Pierre Louis Jouy

Pierre Louis Jouy (February 8, 1856, New York City – March 22, 1894, Tucson, Arizona) was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and ethnographer. He was the first American ornithologist to study the birds of Korea and, during his lifetime, became known as one of the USA's leading experts on Korea. Jouy's observations of paradise flycatchers (genus Terpsiphone ) are particularly noteworthy.

Biography Pierre Louis Jouy in his boyhood became interested in natural history and, especially, ornithology. From the age of 7, he lived with his family in the neighborhood of Washington Circle. Spencer Fullerton Baird, with Robert Ridgway and Thomas Mayo Brewer, published in 1874 A History Of North American Birds. Land Birds — the first of 3 volumes on North American birds. Smithsonian records indicate than Jouy and other teenagers may have helped to compile information for that 1874 book. He studied under Baird at the United States National Museum (now named the Smithsonian Institution) and became an expert on birds in the Washington D.C. area. From April 1881 to June 1882, Jouy was with the Palos but became dissatisfied with the U.S. Navy mission having priority over his scientific work and wanted to return to Japan. In May 1882 a U.S.-Korea treaty was signed at Incheon. Jouy, having returned to Yokohama, spent almost two years as a U.S. National Museum employee in Japan, assisted by A. J. M. Smith, who was fluent in Japanese. In December 1882, Jouy filed a forty-five-page report documenting his collection of specimens in zoology and ethnography. He completed his work in Japan toward the end of April 1883.

In mid-April 1883 at Yokohama, Jouy greeted Lucius Foote, head of the U.S. diplomatic mission to Korea. Jouy managed to attach himself to the U.S. diplomatic legation to Korea, but he was no longer funded by the U.S. National Museum. The diplomatic legation voyaged from Nagasaki aboard the USS Monocacy and arrived in May 1883 in Seoul, where they were warmly welcomed. Jouy's first Korean ornithological specimen (May 28, 1883, Incheon) was a Phylloscopus borealis (arctic warbler), now a rare species in Korea. Near Seoul, he collected extensively. In November 1883, with the aid of a royal Korean internal-travel passport, Jouy and a companion, Marinus Willett (born 1858 in New York), became the first two Americans to make a Seoul-to-Busan overland trip. In Busan, Jouy obtained a salaried position at the new Joseon customs service. Jouy collected hundreds of bird specimens in Korea. Some of the specimens remain valuable in historical biogeography. Jouy’s short-tailed albatross specimen (June 1885, Korea Strait off Busan) belongs to a now-rare species and, as of the year 2020, is the only specimen of this species ever collected in Korea. A specimen of Chinese egret (Egretta eulophotes) (April 1886, North Kyŏngsang) has considerable biogeographical importance. and described the potter's wheel commonly used in Korea. In Korea he photographed landscapes, houses, and people. In Korea, Jouy collected "plant, bird, fish, reptile, crustacean, insect, chipmunk, mouse, fish, and rock specimens."

In honor of Jouy, Leonhard Hess Stejneger gave in 1887 the scientific name Columba jouy to the Ryukyu wood pigeon — however, this species became extinct in the early 1900s.

Selected publications

Proceedings of the United States National Museum for 1881