We explain what a field diary is and the disciplines that use it. What they contain and famous examples of field diaries.
What is a field diary?
A field diary or field notebook is a type of notebook that is frequently used by field researchers, that is, academics and scholars who carry out their work outside the field. library, directly on the ground. It is a notebook or a notebook that collects the notes, drawings and observations of all kinds made by the researcher.
Field diaries are commonly used by biologists, anthropologists, geologists, paleontologists, archaeologists and even social workers, and once used by their own authors, they become documents of historical value as primary or direct sources. Some field diaries are even considered important works of the literature.
The contents of a field diary can be extremely diverse, but in general it consists of:
- A descriptive record. Consists of the description more or less detailed of what the researcher observes, that is, descriptions of reality. This type of notes usually aspire to objectivity, often relying on drawings, graphs or measurements, to give the reader a reliable idea of what was observed.
- An interpretive record. Consists of the interpretation personal and professional of what was observed by the researcher, that is, by his understanding and comparison of reality. These interpretations usually refer to things that the researcher takes for familiar, to texts from previous studies or simply collect the opinions and the particular gaze of the researcher.
Examples of field diaries
Some famous examples of field diaries are:
- The travel journal and observations of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882), published in 1839, where he collects what he observed on his second expedition aboard the Beagle.
- American naturalist Charles D. Walcott's (1850-1927) field notebook on the fossils he observed in the Burgess Shale in Canada, published in 1909.
- The diaries of the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin (1865-1952) in which he comments on his travels in Central Asia.
- The field notebook of the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner (1877-1957), the result of the second German expedition to Antarctica.
- The field diaries of the Canadian anthropologist Wade Davis (1953-) from his journey through the Amazon River in South America, together with the ethnobiologist Timothy Plowman.