From farm and family to career naturalist: the apprenticeship of Vernon Bailey.
How are scientists made? How, as young adults, have they discovered a scientific vocation and career? Through formal schooling, typically; but in the field sciences also through practical apprenticeship--through work. This essay presents the story of a frontier farm lad who became a career naturalist as a hired collector of animal specimens in the American West. Family and work are the leitmotifs of Vernon Bailey's story. It was family farming--bringing in the hay and finding the cows--that connected Bailey's love of skilled outdoor work with a desire to know nature scientifically. Traveling and working with professional naturalists, he came to see himself as a professional as well. His socialization was less a replacement than a layering of two identities, family and career.
Kohler
Robert E
RE
Department of History and Sociology of Science, Suite 303, Logan Hall, 249 South 36th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6304, USA.
D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history; D000818:Animals; D018070:Biological Specimen Banks / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D010811:Natural Science Disciplines / Q000193:education / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States