North America’s Galapagos, The Historic Channel Islands Biological Survey
This narrative nonfiction book recounts the never before told adventures and ambitions of a group of researchers, naturalists, and explorers who came together in the late 1930s to embark upon a series of unprecedented expeditions. Their mission: to piece together the human history and biological evolution of California’s eight Channel Islands. Sometimes called “North America’s Galapagos,” each island supports unique ecosystems with varied flora and fauna and differing human histories. Readers follow the scientists behind closed museum doors and to all eight islands, spending time in the hot and dusty, or wet and foggy, field with them, rejoicing in their successes, cringing at their failures and shortcomings. Upon completing this book, the lasting impression the reader may have might not be the raw beauty and uniqueness of these islands, though they will certainly gain that, nor even a greater appreciation for the grandiose and challenging undertaking the scientists attempted, rather, the reader may come to recognize that the larger story of the scientific process continues long after individual efforts cease.
A saga of adventure, discovery, and rediscovery
Between 1939-1941, thirty-three men and women set out to explore California’s Channel Islands hoping to make numerous discoveries that would secure their names in the scientific record. A lack of funds and dearth of qualified personnel dogged the pre-WWII expeditions, but only after America enters the war and the researchers are stranded on one of the islands is the survey aborted, their work left for future scientists to complete. This saga of ambition, adventure and discovery is juxtaposed against the fresh successes of a new generation of Channel Island scholars, thereby illuminating the scientific process and revealing remarkable modern discoveries that are changing our ideas of how the Americas were populated.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 1939-1941 Channel Islands Biological Survey
North America’s Galapagos, The Historic Channel Islands Biological Survey is about an unprecedented series of expeditions launched by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM). Founded in 1913 as the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, NHM’s Channel Islands Biological Survey did what no other institution, or person, had dared to do before, or since: fully explore California’s eight Channel Islands. This untold story illuminates the work conducted at NHM, an institution that is both a manufacturer of knowledge (gained through painstakingly detailed investigations, rigorous scientific reviews and peer-reviewed publication) and a distributor of it (through exhibitry, popular publications, community science projects and public education outreach programs.) North America’s Galapagos celebrates NHM’s role in this groundbreaking exploration.
Book Credits
Book Illustrations
Cypress Hansen - Alfredo Chiappini
Created using pen and watercolor, all original artwork credited to Cypress Hansen. Cypress has a B.S. in marine science from Eckerd College, Saint Petersburg, FL. She now lives in Monterey, CA where she is a coastal wildlife interpreter, jellyfish researcher, and freelance artist.
All Calligraphy credited to Alfredo Chiappini. Alfredo received his B.A. in business management from Eckerd College, St. Petersburg FL. He now lives with Cypress in Monterey, CA where he is a lead deckhand for a fishing and whale watching company. Alfredo is a self taught map maker and can fillet a fish in under ten seconds.
Book Maps
chelsea feeney
All maps created by Chelsea Feeney. Chelsea specializes in producing maps, figures and diagrams. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology from Virginia Tech and the University of Montana, respectively.
Website Credits
Photography
Nico Heyning
Website photos courtesy of Nico Heyning
Nico is a senior studying environmental science at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington. He's an avid environmentalist, whale watcher, wildlife photographer, museum docent and scuba diver. He's spent the last four summers working as an education specialist at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California and during the fall of 2019, spent his semester abroad studying conservation and wildlife management in Tanzania, Africa where he didn’t see a single animal sporting peduncles, blowholes or flukes.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County(NHM)
Historic photos courtesy of NHM
Website Design
Holly Lepere
Website creation by Lepere Studio
