David Starr Jordan
1851-1931
The fishes of Samoa, 1906
Lithograph on paper
"The coral reefs of the South Seas literally swarm with fishes," wrote David Starr Jordan during a 1902 expedition to American Samoa. The U.S. government sponsored his trip, one of several undertaken to assess the country's marine resources. Jordan was America's most prominent ichthyologist, and it is said that virtually all North American biologists who specialize in fish can trace their professional pedigrees back to him. Jordan also was an influential educator, and the first president of Stanford University.
