Malcolm Playfair Anderson#Career

Anderson was born 6 April 1879 in Irvington, Indiana, as the son of Melville Best Anderson and his wife Charlena (née van Vleck).{{cite journal|last=Anderson| first=Melville B.|year=1919| title=Malcolm Playfair Anderson| journal=The Condor|volume=21| issue=3| pages=115–119| url=https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v021n03/p0115-p0119.pdf| doi=10.2307/1362461| jstor=1362461}}

Anderson was one of his parents' two children who survived to adulthood; the other was a younger brother, Robert van Vleck Anderson.

From ages eleven to fifteen, Anderson attended school in Germany.

Upon returning to the United States, Anderson attended Stanford University, graduating in 1904 with a Bachelor of Arts in zoology.{{cite news|url=https://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19040518-01.2.11&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------#|work=The Stanford Daily|date=18 May 1904| volume= 24| issue=87|access-date=3 September 2018| title=Bachelor of Arts}}

At age 15, Anderson collected expeditions, befriending scientists and academics such as Ray Lyman Wilbur.

Before completing his degree, he had already undertaken thousands of miles' worth of scientific expeditions, traversing Arizona, California, and Alaska.

In 1904, Anderson was chosen by the Zoological Society of London to lead Duke of Bedford's Exploration of Eastern Asia.

While his interest was mostly in the study of birds, his role in the expedition was to procure new mammal specimens.

The Exploration began in July 1904 in Yokohama, Japan.{{cite journal|last1=Thomas| first= O.| year=1906| title= The Duke of Bedford's zoological exploration in eastern Asia I. List of mammals obtained by Mr. MP Anderson in Japan| journal=Proc. Zool. Soc. London| volume= 1905| pages= 331–363| url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31888064}}

From 1904 to 1907, Anderson traveled through Japan, eastern China, and Korea.

In 1908, he took a break from scientific collecting, traveling Europe with his mother Charlena.

The second leg of the expedition began in Wuhan on 5 October 1909 and ended in Shanghai on 13 September 1910.{{cite book| title=Bibliography of Natural History Travel Narratives|last=Troelstra| first= A. S.| year=2017| publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004343788| page=240}}

The Bedford Exploration of Eastern Asia collected over 2,700 individual mammals, resulting in many newly-described species.

Anderson collected the holotypes of several species, including the Shinto shrew and Japanese red-backed vole.

After completing the Exploration of Eastern Asia, Anderson took two collecting trips to South America.

The first trip was with Wilfred Hudson Osgood, and the second was with his wife, Mary Elizabeth.

In 1911, British zoologist Oldfield Thomas wrote: "To our great loss and regret, Mr Anderson now proposes to give up the arduous life of the field collector."{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1469-7998.1912.tb07008.x|title=The Duke of Bedford's Zoological Exploration of Eastern Asia.-XV. On Mammals from the Provinces of Szechwan and Yunnah, Western China|journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|volume=82|pages=127–141|year=1909|last1=Thomas|first1=Oldfield}}

{{Quote

| text = Mr. Anderson has worked for the Exploration with superb enthusiasm and success, and in the extent to which his collections have revolutionized our knowledge of an extended part of the earth's surface he has made a record which, so far as I know, has never been equalled . . .

| author = Oldfield Thomas }}

In response to the demands of World War I on American manufacturing, Anderson began working at a shipyard in 1918, as he was unable to join the Army.

On 21 February 1919, Anderson died when he fell from the scaffolding at Moore's Shipyard in Oakland, California.

Following his death, his father eulogized him in the scientific journal The Condor.

Anderson married Mary Elizabeth Gurnee, a distant cousin, on 15 June 1913.{{cite book| title=Alumni Directory and Ten-year Book, Volume 3| page=69|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2s3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA69|volume=3|year=1921|author=Stanford University}}

They had one son, Malcolm Gurnee Anderson, who died in infancy.{{cite report|url=http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/stanford/mss/m0051.pdf| title=Guide to the Anderson family Papers, 1848-1963|author=The Board of Trustees of Stanford University|year=1999|access-date=3 September 2018}}

Several species were named in honor of Anderson, including:

• Japanese red-backed vole (Myodes andersoni)—Thomas, 1905
• Anderson's shrew mole (Uropsilus andersoni)—Thomas, 1911
• Anderson's white-bellied rat (Niviventer andersoni)—Thomas, 1911
• Anderson's four-eyed opossum (Philander andersoni)—Osgood, 1913{{cite book| last1=Beolens| first1= B.| last2= Watkins| first2= M.| last3= Grayson| first3= M.| date=2009| title= The eponym dictionary of mammals| publisher= JHU Press| page=12|isbn=9780801895333}}

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Category:1879 births

Category:1919 deaths

Category:Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni

Category:American zoologists

Category: Accidental deaths in California

Category:Accidental deaths from falls

Category:Industrial accident deaths

Category:Zoological collectors

Category:American expatriates in Germany

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