author
James W. Bee
1913–1996
A careful naturalist and museum scholar, he helped map the wildlife of places from northern Alaska to the American West and turned decades of field experience into books for both specialists and general readers.
1 Audiobook
Birds Found on the Arctic Slope of Northern Alaska
by James W. Bee
About the author
Born in Provo, Utah, in 1913, James W. Bee developed an early love of the outdoors through collecting trips and close observation of local natural history. Archival records from Brigham Young University and the University of Kansas show that he kept detailed journals across much of his life, documenting his travels, fieldwork, and research.
Bee became a professor of zoology and curator of mammalogy at the University of Kansas. University of Kansas library materials credit him with helping create KU’s Museum Studies program alongside Philip Humphrey, and with introducing educational initiatives and collection methods at the university’s Natural History Museum.
His fieldwork ranged widely, but KU’s digital collection especially highlights his work in the Point Barrow region of the Arctic and in Utah Valley. He is also remembered through books including Mammals of Northern Alaska on the Arctic Slope and Mammals in Kansas, works that reflect both his scientific training and his gift for making the study of animals useful to students, researchers, and curious readers.