- William Gambel
William Gambel (
1823 -December 13 ,1849 ) was an American naturalist and collector.Gambel was born in
Philadelphia . In 1838 he travelled with the naturalistThomas Nuttall on a collecting trip toNorth Carolina . In March 1841 he set off alone to collect plants for Nuttall. He travelled west, taking a more southerly route to that taken previously by Nuttall and Townsend. From Independence he followed theSanta Fe Trail , and then along the Old Spanish Trail, arriving inCalifornia in early November. He spent 1842 collecting along the coast, and then joined the US navy as a secretary, which allowed him to visit all the California mission stations. The new birds he collected includedGambel's Quail ("Callipepla gambelii"),Mountain Chickadee ("Parus gambeli") andNuttall's Woodpecker ("Picoides nuttallii").Gambel arrived back in Philadelphia in August 1845. In 1848 he qualified as a physician. He died of
typhoid whilst crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains in midwinter.
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