Page 95 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Frank Stephens
An ornithologist, Stephens was the first director of the San Diego Natural History Museum. He and his wife spent a little more than a year collecting birds and making observations in Grant County, including in the Mimbres and near Fort Bayard during 1875-1876. John Hubbard has written an excellent account of Stephens activity in this area. See “Frank Stephens: A century-ago birder in New Mexico”, January 1976, NMOS Bulletin 4(2-3):13-17, 1976.
Among the individuals collected by Stephens during that year in Grant County were two Aplomado Falcons (July 28, 1875, and August 8, 1875) and Lawrence’s Goldfinch (January 20, 1876). The Goldfinch was apparently a first record for New Mexico. (From John Hubbard’s work, linked to above.)
The photo of Lawrence’s Goldfinch shown here was taken in Hillsboro, N.M., during March 2014.
In Cultures of Collection in Late Nineteenth Century American Natural History Matthew Laubacher describes Stephen’s as: “a systematic collector who was employed by the leading ornithologists and mammalogists of the day: William Brewster, C. H. Merriam, and Joseph Grinnell.” (p. 179) Stephens is the subject of the third chapter of this, Laubacher’s doctoral dissertation at Arizona State University, May 2011.
From “Frank Stephens, An Autobiography”, The Condor, Vol. 20, no. 5 (1918).
Unlike many of his predecessors in the study of natural history of this region, Stephens came to the area with his wife of one year, and their efforts were a family affair. The third chapter (pp. 179-249) of Laubacher’s dissertation is an excellent characterization of the life of a professional collector at the end of the 1800’s and beginning of the 1900’s. After his stay at Ft. Bayard, Stephens apparently never did any serious work in New Mexico again.
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