Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-1899. Volume I. Narrative of the Expeditions; Geography of Southern Patagonia

Stuttgart: Princeton University, 1903. First edition.

FOLIO VOLUME NARRATIVE OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY EXPEDITIONS TO PATAGONIA, 1896-1899, BY J B HATCHER, FUNDED BY J P MORGAN, ILLUSTRATED BY PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES.

13 inches tall folio volume, printed paper binding, photographic frontis with tissue guard, xvi, 314 pp, 50 figures on heavy paper with tissue guards, color double-page map of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Narrative of the Expeditions; Geography of Southern Patagonia: The Plains, The Mountains, The Rivers of Patagonia, The Lakes of Southern Patagonia; The Coast of Patagonia; Climate; The Native Indian Tribes, Settlements in Southern Patagonia, Industries and Resources of Southern Patagonia; Summary; Errata; Index. Closed tear edge of last page and bottom corner of back cover; some tissue guards creased, covers clean, binding tight, text and plates unmarked, very good in custom archival mylar cover.

JOHN BELL HATCHER (1861– 1904) was an American paleontologist and fossil hunter known as the "king of collectors" and best known for discovering Torosaurus and Triceratops , two genera of dinosaurs described by Othniel Charles Marsh. He was part of a new, professional middle class in American science, having financed his education with his labor while also being more educated than older fossil collectors. As such, he faced unique challenges throughout his long and productive career. Embroiled with a passion for collecting fossils, Hatcher was hired by O. C. Marsh in 1884, for the initial sum of US$50 per month. Hatcher has been credited with being the first to develop a grid system of numbered squares over a dig site, using the grid map to record the exact locations from where specimens were excavated. This kind of map system is considered the basis of the discipline of Taphonomy. Hatcher was in Marsh's employ until 1893, and he excelled in fossil fieldwork throughout the Western states. In 1889 near Lusk, Wyoming, Hatcher excavated the first fossil remains of Torosaurus. He signed a contract with Marsh to work as an assistant in geology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History from 1891-1896. However, in 1892, funding of the United States Geological Survey was dramatically cut by Congress, and their contract ended early in 1893, when he began a seven-year employ at Princeton University under William Berryman Scott as curator of vertebrate paleontology in the Elizabeth Marsh Museum of Geology and Archaeology and assistant in geology, leading ongoing Princeton Scientific Expeditions during field season and instructing students in geology, paleontology, and field techniques. In 1896, Hatcher conceived of, planned, and secured the greater part of the funding for three expeditions to Patagonia, as well as the idea of publishing the results of the expeditions with funding from J. Pierpont Morgan. The trips were chronicled in the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-1899. Beginning in 1900, with recommendations from Dana, Marsh, Scott, and Yale President Timothy Dwight, Hatcher was hired by William Jacob Holland as curator of paleontology and osteology for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, succeeding Jacob Lawson Wortman. Hatcher supervised William Harlow Reed and hired Charles Whitney Gilmore during his time at the Carnegie Museum. In addition to supervising field expeditions and excavations, he was responsible for the scientific investigation and display of Diplodocus carnegii, a species named by Hatcher for his patron Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), the Scottish-American industrialist. Finished in 1907, casts of "Dippy" were sent to museums in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Russia, Spain, Argentina, and Mexico. Hatcher's monograph on the find was published in 1901 as Diplodocus Marsh: Its Osteology, Taxonomy, and Probable Habits, with a Restoration of the Skeleton. After succeeding Marsh as the paleontologist for the United States Geological Survey, Osborn asked Hatcher to complete a monograph on Ceratopsia begun by Marsh, who had died a few years earlier. Hatcher agreed but died before the publication was complete; the work was finally completed by Richard Swann Lull in 1907 and included an illustration by famed paleoartist Charles R. Knight. Hatcher died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1904 of typhoid fever.

WILLIAM B. SCOTT (1858-1947) was an American vertebrate paleontologist, authority on mammals, and professor of geology and paleontology at Princeton University. His early education focused on theology, philosophy and the classics in preparation for an expected career as a minister. However, when he entered Princeton University in 1873 at the age of fifteen, he became interested in science, especially geology, psychology, and chemistry. A course he took from the renowned Swiss geologist, Arnold Guyot, was a turning point in his career aspirations. He graduated from Princeton in 1877 and received a Ph.D. from University of Heidelberg in 1880. HEAVY ITEM WILL REQUIRE EXTRA POSTAGE.