Excavating Archaeology | Steere Collection

Joseph Beal Steere’s Around-the-World Expedition, 1870–1875

Image: Joseph Beal Steere Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, record HS11831

Joseph Beal Steere was not as famous as Charles Darwin and other 19th-century naturalists, but his collecting expedition had important consequences for the University of Michigan. Steere set sail from New York in September 1870. He returned to Ann Arbor in October 1875, having traveled through Brazil, Peru, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Molucca Islands, Singapore, Suez, Marseilles, and London. His mother’s cousin, Rice Aner Beal, owner of Ann Arbor’s weekly newspaper, sponsored the expedition. In return, the paper published 96 letters in which Steere vividly recounted his travels and travails.

Steere mainly collected biological specimens. He also collected archaeological artifacts and objects made and used by the peoples he encountered. The arrival in Ann Arbor of some 60,000 birds, mollusks, insects, fishes, and ferns, and more than 800 cultural objects, led the University to construct its first dedicated museum building, which opened in 1881. Today, Beal-Steere Expedition materials are divided among the Museum of Zoology, the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, the Herbarium, and the Stearns Musical Instrument Collection.