Wikimedia Commons/John Tee-Van
Rollo Beck’s Expedition That Rebuilt California Academy of Sciences
In June 1905, eight brave scientists set sail from San Francisco on the schooner Academy bound for the Galapagos Islands.
Led by Rollo Beck, they spent 17 months hopping between 13 islands, gathering a mind-blowing 78,000 specimens. Back home, disaster struck.
While the team was still at sea, the 1906 earthquake and fire wiped out their museum and all its collections…