit to the Sandwich Islands (1839).<ref name="Beolens"> Template:Cite book</ref> This is a narrative of a journey by Wyeth's expedition over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean between 1834 and 1835.<ref name="Beolens" />

A number of mammals are named for Townsend. Many of these were described from specimens collected during his travels. Townsend's ground squirrel (Spermophilus townsendii) is endemic to the southwestern region of the state of Washington.<ref name="Beolens" /> Townsend's chipmunk (Tamias townsendii), Townsend's mole (Scapanus townsendii), and Townsend's vole (Microtus townsendii) occur in the northwest of the United States and southwest of British Columbia.<ref name="Beolens" /> Townsend's pocket gopher (Thomomys townsendii) is found in southern Oregon, northern California, northern Nevada, and through the Snake River Valley in Idaho.<ref name="Beolens" /> Townsend's big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) is found from southern British Columbia south through the western United States to southern Mexico.<ref name="Beolens" /> The whitetail jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) ranges through southern Canada and the western, central US through eastern California and Colorado.<ref name="Beolens" /> The Townsend's warbler and Townsend's solitaire are also named after Mr. Townsend.

Townsend died of arsenic poisoning.<ref name="Beolens" /> He had developed a formula used in taxidermy preparations and arsenic was the "secret" ingredient.<ref name="Beolens" />

References

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Further reading

• Excursion to the Oregon by John Kirk Townsend
• Mearns, B. & R. John Kirk Townsend: Collector of Audubon’s Western Birds and Mammals (2007).