Born: Kendall Township, Kendall County, Illinois.

Died: Joliet, Illinois

Occupation: Amateur Conchologist. Moved to Kansas in 1869 to start a business and stake a claim in southeastern Kansas working as a farmer, freighter, and storekeeper 1869-72; Returned to Illinois in 1872 to work as a reporter and editor of several newspapers in Joliet. Managed the Joliet, Illinois newspaper, the Phoenix 1877; Purchased and edited the Joliet News 1877, 1882-1915; edited a newspaper in Maine 1880-82.

Education: High School degree 1869.

Research Interests: Land snails, fossils, ferns, and cacti (used in the monographic work of Dr. J.N. Rose).

Travels: Made annual trips to the Alleghenies from 1896-1902 (1898 with George Clapp; 1899 with Bryant Walker, Clapp, H.E. Sargent, and H.A. Pilsbry; 1900 with Walker). Visited southwestern Arkansas February 1899 and 1900 . Went to "Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in early 1901. Traveled with Pilsbry through southeastern Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas in March and April of 1903. First traveled to Arizona in February 1902 mainly in quest of ferns to complete his collection of living U.S. ferns for the Joliet Park. Made nearly annual trips to Arizona and New Mexico beginning in 1904. Visited the Grand Canyon region, and the Florida and Chiricahua Mountains accompanied by Pilsbry in 1906; with L.E. Daniels, in 1907 and 1909; with Daniels and Pilsbry in 1910; Catalina, Rincon, and Tortilla ranges and the White and Blue Mountains in 1913 with Frank Cole; to Mogollons N.M with Daniels in 1914; The Black Range N.M in 1915 with Pilsbry; 1917-19 visited the ranges west of Tucson to Ajo and along the Mexican border with Cole, A.A. Hinkley, and Camp. The summers of 1916-17 were spent with the Sierra Club and others in California. Made a trip to Death Valley in 1921 with E.P. and Mrs. Chace. Later in 1921 visited central Arizona with E. Hand and Dr. W.T. Miller. In the field again with Pilsbry to New Mexico and Texas in 1922. Ferriss again visited western Texas in 1924. His last trip was again in the same region, but cut short by ill-health.

Remarks: According to Pilsbry "the fore-most of American landshell collectors." "as a collector he has probably never been surpassed." Apparently had a "rivalry" of sorts with landshell collectors Annie Law and Mary Andrews (nee Lathrop). According to Pilsbry "Ferriss thought that if women could discover such splendid species, a man ought to find one "as big as a teacup, with spines.""

To drive in an auto with Ferriss was according to Pilsbry "an education for the nerves. Very few large stones were missed." The ultimate field biologist he "had great endurance, an unfailing optimism, and an exhaustless store of entertaining talk. The prospector or cattle man who chanced to drop into camp often stayed swapping reminiscences around the fire far into the night-- tales of the Indian times, of Apache Kid, Cochise Stronghold, and of course, of the search of lost mines."

Jailed in 1877 for an unpopular editorial which apparently offended a local political boss. A fiery prohibitionist his paper was the terror of grafters and saloon keepers. National Chairman of the Populist Party Convention in 1904.

Data from: Pilsbry, H.A. 1926. James H. Ferriss. Nautilus 15(1):1-6 + portrait.

Other References: Abbott, R.T., and M.E. Young (eds.). 1973. American Malacologists: A national register of professional and amateur malacologists and private shell collectors and biographies of early American mollusk workers born between 1618 and 1900. American Malacologists, Falls Church, Virginia. Consolidated/Drake Press, Philadelphia. 494 pp.

Partial Bibliography:

Clapp, G.H., and J.H. Ferriss. 1919. Praticolella campi, sp. nov. Nautilus 32(3):78-79 + plate 6.
Ferriss, J.H. 1899. Collecting in the Great Smokies. Nautilus 12(9):97-101.
Ferriss, J.H. 1900. A new Lampsilis from Arkansas. Nautilus 14(4):38-39 (text fig.).
Ferriss, J.H. 1904. Southwestern shells. Nautilus 18(5):49-54.
Ferriss, J.H. 1906. Mollusks of Oklahoma. Nautilus 20(2):16-17.
Ferriss, J.H. 1907. A new subspecies of Polygyra multilineata. Nautilus 21(4):37-38.
Ferriss, J.H. 1917. A shell hunt in the Black Range with description of a new Oreohelix. Nautilus 30(9):99-103.
Ferriss, J.H. 1917. Collecting shells in a corner of the Sierra Nevada. Nautilus 31(1):31-34.
Ferriss, J.H. 1918. Camping in the Sierras and the desert. Nautilus 32(1):3-9 + plate 1.
Ferriss, J.H. 1919. My journey to the Blue and White Mountains, Arizona. Nautilus 32(3):81-86.
Ferriss, J.H. 1919. Lorenzo E. Daniels. Nautilus 32(3):99-101 + 1 plate.
Ferriss, J.H. 1920. The Navajo nation. Nautilus 34(1):1-14.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss 1906. Mollusca of the southwestern states. II. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 58(1906):123-175 + plates 5-9.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1907. Notes on some New Mexican Ashmunellas. Nautilus 20(12):133-135 + plate 8.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1907. Mollusca of the Ozarkian Fauna. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 58(1906):529-567 + 3 plates.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1910. Mollusca of the southwestern states, III: The Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 61(1909):495-516 + 3 plates.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1910. A new Soronella from the Rincon Mountains Arizona. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 61(1909):517-518 + 1 plate.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1910. Mollusca of the southwestern states: IV. The Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 62(1910):44-147 + plates 1-14.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss 1911. Mollusca of the southwestern states, V: The Grand Canyon and northern Arizona. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 63(1911):174-199 + plates 12-14.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1915. The New Mexican expedition of 1914 - Ashmunella. Nautilus 29(2):13-16 + 1 plate.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1915. The New Mexican expedition of 1914 - Ashmunella. (cont.) Nautilus 29(3):29-35.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1915. The New Mexican expedition of 1914 - Ashmunella. (cont.). Nautilus 29(4):41-43.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1915. Mollusca of the southwestern States VII: The Dragoon, Mule, Santa Rita, Baboquivari, and Tucson Ranges, Arizona. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 68(1916):363-418 + 8 plates.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1917. Mollusca of the southwestern States VIII: The Black Range, New Mexico. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 69(1917):83-107 + 4 plates.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1918. New land shells from California and Nevada. Nautilus 31(3):93-95.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1919. New landsnails collected by the Ferriss and Hinkley Expedition of 1919. Nautilus 33(1):19-21.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1919. Mollusca of the southwestern States IX: The Santa Catalina, Rincon, Tortillita and Galiuro Mountains. X. The mountains of the Gila headwaters. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 70(1918):282-333 + 5 plates.
Pilsbry, H.A., and J.H. Ferriss. 1923. Mollusca of the southwestern States, XI - From the Tucson Range to Ajo, and mountain ranges between the San Padro and Santa Cruz rivers, Arizona. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 75(1923):47-103 + plates 1-8.