Ned Hollister (1876-1924) / by Wilfred H. Osgood.

  • Wilfred Hudson Osgood
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ned Hollister (1876-1924) / by Wilfred H. Osgood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VYe met one evening about the first of May in a railroad station in Chicago where we immediately took train for the West. I can never forget that first evening during which we became acquainted a^d talked over plans for the summer. Although I had then been some five or six years on the regular staff of the Biological Survey, and although he half-jokingly and self-deprecatingly referred to me as a “ professional,” we were about of an age, and the rate at which we found common ground on all sorts of subjects has scarcely ever been equaled in my experience. Evidently he did not find me larger nor more muscular than anticipated and I particularly remember the droll but emphatic way in which he expressed himself as I led the way from the dining car to the comfortable smoking coach. “ You’re the first Biological Survey man I’ve seen,” he said, “ who didn’t act as if he thought I was a criminal every time I lit a cigar.” The Alaskan trip lasted five months, joint work being done mainly in mountains near Eagle and along the Yukon River from Eagle to Circle. Hollister also did independent work on the coast at Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island, Alaska, and at Steilacoom and San Juan Island, Wash. One of the mammals obtained at the last lo¬ cality was named for him, Peramyscus mardculatus hollisteri. Throughout the trip, he impressed me more for all-around balanced qualities than for outstanding ones. The broad fact about him was the all-embracing character of his love of animals and nature. Down to the meanest detail of work, there was nothing connected with the observation and study of ahimals, alive or dead, which did not par¬ take of this love. Each phase of the subject was to him only part of one whole, none of which was to be slighted. The excitement of the chase and the exultation of capture or discovery held great charms for him, but the laborious paring of hides and other sup¬ posed drudgery seemed to give him no less pleasure. He did such things not only with good cheer but with an obvious enjoyment that was related not to the work itself but to its object. The finished specimen was to him something to be treated almost as if sacred. I have never known a man who, without being meticulous, took such pride in the quality of his specimens and such care of them subse¬ quent to preparation. He evinced the same joy and maintained sim¬ ilar high standards in method and practice in making field notes, in keeping catalogues or records, and in publishing results. To his qualities as a collector and observer was added a charming disposition in which modesty, simplicity, loyalty, and good humor were the leading features. An amusing incident never escaped him nor ever left his memory, so no one was long in his company without being entertained by a dry comment or a humorous anecdote. As a field companion, he was delightful and his equal will very rarely be found. He loved human beings, as such, regardless of appearances
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