Edmund Jaeger Explained

Edmund C. Jaeger
Birth Date:	28 January 1887
Birth Place:	Loup City, Nebraska, US
Death Place:	Riverside, California, US
Resting Place:	Edmund Jaeger Nature Sanctuary Chuckwalla Mountains (ashes scattered)
Fields:	Biology
Workplaces:	Riverside City College Riverside Municipal Museum
Alma Mater:	Occidental College
Known For:	Hibernation of common poorwill
Author Abbrev Bot:	E.Jaeger
Awards:	Honorary Doctor of Science, Occidental College (1953) Phi Beta Kappa, Occidental College Chapter (1962) Professor Emeritus, Riverside City College (1965) Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of California, Riverside (1967) Member, University of California Chapter of Sigma Xi (1966)

Edmund Carroll Jaeger, D.Sc.,^[1] (January 28, 1887 – August 2, 1983) was an American biologist known for his works on desert ecology. He was born in Loup City, Nebraska to Katherine (née Gunther) and John Philip Jaeger, and moved to Riverside, California in 1906 with his family.^[2] He was the first to document, in The Condor,^[3] a state of extended torpor, approaching hibernation, in a bird, the common poorwill.^[4] He also described this in the National Geographic Magazine.^[5]

Life

Jaeger first attended the newly relocated Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles (in 1914), but moved to Palm Springs in 1915, where he taught at the one-room schoolhouse. At Palm Springs he met artist Carl Eytel,^[6] and authors J. Smeaton Chase and Charles Francis Saunders.^[7] These men formed what University of Arizona Professor Peter Wild called a "Creative Brotherhood"^[8] that lived in Palm Springs in the early 20th century. Other Brotherhood members included cartoonist and painter Jimmy Swinnerton, author George Wharton James, and photographers Fred Payne Clatworthy^[9] and Stephen H. Willard. The men lived near each other (like Jaeger, Eytel built his own cabin),^[10] traveled together throughout the Southwest, helped with each other's works, and exchanged photographs which appeared in their various books. He then returned to Occidental to complete his degree in 1918 and started teaching at Riverside Junior College. Retiring from teaching after 30 years, he worked the Riverside Municipal Museum^[11] in Riverside. During all these years Jaeger used his Palm Springs cabin for his research trips across the desert. Throughout his career he wrote many popular nature books and became known as the "dean of the California deserts".^{[12] [13]}

Works

Books

(Listed in order of first publication.)

• Book: The Mountain Trees of Southern California: a Simple Guide-book for Tree Lovers . . 2010 . 1919 . 132 . 978-1177055239 . 8666171 . 21001210 . Carl Eytel...furnished the sketches of the mountain animals..
• Book: Denizens of the Desert: A Book of Southwestern Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles . Boston and New York . Houghton Mifflin Co. . 1922 . 299 . 1459267.
• Book: A Preliminary Report on the Flora of the Charleston Mountains of Nevada . Riverside, CA . The Junior College . 1927 . 15 . Occasional papers of Riverside Junior College., v. 1, no. 1 . 5663721.
• Book: Birds of the Charleston Mountains of Nevada . Riverside, CA . The Junior College. 1927 . 8 . Occasional papers of Riverside Junior College., v. 2, no. 1 . 16016140.
• Book: Denizens of the Mountains . Springfield, IL . Charles C. Thomas . 1929 . 168 . 716567 . B00085C1KE.
• Book: A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Combining Forms used in Zoological Names . revised and enlarged from 1930 . Springfield, IL . Charles C. Thomas . 1931 . 10567568 . B002AQF1BU.
• Book: The California Deserts: A Visitor's Handbook . also 1933, 1938, 1955 . Stanford, CA . Stanford University Press . 1965 . 220 . 978-0804712231 . 716807042. (Samuel Stillman Berry and Malcom Jennings Rogers contributed chapters)
• Book: Desert Wild Flowers . Stanford, CA . Stanford University Press . 1940 . 1978 . 978-0804703659 . 631689191 .
• Book: A Source-book of Biological Names and Terms . Springfield, IL . Charles C. Thomas . 1944 . 1978. 3rd . 323 . 978-0398061791 . 1524400. (illustrations by Merle Gish and the author)^[14]
• Book: Our Desert Neighbors . Stanford, CA . Stanford University Press . 1950 . 329 . 978-1121357754 . 1436846 .
• Book: A Source-book of Medical Terms . Springfield, IL . Charles C. Thomas . 1953 . 14670855 . B000L3JHR8. (Irvine H. Page was a co-author)
• Book: The Desert in Pictures . 1955 . Palm Springs Museum . Palm Springs, CA . 42 . 9932064. (editor)
• Book: A Naturalist's Death Valley . 1957 . Palm Desert, CA . Death Valley '49ers, Inc. . 1979. 5th . 70 . 6573909 . B0007FK6VQ.
• Book: The North American Deserts . registration. Stanford, CA . Stanford University Press . 1957 . 320 . 978-0804704984 . 630598569. (Peveril Meigs contributed a chapter; illustrations by John D. Briggs, Lloyd Mason Smith, Morris Van Dame, and Jaeger)
• Book: The Biologist's Handbook of Pronunciations . first in 1960 . Charleston, SC . . 2011 . 340 . 978-1175764539 . 310096649 . (illustrations by Morris Van Dame and Jaeger)
• Book: Desert Wildlife . revised and enlarged of 1950 Our Desert Neighbors . Stanford, CA . Stanford University Press . 1961 . 320 . 978-0804701242 . 637075718.
• Book: Introduction to the Natural History of Southern California . registration. first as 1966 . University of California Press . 1977 . 104 . 978-0520032453 . 22526487. (Arthur Clayton Smith was a co-author; illustrations by Gene M. Christman)

Articles

Jaeger contributed to over 25 magazines and journals^[1] including:

• The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
• The Auk
• Cactus and Succulent Journal
• Calico Print
• The Condor
• Desert Magazine
• Fremontia
• Journal of Mammalogy
• National Geographic Magazine
• Pacific Union Recorder
• St. Nicholas Magazine
• The Youth's Instructor

History of Palm Springs

• Art in a Desert Cabin . Desert Magazine . 11 . 11 . 15–19 . September 1948.
• Forgotten Trails . Palm Springs Villager . 4 . 2 . 12–13, 28 . September 1949.
• Monk of Palm Springs . Palm Springs Villager . 4 . 6 . 22 . January 1950.
• From Cheese to Cash . Palm Springs Villager . 5 . 87 . 18–19, 38 . February 1951.
• I Well Remember J. Smeaton Chase . Palm Springs Villager . 6 . 8 . 54–56, 58 . March 1952.
• Tall Tales from Old Palm Springs . Palm Springs Villager . 6 . 11 . 14, 33 . June 1952.

Archives of Jaeger's work

• Much of Jaeger's original work is archived at the University of California, Riverside, Library Special Collections.^[15]
• Also see: (Summary: biographical material, list of publications, newspapers articles and correspondence of Edmund C. Jaeger, Head of the Zoology Dept. at Riverside City College. 358 items in one box)

Honors

• The "Edmund C. Jaeger Desert Institute" on the Moreno Valley College (MVC) of the Riverside Community College District is named in his honor.^[16] MCV also offers an "Edmund C. Jaeger Endowed Scholarship".^[17]
• In 1986 The Nature Conservancy completed development^[18] of the "Edmund C. Jaeger Nature Sanctuary" in the Chuckwalla Mountains near Desert Center, California.^[19] It was in the Chuckwalla Mountains that Jaeger discovered the poorwill, and after his death in 1983, his cremated remains were scattered in the same canyon.^[20]
• The University of La Verne of La Verne, California, Cultural and Natural History Collections (formerly the Jaeger Museum), maintains personal and professional materials pertaining to the life of Edmund C. Jaeger, including his 1947 field notes recording his initial study of the common poorwill in hibernation. The Collections is located inside the Jaeger House, named in his honor.^[21]
• Pacific Union College of Angwin, California, annually presents an "Edmund C. Jaeger Award" in biology^[22] and "Dr. Edmund C. Jaeger Scholarship Grant" in education^[23] to deserving students.
• Designated as a Fellow of the California Native Plant Society in 1976.^[24]
• Received the Auld Lang Syne Award from Occidental College in 1982.^[25]

Patronyms

Some 28 patronyms of Jaeger have been made,^[1] including:

• Angiospermae (flowering plants)
  • Monocotyledon (single cotyledon (seed-leaf))
    • Yucca brevifolia – subspecies jaegeriana (the Jaeger Joshua tree)
  • Dicotyledons (two cotyledons (seed-leaves))
    • Astragalus jaegerianus (Lane Mountain milkvetch)
    • Astragalus pachypus – variety jaegeri (Jaeger's bush milkvetch)
    • Hesperidanthus jaegeri – synonyms: Thelypodium jaegeri and Caulostramina jaegeri (cliffdweller)
    • Draba jaegeri (a variety of whitlow-grass)
    • Eriogonum nodosum – variety jaegeri (wild buckwheat)
    • Eriogonum plumatella – variety jaegeri (yucca buckwheat)
    • Euphorbia jaegeri (Orocopia Mountain spurge)^[26]
    • Gilia jaegeri (gilia)
    • Helianthus jaegeri – synonym Helianthus annuus – subspecies jaegeri (sunflower)
    • Ivesia jaegeri (Jaeger's mousetail or Jaeger's ivesia)
    • Lupinus jaegerianus (lupin or lupines)
    • Penstemon thompsoniae – subspecies jaegeri (Jaeger's beardtongue)
    • Phacelia perityloides – subspecies jaegeri (Panamint Phacelia)
    • Potentilla jaegeri (a typical cinquefoil)
    • Ribes nevadense – variety jaegeri (Sierra currant and mountain pink currant)
    • Sisymbrium diffusus – subspecies jaegeri (mustard family)

• Insecta
  • Hemiptera (true bugs)
    • Nidicola jaegeri (minute pirate bugs or flower bugs)
    • Triatoma rubida jaegeri (a type of assassin bug)
  • Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)
    • Schinia jaegeri – synonym Chlorocleptria jaegeri (moth)
  • Diplopoda (millipedes)
    • Gosichelus jaegeri
    • Onychelus jaegeri
• Mollusca
  • Pulmonata (land snails)
    • Helminthoglypta jaegeri
    • Oreohelix handi jaegeri

Further reading

• Bryant . James . Moses, Vince . Edmund Carroll Jaeger – Examining the Early Career of one of Southern California's Premier Naturalists . Journal of the Riverside Historical Society . February 1999 . 3 . 26–32 . The Riverside Historical Society . Riverside, CA . 46665568 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120308161241/http://www.riversidehistoricalsociety.org/Documents/RHSJournalVol3.pdf . 2012-03-08 .
• Book: Eytel. Carl . Carl Eytel . Edmund C. . Jaeger . Sketchbook 1904–1905 . 1905 . 32945154.
• Book: Findley, Rowe . Rowe Findley . Great American Deserts . Washington, D.C. . National Geographic Society . 1972 . 208 . 516381 . 978-0870441073 . registration . (Photography by Walter Meayers Edwards; foreword by Jaeger)
  • Book: Findley, Rowe . Rowe Findley . Les grands déserts américains . Washington; Paris. National Geographic Society; Flammarion . fr . 1977 . 207. 53518922 . 978-2082010061.
• Kleinschmidt . Janice . Cabins of the Brotherhood: Author Peter Wild delves into the Spartan lives of Palm Springs' early desert rats . Palm Springs Life . Desert Publications . Palm Springs, CA . August 2007 . November 15, 2011.
• News: Lawton . Harry . Edmund C. Jaeger Fills Role of Nature's Sherlock Holmes . . October 13, 1957 . B: 4, 5 . Press-Enterprise Company. Riverside, CA.
• Smith . Lloyd Mason . Trail of a Naturalist .. . . January 1951 . 14 . 3 . 16–19 . Desert Press, Inc. . Palm Desert, CA . 80921470 . 2012-09-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111202112350/http://www.mydesertmagazine.com/files/195101-DesertMagazine-1951-January.pdf . 2011-12-02 . dead .
• Whitney . Harry L. . Edmund C. Jaeger, Denizen of the Desert . Palm Springs Villager . October 1948 . 3 . 2 . 15–16 . Palm Springs, CA.
• Wild . Peter . Peter Wild . Edmund C. Jaeger: From the Classroom to Palavers . Wildflower . Summer 1999 . 15 . 3 . 40–43 . North American Native Plant Society . Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada.
• Wild . Peter . Peter Wild . The Letters of Carl Eytel: The early desert painter's correspondence with travel writer and teacher Edmund C. Jaeger . Palm Springs Life . Desert Publications . Palm Springs, CA . August 2007 . November 13, 2011.

External links

• Edmund Jaeger site
• Riverside (California) Metropolitan Museum
  • • Edmund C Jaeger Nature Sanctuary USGS Desert Center Quad, California, Topographic Map at TopoZone
• Web site: Beasley . Ruth . Jaeger's Poorwill . Learning the Birds . . December 13, 2011 . July 19, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120426050835/http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/hppr/local-hppr-977282.mp3 . April 26, 2012 . dead .

Notes and References

1. Book: Ryckman. Raymond E. . James L. . Zackrison . Son of the Living Desert – Edmund C. Jaeger, 1887–1983: Ecologist, Educator, Environmentalist, Biologist, and Philanthropist . . R.E. Ryckman . 1998 . 466 . 978-0966356304 . 39497413. University of California, Riverside, Science Library
2. Ewan. Joseph. Edmund Carroll Jaeger (1887–1983), Dave Keck's Mentor. Taxon. May 1987. 36. 2. 402–04. 1221431. 10.2307/1221431. 2. (Nita Hiltner, next reference, says the move was in 1910.)
3. Jaeger. Edmund C.. Further Observations on the Hibernation of the Poor-will. The Condor. May–June 1949 . 51. 3. 105–09. Earlier I gave an account (Condor, 50, 1948:45) of the behavior of a Poor-will (Phalaenoptilus nuttallinii) which I found in a state of profound torpidity in the winter of 1946–47 in the Chuckawalla Mountains of the Colorado Desert, California.. 1365104. 3. 478309773. 0010-5422. 10.2307/1365104. (photographs by Kenneth Middleham)
4. News: Hiltner . Nita . A Look Back . . Riverside, CA . Enterprise Media . February 20, 2011 . November 15, 2011 . (Joseph Ewan, the preceding reference, says the move was in 1906.)
5. Jaeger. Edmund C.. Poorwill Sleeps Away the Winter. National Geographic Magazine. January 1953. 103. 2. 273–80. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C.. B004PH1X8W.
6. Book: Niemann , Greg . Palm Springs Legends: creation of a desert oasis . . 2006 . San Diego, CA . 286 . 978-0932653741. 61211290. (here for Table of Contents)
7. Web site: Charles Francis Saunders and Mira Culin Saunders Collection of Photographs and Negatives . Online Archive of California (OAC) . . November 22, 2011 . Charles Francis Saunders (1859–1941) ...and his first wife, Elisabeth Hallowell Saunders (d. 1910), were both avid naturalists ... . June 19, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130619033223/http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt7v19r25p/ . live .
8. Book: Wild . Peter. Peter Wild . News from Palm Springs: The Letters of Carl Eytel, Edmund C. Jaeger, J. Smeaton Chase, Charles Francis Saunders, and Others of the Creative Brotherhood and Its Background . . The Shady Myrick Research Project . 2007 . Vol. I and II . 163456618.
9. Web site: Fred Payne Clatworthy (U.S., 1875–1953) . Autochromes

   The World Goes Color-Mad

   . American Museum of Photography . 22 November 2011 . 2008 . Fred Payne Clatworthy ... a professional photographer in...Colorado, published Autochromes in National Geographic ... . 26 April 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120426001027/http://photographymuseum.org/autochromeclatworthy.html . live .
10. Yerxa . Cabot . Carl Eytel . Palm Springs Villager . December 1951 . 6 . 5 . 17, 41 . Cabot's Pueblo Museum.
11. Web site: Riverside Museum: Permanent Exhibits . 2011-11-16 . 2011-12-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111202064026/http://www.riversideca.gov/museum/exhibits/permanent.asp . live .
12. Book: Houk, Rose. Mojave Desert (American Deserts Handbook). 2000. Southwest Parks & Monuments Association. Tucson, AZ. 978-1583690086. 26 . 44039342 .
13. Lillard. Richard G.. The Nature Book in Action. The English Journal. April 1973. 62. 4. 537–48. National Council of Teachers of English. 813109. 10.2307/813109.
14. Translated into Chinese as: 生物名称和生物學术语的词源 (sheng wu ming cheng he sheng wu xue shu yu de ci yuan). Beijing: 科学出版社 (ke xue chu ban she) (Science Press). 1965 and 1979. p. 577. . (responsibility includes: 滕砥平, 蔣芝英譯. (Teng Di Ping, Jiang Zhiying translation))
15. http://scotty.ucr.edu/record=b3442202~S5 UCR Library, Special Collection 110
16. Web site: Moreno Valley College Catalog . 2011-11-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120523193811/http://www.rcc.edu/morenovalley/files/Catalog_Section_I.pdf . 2012-05-23 . dead .
17. http://www.mvc.edu/files/ScholarshipsQuickList.pdf MCV Scholarship List
18. Book: Wicinas, David . Native Grandeur: Preserving California's Vanishing Landscapes . 2000 . The Nature Conservancy of California . San Francisco . 978-0962459054 . Hufstader, Louisa . 6. 48764772 .
19. See:
    • Google Maps – Edmund C. Jaeger Nature Sanctuary
20. Japenga . Ann . The Dean of the Deserts: Edmund C. Jaeger . . October 2003 . 2 . 10 . 98 . Palm Desert, CA . 2011-12-11 . 2012-04-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120426044229/http://www.jaeger.ws/reminiscences/who_ajapenga.html . live .
21. Web site: Campus Times, University of La Verne, "ULV's hidden Edmund C. Jaeger Museum", December 3, 2008 . December 13, 2011 . May 28, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100528004725/http://www.laverne.edu/ctimes/web_exclusives_stories/jaeger.htm . live .
22. Web site: PUC Biology Scholarships . 2011-12-13 . 2012-09-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120926133338/http://www.puc.edu/academics/departments/biology/student-opportunities . live .
23. Web site: PUC Education Scholarships . 2011-12-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111113193441/http://www.puc.edu/academics/departments/education/student-opportunities . 2011-11-13 . dead .
24. Fremontia . Fellows of the California Native Plant Society . January 2003 . 31 . 1 . December 14, 2011 . 27 . . December 17, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111217175256/http://cnps.org/cnps/publications/fremontia/Fremontia_Vol31-No1.pdf . live .
25. Web site: Past Award Recipients: Auld Lang Syne Award . . December 14, 2011 . For unwavering loyalty to Occidental College and the principle for which it stands, the Auld Lang Syne Award is presented to deserving members of the Fifty Year Club on Fifty Year Club Day each spring. More than 100 alumni have received the award, which was created in 1954. . May 19, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120519135904/http://alumni.oxy.edu/s/956/index.aspx?pgid=414&gid=1 . live .
26. V.W. Steinmann & J. André, Aliso 30(1): 1. (2012)