This is Throwback Thursday #338. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks!

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Recently, Matt Brown, McCarter Collections Manager, Fossil Vertebrates at the Field Museum, showed me a book that is special on several levels.

The book is his copy of “Life of a Fossil Hunter“, the autobiography of Charles H. Sternberg (1850–1943). Sternberg was a prolific fossil collector and paleontologist who worked during the late 1800s and early 1900s, an era many consider the Golden Age of dinosaur fossil hunting. He and his family are the namesakes of the Sternberg Museum in Hays, Kansas. We did a post about the museum a few days ago, when it appeared that financial difficulties might force it to close. Fortunately, there has been some encouraging news about the museum’s future in the last few days.

Charles Sternberg got his start studying under noted paleontologist Benjamin Franklin Mudge at Kansas State University in 1875. He went on to make numerous discoveries in Kansas and elsewhere. Sternberg and his sons (George, Charles, and Levi) became a remarkable fossil-hunting family responsible for many important discoveries. Among them was the famous Edmontosaurus “mummy,” discovered in 1908. His son George also uncovered the spectacular “fish-within-a-fish” fossil, a Xiphactinus audax with a recently swallowed Gillicus arcuatus preserved inside it. That specimen was discovered in Gove County, Kansas and is on display at the Sternberg Museum.

Charles wrote two books. “Life of a Fossil Hunter” (1909) and “Hunting Dinosaurs in the Badlands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada: A Sequel to The Life of a Fossil Hunter” (1917). “Life of a Fossil Hunter” tells the story of his childhood and early passion for fossils. He launched his career by writing a passionate letter to famed paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, who employed him as a dinosaur hunter for eight years. The book details the hard realities of late 1800’s scientific expeditions, The memoir details the raw realities of late-19th-century scientific expeditions, including extreme weather, alkali water, rugged terrain, and the physical engineering required to pack massive stone-encased dinosaur bones out of the wilderness.

Charles Sternberg wrote two books about his experiences, “Life of a Fossil Hunter” in 1909 and “Hunting Dinosaurs in the Badlands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada: A Sequel to The Life of a Fossil Hunter” in 1917. “Life of a Fossil Hunter” begins with his childhood and early passion for fossils and follows the development of his career. One important turning point came when he wrote an enthusiastic letter to famed paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, who eventually employed him as a fossil hunter for eight years. Sternberg’s memoir also provides a fascinating look at the realities of late-19th-century fossil expeditions—extreme weather, alkali water, rugged terrain, and the considerable physical effort required to excavate, jacket, and transport massive fossil bones out of the wilderness.

Besides all this, Matt’s copy of the book has a history of its own.

It contains an inscription by Roy Moodie (1880–1934), a paleontologist known for his research on fossil fishes, amphibians, and paleopathology during the early 20th century. Interesting to us, Moodie also worked with some of our beloved Mazon Creek fossils.

And, there’s a nice little Pterodactyl poem inside the cover.

The Pterodactyl combs his hair

And serendes the Hesperornis,
And there at night I muse uроп
The fossil hunter’s life of glory.
At dawn I chase the Zeuglodon,
At eve I dine on Dinosauri.

And just when you think the story of this particular book is finished, there’s another surprise.

Matt showed me a handwritten note on page 203 left by Loye Miller (1874–1970), an American paleontologist and zoologist who taught at several University of California campuses, including UCLA, Berkeley, and Davis. Miller added the note in 1959 next to Sternberg’s account of collecting fossils with Cope at the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon in 1878–1879, during the height of the “Bone Wars.”

Miller’s note adds yet another layer to the book’s history. L. S. Davis, a local Oregon fossil collector and field guide who participated in the expedition, had personally told Miller about the incident in 1899. Sixty years later, Miller recorded that firsthand recollection in the margin of this copy of Sternberg’s autobiography.

So this isn’t merely a century-old copy of an important fossil hunter’s memoir. It is a book that connects Sternberg, Cope, Davis, Moodie, and Miller, with a story passed directly from one participant to another paleontologist and eventually preserved as a handwritten note for the next generation to discover.

Thanks for sharing, Matt! Oh, by the way… Matt has a bit of history of his own. He’s one of the fossil preparators that worked on SUE when she first arrived at the Field Museum in 1997.