Joseph C. Mitchell (1948–2019): Herpetologist and Natural Historian of the Old Dominion

IN the prologue of his Virginia: A History of the People, Cooke (1883: 479) wrote of the people of the Old Dominion, as the Commonwealth of Virginia is affectionately known, and their “cordial instincts, and spirit of courtesy and hospitality. . .” The following year, in an essay written for Macmillan's Magazine, Bradley (1884: 432), an English expatriate who lived for a time in Virginia, wrote from his experience that the so-called Virginian “is very fond and proud of his own State. . . Wherever he goes he is always a Virginian. . .” (this article, it should be noted, was soundly criticized by noted ichthyologist G. Brown Goode in his own discussion of the character of Virginians in the context of his genealogy; Goode, 1887). Indeed, the modern concept of the Virginia Gentleman traces its roots to the Colonial period of the United States...