William Beebe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"To be a Naturalist is better than to be a King."

Journal, 31 December, 1893.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, he went on to become Curator of Ornithology for the New York Zoological Society from 1899 to 1952. He was a self-styled naturalist and everything living seemed to hold a continuing fascination for him. In 1919 he was also made Director of the Department of Tropical Research.

He wrote many popular books of his expeditions some of which became best-sellers ("my potboilers") in the 1920s and 1930s. He was also a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine. The money from the sale of these books helped finance his later expeditions. He also wrote his magnificent A Monograph of the Pheasants (1918-1922), which remains the classic reference on the subject.

On September 22, 1927 he married Helen Elswyth Thane Ricker (May 16, 1900 – 1981) an American romance novelist who wrote under the name of Elswyth Thane.

Beebe (left) and Otis Barton with the bathysphere.

His interest in deep-sea exploration led to the development of the bathysphere, a spherical metal diving vessel, with Otis Barton. In 1930, he descended 183m (600 ft.) off Nonsuch Island in Bermuda, where in 1934 he made a record descent of 923m (3,028 ft.). Beebe made a total of 35 dives in the bathysphere.

He was still very active well into his late 70s and early 80's observing nesting birds through his giant specially-made binoculars on a tripod from the verandah of his home in Simla, and even climbing high into trees to observe the eggs of a rare Bellbird. He was always a kind and patient teacher and did everything he could to encourage budding naturalists.

He set up a camp for jungle studies in 1942 at Caripito, Venezuela. In 1950, when he was 73 years old, he bought with his own money 228 acres (92 hectares) of land in the Arima Valley (Trinidad and Tobago) which he named "Simla". This land became the New York Zoological Society's Tropical Research Station in Trinidad. The New York Zoological Society Simla Research Station was directed by Dr. Jocelyn Crane after Dr. Beebe's death and later donated to the Trust.

Beebe wrote the cover story for this 1906 issue of the New York World's Sunday magazine.

The Simla Research Station adjoined an old cocoa plantation owned by the remarkable Icelandic woman, Asa Wright, who for years was the entertaining and always patient host to the numerous scientists, artists, photographers and nature lovers who came to visit the Research Station.

In his later years, Dr. Beebe used to enjoy spending many patient hours observing nesting birds across the valley from his verandah through his binoculars ("the biggest binoculars in the world!"), specially built for him and mounted on a heavy tripod.

The world-renowned American Audubon Society purchased Asa Wright's home, and the two properties were united. They are now run through collaboration with the Trinidad Field Naturalist Society as the Asa Wright Nature Centre, one of the finest bird watching sites in the Caribbean.