Historical Note
Jennie Emlong's son, Douglas Ralph Emlong (1942-1980), was an amateur field collector of fossils in the Pacific Northwest. He had close ties with the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of National History (NMNH) which purchased many of his collections and often supported his field work. Douglas Emlong was self-educated in paleontology and displayed an early penchant for collecting. During his childhood, he spent much of his time roaming the hills and desert of Southern California, collecting cacti, minerals, agates, and fossils. When he was in the eighth grade, his family moved to the Oregon coast, and he began collecting marine fossils found on the beach and in surrounding cliffs. For several years after high school, he operated a fossil and rock museum and shop, and lectured extensively on the paleontology of the Oregon coast. He became acquainted with many prominent West Coast paleontologists, notable Arnold Shotwell, in his search for information on the complex geology of the region.
Douglas Emlong's first contact with the Smithsonian was with A. Remington Kellogg of the NMNH who was interested in his fossil cetaceans. His relationship with the museum was solidified by Clayton E. Ray, curator of the Department of Paleobiology, who encouraged and funded Emlong's fossil collecting, and purchased his unique marine fossils.
Emlong possessed the individualistic and brilliant mind of the gifted amateur collector. He was largely self-taught, worked alone, and was truly enthralled by the search for clues to the past. These searches produced many new specimens of fossils, ranging from plants to invertebrates to marine mammals, notably fifteen new species of marine mammals and two previously unknown families. Emlong was a creative and intuitive individual. He was a musician and composer, a painter and a writer. He was intrigued by mysticism, telepathy, and other frontiers of human intellect.
