Joseph Francis Charles Rock Papers

The Joseph Francis Charles Rock Papers span the year 1928. The collection is a quarter of a linear foot and is housed in one box. The collection was transferred to the National Agricultural Library Special Collections from the Arnold Arboretum in 2002. The materials are in good condition and there are no use restrictions on the materials. The collection was arranged and described by Amber Thiele, Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance Fellow in 2006.

Joseph Francis Charles Rock was a botanist, explorer, linguist, and a correspondent for National Geographic Magazine, who focused his work on collecting plants and studying the Nakhi language and culture in China. Rock’s 1927-1930 expedition in Southwest China and Tibet was sponsored by the National Geographic Society. He explored the following areas during the expedition: Muli; Yongning; Szechuan Province; Konka Risumgongba Range; Nv-lv-k’ö, Yünnan; Kangting; Minya Konka; Kulu; Likiang; Li-chiang Snow Range; and the Yalung, Mekong, Salwin, and Yangtze River trenches.

This collection covers part of the China-Tibet expedition in 1928, with the bulk dates spanning from May-August 1928. The collection includes a bibliofilm copy of his specimen notes from China. Bibliofilm is a type of microfilm used to photograph books. E.H. Walker, from the Smithsonian Institution (where Rock had deposited the specimens), requested the bibliofilm copy on March 7, 1936. The quarter of a linear foot of materials are in good condition and do not have any use restrictions. The series is arranged into one series, Specimen Notes.

Harvard University Herbaria currently holds the actual specimens that are described in the notes. Some of the specimens have been digitized and can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.huh.harvard.edu/databases/cms/rock-types.html. Rock wrote several articles, for National Geographic Magazine, that describe the expedition’s cultural aspects, which are listed in the Bibliography.