As I, like so many other naturalists, have long kept a dated record of the natural events I witness occurring around me throughout the year, I was recently delighted to discover when and how the practice is able to be documented as beginning.
From Dr. Anne Secord‘s introduction to Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne:
“Recognizing the importance of local natural histories for the general works he was publishing, it was probably [Thomas] Pennant who encouraged the barrister, antiquarian, and naturalist Daines Barrington to send White a copy of his newly published Naturalist’s Journal.
“Barrington, who, like White, was inspired by Stillingfleet’s suggestion that naturalists should note the comings and goings of birds and the cyclical occurrence of other natural phenomena, had understood that a method of organization was required to encourage the making of such records. To this end, he designed The Naturalist’s Journal, which consisted of a set of printed forms, each page covering a week, for the systematic recording of a variety of natural phenomena over a year.”
As Dr. Secord continues, “White immediately took to The Naturalist’s Journal […]”
