Joseph Mailliard (December 30, 1873 – December 12, 1945) was an American ornithologist who served as a curator of ornithology at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

. Mailliard was born in

Bordentown, New Jersey Bordentown is a city in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 3,924.Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

(brother of Napoleon). His mother Annie née Ward was the sister of

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe (; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 pacifist Mother's Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism ...

. The family moved to San Francisco in 1873 and they set up the Rancho San Geronimo in

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

. Joseph and his brother John Ward Mailliard grew up in the outdoors and took an interest in natural history, learning to prepare bird skins and eggs from Charles Andrew Allen (1841-1930) who lived nearby. He joined the University of California and majored in mining and chemistry but missed graduating in 1879 due to pneumonia. He was recommended an ocean voyage for health and he visited Alaska in 1896, making large collections on the trip and also getting acquainted with

Joseph Grinnell Joseph Grinnell (February 27, 1877 – May 29, 1939) was an American field biologist and zoologist. He made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as ...

. This was followed by another expedition to Chile in 1902. He deposited the collections at the California Academy of Sciences but they were destroyed in the 1906 fire. In 1918 a fireproof building was constructed at the California Academy of Sciences and the Mailliard brothers donated their personal collections there. Joseph became an honorary curator from 1919 and began to study the materials and publish notes. He retired in 1927 but continued as an emeritus curator. Grinnell named a subspecies of the

song sparrow The song sparrow (''Melospiza melodia'') is a medium-sized New World sparrow. Among the native sparrows in North America, it is easily one of the most abundant, variable and adaptable species. Description Adult song sparrows have brown upperp ...

''Melospiza melodia mailliardi'' after him in 1911.

References

External links

Handbook of the birds of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
(1930) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mailliard, Joseph 1873 births 1945 deaths American ornithologists People from Bordentown, New Jersey