Joseph Beal Steere was an American naturalist from the University of Michigan who conducted a major fieldwork expedition across Taiwan from 1873 to 1874, making him one of the most significant American scientific visitors to the island before the Japanese period. Over nearly a year he collected thousands of specimens of animals, birds, insects, and plants, many previously unknown to Western science. He also spent extensive time with various indigenous communities — Paiwan, Rukai, Amis, and others — documenting their material culture and languages. His collections, housed at the University of Michigan, remain research resources today. Steere's published accounts provided English-language readers with a vivid picture of late Qing Taiwan, and his ethnographic observations are still cited by researchers of nineteenth-century Taiwanese indigenous studies. He lived to the extraordinary age of 97.

• Conducted year-long natural history fieldwork in Taiwan 1873–74

• Specimens and reports are major primary sources for 19th-century Taiwan natural history