About WorldFieldGuide.com

Ginger and Jerry, the developers of WorldFieldGuide.com, have forever been amazed at the variety of shapes, colors, species and characteristics of Earth’s life forms. We share respect for and an enjoyment of planet Earth and all its splendor. We desire to share this enjoyment.

Our Backstory:

Ginger grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. She loved walking the fields, trekking the woods, spending time with the animals and just being outdoors in God’s Creation. After moving to Illinois she got involved in hiking, backpacking, canoeing, and sailing.

Jerry, a native of Illinois, was not far from the Wisconsin border studying turtles and frogs along the shores of a lakeside family summer home, swimming, fishing, sailing racing scows and roller skating.

While each are unique in their backgrounds, Jerry and Ginger met at a lecture on Einstein’s theory of “black holes.” They quickly discovered a shared love for nature walks and sailing. This developed into a relationship that led to marriage, the blending of their two families, and the love of the natural world that formed the foundation of this site.

Following graduation from Stanford and while working at an electrical manufacturing company, Jerry had developed an additional hobby as a collector of insects, especially exotic beetles. Through this hobby he had connected with individuals in Africa, Peru, Brazil, New Guinea, and Northern Australia, Germany and Japan.

Fueled by Jerry’s hobby, Ginger developed an interest in collecting seashells. As an amateur artist she was interested in their designs, shapes and colors. However, this hobby didn’t last long. Ginger was having a conflict with her conscience as the shells had been the homes of living creatures who were collected and dried simply to put them on a shelf.

Somewhat to Ginger’s relief, Jerry began shifting his hobby to develop film strips featuring photographs of various species of insects for schools. This was followed by video disks and cd-roms. As technology developed it was a natural evolution to move to the web and smart phones. Using his training as an electrical engineer and a mind that likes to organize he sought assistance from others to develop the relational database.

Many years of have been devoted to gathering images, descriptive information and developing the extensive database structure and features. During the process WorldFieldGuide.com has passed through various evolutions including specimen collections, purveyor to schools and hobbyists, filmstrips (remember them, anyone?), a video disk (what’s that??), and cd-rom format. Many experts have cooperated and provided expertise in this effort.

As people of all ages get to know the different life forms and recognize they are intertwined, we all can develop a greater respect for Earth as a living thing.

In the bigger sense, we city dwellers are sometimes out of touch with nature. Perhaps that’s why we tend to “trust the science” so much. We believe we are in charge of everything. But, we are not.

Nature brings us back to our basics.

Increasingly, we are being made aware of Earth’s beauty, diversity, and fragility. At the same time, we as well as many others, are recognizing our responsibility as stewards of planet Earth.

If in some small way, WorldFieldGuide.com can contribute to or encourage this growth in awareness, Jerry and Ginger would feel they will have achieved something worthwhile.

To make this hope a reality, Jerry and Ginger need help!

They need you to share this resource with others who you know so that we can continue to improve the usability of the site, and help it guide others to understand the natural world around us.

If you would take a moment to explore the database, fill out our brief survey, and consider sharing this with your friends, we would be grateful for your help! Thank you.