DVOC Main Page > John Kirk Townsend
Updated Monday, October 5, 2009
Contact Information

An opportunity for DVOC members and guests.
This is before our regularly scheduled 10/15 meeting so you can enjoy this presentation
and still make the regular DVOC meeting.

An Excursion to the Rocky Mountains :
The Life and Travels of John Kirk Townsend
an illustrated talk by
Academy Senior Fellow Robert Peck

October 15, 2009
5:30-7:30
Program to start at 6:00

Ewell Sale Stewart Library
The Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA
(Please use 19th Street entrance)

RSVP (215) 299-1040 or

John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851) was a Philadelphia Quaker who helped shape American science and American history with a pioneering trip across North America on behalf of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1834. His narrative of that trip, published in 1839, is considered a classic of American travel literature. Leaving Philadelphia at the age of 24, he returned three years later with a remarkable number of natural history discoveries which were greeted with enthusiasm by the members of the Academy and were used as models by John James Audubon in The Birds of
America and The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America.

To commemorate the bicentennial of Townsend’s birth, and to celebrate his many achievements, Academy Senior Fellow Robert Peck will present an illustrated talk about Townsend and his remarkable life, sponsored by the Friends of the Academy Library. Don’t miss this chance to learn about one of the most important (but least known) naturalists of the 19th century.

RSVP 215-299-1040 or