Lawrence Bruner
J. Smeaton Chase
T. D. A. Cockerell
Carl Eytel
John H. Kellogg
Marcus E. Jones
David S. Jordan
Willis L. Jepson
John Muir
Walter T. Swingle
Died
August 2, 1983, Riverside, California, United States
Books
A source‑book of biologi, Desert Wildlife, Introduction to the Natural H, The California Deserts, Desert Wild Flowers
Edmund Carroll Jaeger, D.Sc., (January 28, 1887 – August 2, 1983) was an American biologist known for his works on desert ecology. He was born in Loup City, Nebraska to Katherine (née Gunther) and John Philip Jaeger, and moved to Riverside, California in 1906 with his family. He was the first to document, in The Condor, a state of extended torpor, approaching hibernation, in a bird, the common poorwill. He also described this in the National Geographic Magazine.
Jaeger first attended the newly relocated Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles (in 1914), but moved to Palm Springs in 1915, where he taught at the one-room schoolhouse. At Palm Springs he met artist Carl Eytel, and authors J. Smeaton Chase and Charles Francis Saunders. These men formed what University of Arizona Professor Peter Wild called a "Creative Brotherhood" that lived in Palm Springs in the early 20th century. Other Brotherhood members included cartoonist and painter Jimmy Swinnerton, author George Wharton James, and photographers Fred Payne Clatworthy and Stephen H. Willard. The men lived near each other (like Jaeger, Eytel built his own cabin), traveled together throughout the Southwest, helped with each other's works, and exchanged photographs which appeared in their various books. He then returned to Occidental to complete his degree in 1918 and started teaching at Riverside Junior College. Retiring from teaching after 30 years, he worked the Riverside Municipal Museum in Riverside. During all these years Jaeger used his Palm Springs cabin for his research trips across the desert. Throughout his career he wrote many popular nature books and became known as the "dean of the California deserts".
Books
(Listed in order of first publication.)
The Mountain Trees of Southern California: a Simple Guide-book for Tree Lovers (first as 1919 and 1920 ed.). Nabu Press. 2010. p. 132. ISBN 978-1177055239. OCLC 8666171. Carl Eytel...furnished the sketches of the mountain animals.
Denizens of the Desert: A Book of Southwestern Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1922. p. 299. OCLC 1459267.
A Preliminary Report on the Flora of the Charleston Mountains of Nevada. Occasional papers of Riverside Junior College., v. 1, no. 1. Riverside, CA: The Junior College. 1927. p. 15. OCLC 5663721.
Birds of the Charleston Mountains of Nevada. Occasional papers of Riverside Junior College., v. 2, no. 1. Riverside, CA: The Junior College. 1927. p. 8. OCLC 16016140.
Denizens of the Mountains. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. 1929. p. 168. ASIN B00085C1KE. OCLC 716567.
A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Combining Forms used in Zoological Names (revised and enlarged from 1930 ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. 1931. ASIN B002AQF1BU. OCLC 10567568.
The California Deserts: A Visitor's Handbook (also 1933, 1938, 1955 ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1965. p. 220. ISBN 978-0804712231. OCLC 716807042. (Samuel Stillman Berry and Malcom Jennings Rogers contributed chapters)
Desert Wild Flowers. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1978 [1940]. ISBN 978-0804703659. OCLC 631689191.
A Source-book of Biological Names and Terms (3rd ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. 1978 [1944]. p. 323. ISBN 978-0398061791. OCLC 1524400. (illustrations by Merle Gish and the author)
Our Desert Neighbors. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1950. p. 329. ASIN B0006ASPF6. ISBN 978-1121357754. OCLC 1436846.
A Source-book of Medical Terms. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. 1953. ASIN B000L3JHR8. OCLC 14670855. (Irvine H. Page was a co-author)
The Desert in Pictures. Palm Springs, CA: Palm Springs Museum. 1955. p. 42. OCLC 9932064. (editor)
A Naturalist's Death Valley (5th ed.). Palm Desert, CA: Death Valley '49ers, Inc. 1979 [1957]. p. 70. ASIN B0007FK6VQ. OCLC 6573909.
The North American Deserts. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1957. p. 320. ISBN 978-0804704984. OCLC 630598569. (Peveril Meigs contributed a chapter; illustrations by John D. Briggs, Lloyd Mason Smith, Morris Van Dame, and Jaeger )
The Biologist's Handbook of Pronunciations (first in 1960 ed.). Charleston, SC: Nabu Press. 2011. p. 340. ISBN 978-1175764539. OCLC 310096649. (illustrations by Morris Van Dame and Jaeger)
Desert Wildlife (revised and enlarged of 1950 Our Desert Neighbors ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1961. p. 320. ISBN 978-0804701242. OCLC 637075718.
Introduction to the Natural History of Southern California (first as 1966 ed.). University of California Press. 1977. p. 104. ISBN 978-0520032453. OCLC 22526487. (Arthur Clayton Smith was a co-author; illustrations by Gene M. Christman)
Articles
Jaeger contributed to over 25 magazines and journals including:
Archives of Jaeger's work
Much of Jaeger's original work is archived at the University of California, Riverside, Library Special Collections.
Also see: Manuscripts and correspondence, OCLC 44935014 (Summary: biographical material, list of publications, newspapers articles and correspondence of Edmund C. Jaeger, Head of the Zoology Dept. at Riverside City College. 358 items in one box)
Honors
The "Edmund C. Jaeger Desert Institute" on the Moreno Valley College (MVC) of the Riverside Community College District is named in his honor. MCV also offers an "Edmund C. Jaeger Endowed Scholarship".
In 1986 The Nature Conservancy completed development of the "Edmund C. Jaeger Nature Sanctuary" in the Chuckwalla Mountains near Desert Center, California. It was in the Chuckwalla Mountains that Jaeger discovered the poorwill, and after his death in 1983, his cremated remains were scattered in the same canyon.
The University of La Verne of La Verne, California, Cultural and Natural History Collections (formerly the Jaeger Museum), maintains personal and professional materials pertaining to the life of Edmund C. Jaeger, including his 1947 field notes recording his initial study of the common poorwill in hibernation. The Collections is located inside the Jaeger House, named in his honor.
Pacific Union College of Angwin, California, annually presents an "Edmund C. Jaeger Award" in biology and "Dr. Edmund C. Jaeger Scholarship Grant" in education to deserving students.
Designated as a Fellow of the California Native Plant Society in 1976.
Received the Auld Lang Syne Award from Occidental College in 1982.
Patronyms
Some 28 patronyms of Jaeger have been made, including:
