Overview: Let’s begin at the beginning. Who is Joseph Grinnell? What does Joseph Grinnell say about taking field notes?  Read his 1912 article in The Condor (version hosted by JStor; you will need to log on through the campus library system). He notes that cards will not work, even though card systems work well for in-house collections. Grinnell writes about his system in rather spare prose that connects many highly detailed examples.  This screen capture (page 105) shows that he begins with a location description as a preface to animal and plant observations.

By 1912, Grinnell’s method was both his standard and that of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California Berkeley (MVZ). This similarity is no surprise: Grinnell directed MVZ for many years.)  His field notes, circa 1908, show these patterns of description and detail  but by 1912, Grinnell’s system began to shape field note practices in all areas of scientific field work.  Further, Grinnell saw how the artifacts of field notes should be integrated into the cataloging and archival work of museums. The mature Grinnell method that contains field and archival work has four components, comprised of these system artifacts:

1. a field notebook, which includes dated field observations while working to collect information;
2. a field journal, which includes elements of the field notebook but reflect post-field time to reflect, reorganize, plan, and make sense of field observations within the larger knowledge context of the researcher and the field;
3. a species account, and typically
4. a catalog of specimens.

These four components of field-based natural history documentation work together to build field knowledge.  Consider the conditions of out-of-doors and inside-of-doors activity. In addition to location, Grinnell’s system is time-sensitive. The field notebook is inscribed primarily out-of-doors at the moments of observation. The field journal, based upon the field notebook, takes place after

What are natural history specimens? These specimens are often biological materials -- pressed plants and/or plant parts, field-collected animals typically stabilized by scientific taxidermy methods, bones and/or skeletons, and ephemera including feathers, dung, eggshells, nests, and the like.  Sometimes, relevant geological samples are included: rocks, soil samples, water samples, and the like. Still further, plaster castings of footprints or -- increasingly -- photographs may further add details to fit with field notes and biological specimens.

These real specimens of collection -- including biological specimens -- are also part of Grinnel’s field work practices and current field note practices heritage. These artifacts were noted and described within notes and typically detailed in fuller species accounts.

Finally, these artifacts were cataloged -- see item 4 above for standard procedures for cataloging and archiving both biological and related specimens. These specimens are stored carefully, where the cataloging combined with the artifacts of field note-taking help form essential natural history records.

Photographs, more generally, are becoming part of these sets of artifacts that comprise a robust field note practice.Grinnell eventually used photographs in his work^[1].  Before photography, field sketches formed the visual type of field note work.  These sub-genres or categories of hand sketches included animal renderings, maps, geological strata, references for size (hand to bird, human to tree height, etc.)

MVZ still uses Grinnell’s approach in creating these interrelated records for both notetaking and specimens held within their collections.  Over time, suppliers of the smaller sized three-ring binders to serve as the field notebook have closed up shop. Paper for the field notebook also is increasingly difficult to source.

For years, MVZ followed these sources to keep a supply of appropriately-sized three-ring binders and the matching loose-leaf paper. In 2023^[2] MVZ suggested this Linton black vinyl binder designed for 6” x 9” filler paper. Linton also sells filler paper to fit this binder. This Linton system helps field scientists follow the Grinnel method.  However, MVZ uses a custom filler paper for their field note practices.  Working with paper supplies, MVZ specifies three-hole punched paper stock: 8.75” x 6.5”, Ultimate White 24# Strathmore Pure Cotton Wove, 100% Cotton, acid-free paper.^[3]  This paper stock (available at many paper retailers by special order) can “kit out” a field notebook with upmost fidelity to Grinnell’s specific artifacts of notetaking.

Other disciplines use adapted field-ready documentation products, including waterproof Rite In the Rain products. These items can be used in a Grinnell-inspired approach to field documentation:

1. Zip-style, Cordura binder cover to carry a six ring binder (no.2 below) and associated implements like pens, pencils, ruler/measuring tape, etc.;
2. Six-ring flexible, waterproof binder to accommodate loose leaf paper (no. 3 below)
3. Various types of lined, gridded, and plain loose leaf paper (waterproof) sized 4 5/8 x 7.
4. NOTE: do not use water-based inks in field conditions (including gel pens and highlighters). You can use nearly all other pen and pencil options; however, in wet conditions, using a mechanical pencil or a Rite in the Rain pen is advised.  Such all-weather pens are weighted to press on paper optimally, write upside down, and use inks that are stable in wet conditions and for archival purposes.

The biological artifacts (pressed plants, descriptions/photographs/sketches of a bird) of the Grinnell system are the basis for accurate, detailed field notes that are immediate (field presence) and reflection-rich, due to post-field analysis and writing. In addition to notes about direct object of study, field notes should also describe the ecological context.

What biogeophysical details does the Grinnell field note practice specify? Grinnell’s elements always included:

Location with map references, sketches if necessary, and the path taken during the field observation trek;  Grinnell carried a compass and often an altimeter.

Weather notes detail all conditions with focus on both light quality (time of day, cloud cover, season) and temperatures; he appears to have carried a thermometer.

Time noted throughout, especially if viewing a new species or interaction.

Abbreviations that made sense to him.

Additional takeaways for a field note practitioner? Get clear on definitions, settle on abbreviations, and make a glossary until you are sure of your consistent practice.  You should keep these guidance elements in your field notebooks. Laminate this guide when you settle on your primary elements.

If collaborating, agree on abbreviations and symbols. If an instructor, teach and share your practice so that students will use similar procedures.  In this way, collaboration and learning are greatly improved.

Refer to the screen capture visual (Grinnell’s 1912 instructional article) at the beginning of this guide.  Grinnell divided his tasks and information into four aspects:

Field notes, made on the trek as they are being experienced by the naturalist.

Journal entries made in pen at the end of the day, from the field notes.

Species accounts, within the journal at the end of the field notes, with particular focus on specific species, and finally, the

Catalog, where details about collected artifacts are first written. Catalog work foreshadows the data needed to accompany specimens, particularly species but also other natural objects. Typically, you keep a catalog for each trek, numbering from 1.

A caution for current field work:  field scientists, professional as well as students and hobbyists, should be careful as collecting natural objects is typically against state and federal land laws.  You will need a field collection permit.^[4] 

As you begin your field notes practice, you may not fully understand the benefits of this system. Over time, Grinnell’s approach is a central quality check on field information and understanding. In an August 2017 article for Smithsonian Magazine, historian Steven Lubar estimates how Grinnell’s notes and artifacts together form an incredibly rich data resource, with importation research implications for his time as well as for longitudinal studies in natural science.:

“Grinnell’s California collection included not only 100,000 specimens but also 74,000 pages of field notes and 10,000 images. “These field notes and photographs are filed so as to be as readily accessible to the student as are the specimens themselves.”

Grinnell thought that this data might end up being more important than the specimens. Again, Lubar’s August 2017 feature recounts  an excerpt from his 2017 book: Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present. Here, Lubar was likely referring to Grinnell’s 1910 prediction:

“At this point I wish to emphasize what I believe will ultimately prove to be the greatest purpose of our museum. This value will not, however, be realized until the lapse of many years, possibly a century, assuming that our material is safely preserved. And this is that the student of the future will have access to the original record of faunal conditions in California and the west, wherever we now work. He will know the proportional constituency of our faunae by species, the relative numbers of each species and the extent of the ranges of species as they exist to-day.”  

From Grinnell in Popular Science Monthly.(Quoted and cited by Lubar).

Lubar, a historian with interests in public knowledge, is not the only humanities person interested in Grinnell. Writer Molly Gloss wrote a two-part short story (link includes all of part one) “The Grinnell Method” in the online speculative fiction  journal Strange Horizons.  Gloss’s details reflect her naturalist experience. Read more about Gloss on her website including this brief note about her short story featuring Grinnell’s field documentation approach.

Grinnell’s transects re-examined: Working with Grinnell’s copious notes and other writings, MVZ researchers and graduate students revisited seven of Grinnell’s early locations on his California transect work. In field science, a transect is a deliberate line -- often marked with flags or durable tape but also with GPS coordinates -- upon a landscape for study.^[5]  This approach to field work is time-tests and worthy in so many ways for basic and applied inquiry. Transects visited over time now help scientists consider changes over time, including those due to regionalised climate change effects.

MVZ scientists and allied researchers worked from Grinnell’s field notes and other writings revisit his study transects.  For example, the 1924-1929 Lassen transect work of Grinnell, family, and his wife Jean gave rise to 2006-2009 revisiting of this research location. MVZ biologist Steven Beissinger and others re- surveyed the Lassen transect for the anniversary of MVZ and in celebration of founding director Joseph Grinnell’s foundational work in field biology.

The MVZ Final Report on this “Grinnell Resurvey Project” (PDFdownload) was submitted to NSF in July 2012 and can be downloaded here.  For a quick summary of key findings, look at the bottom of this MVZ page on publications.

Summary on materials for notetaking

Modern material/resources for following the Grinnell method (three options):

Materials that are easier to secure than the small three ring binder field note book described above.

Rite in the Journal notebook (forestry supplier @$14.25) Also see Rite in the Rain site

Notebooks based on the field notes tradition (aesthetics are primary focus but are very nce) Field Notes “Expedition” waterproof in grid format (I use this type: 3 for $12.95)

Rite in the Rain way to emulate the three ring field notebook practice

Waterproof loose leaf sheets, 7” by 4 5/8” (100 for $14.95) that require a

Waterproof 3-ring binder ($11.30). Formerly The Ben Meadows Company, now Forestry Suppliers.

Digitization of field notes, emerging practices

App or Paper (blog by biologist at ABA)

Apps

iBird

Birdlog (retired), rising Phoenix-like as eBird

leafSnap (University of Maryland helped build this ap)

GPS, real-time data collection to databases, often Geo-located.

Resources and sources:  (how working biologists use the Grinnell system)

1. Excellent 2012 8-page PDF summary of the Grinnell technique from Washington University in Saint Louis. Pennsylvania naturalist Donna Long’s pages feature well chosen links and helpful images.  If you only read one summary before you head out to work, Long’s would be that. Highly recommended. You will also see a variation on field notes that is very useful for casual naturalists: Long’s advice for nature journaling.
2. Field-science teacher Fred McPherson’s 50 years of nature journaling and field notes practice; see the many pictures in these exhibits at UC Santa Cruz.  McPherson’s species accounts records show how meticulous field notes -- recorded on loose leaf pages within a field notebook (binder) -- lead to rich species accounts post field, with time for reflection and consultation of other resources.
3. Duke University is archiving and studying Jane Goodall’s Gombe research notes.  You can request access to some portions of the digital archive.  More here at Duke News.
4. A Scoop it curated set of articles on field note practices (science writing student project from 2013-2018, by Marybeth Shea’s students at the University of Maryland).

Notes on this document: This guide was first written for a graduate course called “Classic Readings in Ecology,” Fall 2017, for K. Engelhardt of UMCES/Appalachian Research Laboratory at Frostburg State University.  The guide was adapted for use in science writing classes at UMCP to think about genres within science, as well as document design from field notetaking practices.

Additional sources, in addition to linked material:

Lubar, S. (2017) Inside the Lost Museum published by Harvard University Press, November 2017 publication date)

Herman, S. (1986) The Naturalist's Field Journal: A Manual of Instruction Based on a System Established by Joseph Grinnell  Amazon sells used paperbacks starting at 1K. Yes, $1000.00

Canfield, M.R. (2011) Field Notes on Science and Nature. Harvard University Press.

Add Loren Eisley field notes?  Wilson’s are being archived and catalogued now.