Muir
Muir names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Muir mur, John (1838-)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
mur, John (1838-), an American naturalist and traveler. He was born at Dunbar, Scotland, April 21, 1838. His father emigrated to America in 1849 and settled near Fox River, Wisconsin. Young John helped clear up the farm. He was an inventive sort of a chap. While a boy at home he made a rough thermometer by taking the end rod of his father's wagon box and fastening it to the side of the house, so that the expansion and contraction of the rod turned the finger on a large dial. He tinkered all the clocks in the neighborhood and built a wooden one for the family. He worked out a plan for an automatic bedstead that might be set to throw the sleeper out on his feet at any desired hour in the morning. In addition to tinkering with mechanical toys, he was fond of reading. His father had a good, old-fashioned Scotch notion that the Bible, Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress , Milton, and Burns' poems are good for a boy, but Scott's novels were forbidden. In 1860 the neighbors, who regarded John as a genius, induced him to exhibit his various contrivances at the state fair in Madison. John did so. He mingled modestly with the crowd and was much pleased by the interest which his exhibit aroused. His attention was directed to the state university in that city. He attended four years but left without a diploma. Both Wisconsin and Harvard later granted him honorary degrees. After leaving college, he earned money in various ways,--by teaching school, working on the farm, and by making rake and pitchfork handles. He entered a carriage factory at Indianapolis. While here he accidentally injured the sight of one eye. He was already much interested in botany and geology, much given to long rambles, lasting sometimes for weeks. Fearing that he might become blind before he had seen much of the world, Muir resolved to devote himself to exploration. In 1867, with a plant press, the New Testament, Burns' poems, and Milton's Paradise Lost in a bag on his back, he started from Louisville for Florida. He tramped over 1,000 miles in Florida and Cuba, collecting plants, sleeping out of doors, and living on berries and game, or accepting the hospitality of those he met. The details of his excursions are beyond the limits of this article. He tramped in Panama and in California; he took a trip to Alaska, where he discovered Glacier Bay and Muir Glacier ; he traveled in the valleys of the Yukon and the Mackenzie; he visited Switzerland; and in 1880 he went with De Long on an arctic expedition. He lived for ten years in the Yosemite valley, studying the mountain formation and the big trees . He wrote many articles for American periodicals. The government reservations known as Sequoia and Yosemite parks were due to interest aroused by him. He is the world's greatest living authority on glaciers and on the giant trees of California. His writings have a fascination of their own. Muir was married in 1879 to the daughter of a California physician. He established a home in the California hills, near a little station about thirty miles east of San Francisco . The following quotation is characteristic: Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. See Glacier ; Sequoia
Muir JOHN, an American naturalist born in Dunbar
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN, an American naturalist born in Dunbar, Scotland, April 21, 1838; educated in Scotland and at the University of Wisconsin. His first explorations were in the less known regions of North America. For 25 years he wandered from the Gulf of Mexico to the glaciers of Alaska. In 1879 he discovered the famous Alaska glacier which bears his name. He was a member of the relief expedition sent to the Arctic regions on the United States steamer "Corwin." He wrote over 150 articles on the physiography and natural history of the Pacific coast, on Alaska, etc. He was one of the pioneers of the movement to conserve forests and establish natural parks. He was a member of the American Academy of Art and Letters. His most important works were: "Mountains of California" (1894); "Our National Parks" (1901); "Story of My Boyhood and Youth" (1913). He also contributed much to periodicals. He died in 1914.
Muir CHARLES HENRY, American soldier
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHARLES HENRY, American soldier; born in Erie, Mich., in 1860; he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1885, and from the Infantry and Cavalry School, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in 1895, at the head of his class. He held first place in the Army Rifle Team in 1890, and with 10 companions attacked Rosario, P. I., in January, 1900, driving out General Malvar's headquarters, capturing $25,000 from his treasury, and releasing 300 Spanish prisoners. From 1903 to 1907 he was a member of the general staff at Washington and was assigned to the 28th Division in December, 1917. Has campaign badges of Indian Wars, Spanish- American War, Cuban Occupation, Philippine Insurrection, and China Relief Expedition. He became commander at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Ga., in January, 1918, and till 1920 was on service at the War Department, Washington.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's called Muir in 1910 "the world's greatest living authority on glaciers"; he died at Los Angeles on December 24, 1914, as Collier's notes in 1921. Neither account mentions the Sierra Club, which Muir helped found in 1892 and led until his death, or his losing fight against damming the Hetch Hetchy valley inside Yosemite " a dam completed in 1923 and still supplying San Francisco. The Muir Glacier he charted in Alaska has since retreated tens of miles up its inlet and no longer reaches tidewater, making it a standard illustration of climate change; Glacier Bay itself became a national monument in 1925 and a national park in 1980. Muir remains the patron saint of American conservation, though since 2020 the Sierra Club has publicly reckoned with the disparaging things he wrote about Native Americans and Black people in his early years.
Written for this edition, 2026.