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

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and collector. Townsend was a Quaker born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the son of Charles Townsend and Priscilla Kirk. He attended Westtown School in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the ...

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 Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841. Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

to join him on

Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth (January 29, 1802 – August 31, 1856) was an American inventor and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts who contributed greatly to its ice industry. Due to his inventions, Boston could harvest and ship ice internati ...

's second expedition across the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

to the Pacific Ocean. Townsend collected a number of animals new to science. These included birds such as the mountain plover,

Vaux's swift Vaux's swift (''Chaetura vauxi'') is a small swift native to North America, Central America, and northern South America. It was named for the American scientist William Sansom Vaux. Description This is a small swift, even compared to other '' ...

, chestnut-collared longspur, black-throated grey warbler, Townsend's warbler and sage thrasher, and a number of mammals such as the

Douglas squirrel The Douglas squirrel (''Tamiasciurus douglasii'') is a pine squirrel found in the Pacific Northwest of North America, including the northwestern coastal states of the United States as well as the southwestern coast of British Columbia in Canada ...

; several of these were described by Bachman (1839)Bachman, J. (1839)
Description of several new Species of American quadrupeds. ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 8'', 57-74. from samples collected by Townsend.

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. Mary and another sister, Hannah, wrote ''

The Anti-Slavery Alphabet ''The Anti-Slavery Alphabet'' is an alphabet book published in 1846 by the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS). It was written by two of the society's members, Hannah and Mary Townsend, with the intention of encouraging abolitionist i ...

'' in 1846, which was sold at the Anti-Slavery Fair in Philadelphia. His brother Edward was President of the Philadelphia Institution for Instruction of the Blind and helped organize the Philadelphia Dental College.

Oregon

While at Wyeth's Fort William in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

, Townsend served as the appointed magistrate to the first public trial by Europeans in Oregon. This occurred when the post's gunsmith,

Thomas J. Hubbard Thomas Jefferson Hubbard (1806 – April 24, 1877) was an Oregon pioneer and politician who was acquitted of murder charges in the first American murder trial in what is now the state of Oregon. At the trial the murder was determined to be justifia ...

, attacked and killed the fort's tailor in an argument over a young native girl. The gunsmith was acquitted by a jury when they ruled the death was justifiable homicide.

Work

Townsend collected numerous animal specimens during his travels. He sent many of these back to

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

for further assessment and characterization. Audubon gave Townsend broad authority in naming specimens that he collected.Audubon, John James, Birds of America, 1827 to 1838 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). This is a narrative of a journey by Wyeth's expedition over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean between 1834 and 1835. 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 Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washingto ...

. 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. Townsend's pocket gopher (''Thomomys townsendii'') is found in southern Oregon, northern California, northern Nevada, and through the Snake River Valley in Idaho. Townsend's big-eared bat (''Corynorhinus townsendii'') is found from southern British Columbia south through the western United States to southern Mexico. The

whitetail jackrabbit The white-tailed jackrabbit (''Lepus townsendii''), also known as the prairie hare and the white jack, is a species of hare found in western North America. Like all hares and rabbits, it is a member of the Family (biology), family Leporidae of O ...

(''Lepus townsendii'') ranges through southern Canada and the western, central US through eastern California and Colorado. The Townsend's warbler and Townsend's solitaire are also named after Mr. Townsend. Townsend died of

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, bu ...

poisoning. He had developed a formula used in taxidermy preparations and arsenic was the "secret" ingredient.

Family

Oregon

Work

References

Further reading