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

Batty Expeditions to Mexico (1902-1906); Batty Expedition to Mexico
birth: 1902 December
death: 1906
Expedition. Led by collector Joseph Batty under the direction of the Departments of Mammalogy and Ornithology and funded by John L. Cadwalader (1). Batty was charged with collecting specimens in lower California, Southern New Mexico, the mountains of Northern Mexico and was to continue on into Central America before the expedition ended abruptly with Batty’s death.
Batty was hired in 1902 by the American Museum of Natural History to collect in Lower California, Southern New Mexico and the mountains of Northern Mexico. In 1905, under the auspices of the museum, Batty traveled back to Mexico and continued to journey down to southern Mexico. The expedition was directed by J. A. Allen of the Department of Mammalogy and Frank Chapman of the Department of Ornithology. Batty and his assistants, M. S. Goodknight and later Sterling Rohlfs, collected and prepared specimens mainly from the States of Durango, Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Chiapas, Mexico, and included mammals and birds collected in lower California. (2)(3, p. 151)
The expedition contributed many specimens to both Mammalogy and Ornithology, some of which were used in the creation of the Collared Peccary group in the historic Allen Hall of North American Mammals (now the Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals). (3, p. 151)(4, p. 72)
Batty was heading south to continue collecting across Guatemala and the Cauca region of southwestern Colombia when he died in the field at Pijijiapa, Chiapas, Mexico in May of 1906. (4, p. 117)
1906Batty dies of a shooting accident in the field. (4, p. 117), Pijijiapan.