American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

New Guinea Expedition (1928-1929); Beck Collecting Trip to Northeast New Guinea (1928-1929)
birth: 1928 August 15
death: 1929 May 4
The New Guinea Expedition (1928-1929) was proposed by Leonard C. Sanford to employ Rollo H. Beck on the heels of his departure from the Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History. The field work was funded by George F. Baker with the purpose of collecting birds in New Guinea for the AMNH. Rollo Beck, joined by his wife, Ida Beck, collected a total of 249 bird species during their eight-and-a-half months in three main collecting sites located in Northeast¬¬ New Guinea: the Madang area, Keku, and the Cromwell Mountains. Beck brought back a new species of bowerbird, Sericulus bakeri, collected near the Adelbert Mountains. The Becks arrived in Madang on August 15, 1928 and left for Australia on May 4, 1929.