American Museum of Natural History Research Library: Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927 (amnhp

Jump to section:
Relations
Export

Exist Dates

1874 February 7 - 1927 August 22

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract: Artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes (February 1874-August 1927), celebrated for his bird portraiture, helped to create many dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History in the early 1900s. In addition to artwork and exploration for natural history and scientific institutions, he illustrated popular books and magazines and worked for manufacturing and travel industries. He lived in Ithaca, New York, most of his life and participated in the American Ornithologists’ Union.

Artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes (February 1874-August 1927), celebrated for his bird portraiture, helped to create many dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History in the early 1900s. In addition to artwork and exploration for natural history and scientific institutions, he illustrated popular books and magazines and worked for manufacturing and travel industries. (1) He lived in Ithaca, New York, most of his life and participated in the American Ornithologists’ Union.<p>

Before graduating from Cornell University in 1897, Fuertes began to travel and to publish ornithological illustrations. Among his earliest and most significant scientific trips was the Harriman Expedition to Alaska in 1899-1900. (1) The artist joined many expeditions led by Frank M. Chapman, curator of ornithology at the Museum, during 1902-1914. (2) Fuertes’s fieldwork and art shaped the Hall of North American Birds: his Flamingo Colony Mural, his paintings of individual birds in the Cuthbert Rookery, Whooping Crane, and Canada Goose dioramas, and the background for the Birds of the Rockies diorama (which Museum colleagues painted, following Fuertes’s observations). (3) The artist collected bird skins avidly, wrote, and fulfilled commissions for paintings. (4)

Fuertes and Margaret (Madge) Sumner married in June 1904, and raised two children. Shortly after an expedition in Ethiopia during September 1926-May 1927 for the Field Museum of Natural History and the Chicago Daily News, the fifty-three year old artist died in an accident at Potter’s Crossing, New York, on August 22, 1927.

Sources

(1) Robert McCracken Peck, A Celebration of Birds: the Life and Art of Louis Agassiz Fuertes. (New York: Walker and Company, 1982), 12.

(2) Encyclopedia of World Biography, "Fuertes, Louis Agassiz." 2005. Accessed August 12, 2015.

(3) Stephen Christopher Quinn, Windows on Nature: the Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History. (New York: Abrams, 2006), 166-7. Peck, 128.

(4) Peck, 90, 138.

(5) Peck, 167.

(6) Peck, 117-8.

(7) American Museum Journal, “A Report on Expeditions Made in 1907 under the North American Ornithology Fund,” VII, no. 8 (December 1907): 128-132.

(8) Quinn, 82. Frank M. Chapman, Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist. (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1908), 136-8.

(9) Peck, 123-6. Expeditions File no. 80: Chapman Mexican Expedition, 1910. Vertical Files, American Museum of Natural History Research Library.

(10) Peck, 135-8.

(11) American Museum of Natural History, Annual Report, 1914. “Report of the President,” 27.

(12) Peck, 55.

Also: Chapman, Frank M. “In Memoriam: Louis Agassiz Fuertes 1874-1927.” The Auk XLV, no. 1 (January 1928); Sterling, Keir B., Richard P. Harmond, George A. Cevasco, and Lorne F. Hammond. Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Chronology

1874 February 7: Born to Estevan Antonio Fuertes and Mary Perry. , Ithaca .
1893 September - 1897 June: He studied at Cornell University, New York, and received an undergraduate degree in architecture. , Ithaca .
1897 - 1898: He took art classes in New Hampshire with Abbott H. Thayer. (Later Fuertes did fieldwork with the Thayers.), Dublin (inhabited place) .
1902: Opening of American Museum of Natural History's Hall of North American Birds. , New York .
1902 - 1914: Fuertes traveled in North, Central, and South America with Frank M. Chapman, curator at the Museum.
1902 April 22 - 1902?: Andros Island (island) (Expedition Site) Fuertes joined the American Museum of Natural History's expedition in Bahamas to learn about the nestings of flamingos. Participants included Frank M. Chapman and his wife, J. Lewis Bonhote and his wife, plus additional men. They traveled on the Estrella. (6)
1904: The artist began his Flamingo Colony Mural for the Museum's Hall of North American Birds.
1904 - 1927: Bird-Lore, founded by Chapman, published Fuertes's artwork. (5) The artist's illustrations also appeared in the Museum's Natural History magazine., New York (state) .
1907 June 5 - 1907 July: Saskatchewan (province) (Expedition Site) Fuertes and Chapman observed geese and collected specimens for prospective Museum groups during a trip to Maple Creek (Saskatchewan, Canada) (Field Trip to Canada). Destinations included Lake Louise and Ptarmigan Lakes. The men located materials and took notes and photographs for the planned Birds of Rockies diorama. Fuertes found nests of Ptarmigan and Pipit. (7)
1908 March 25 - 1908?: Everglades National Park (national park) (Expedition Site) Fuertes visited Cuthbert Rookery, Florida, with Chapman, Arthur Cleveland Bent, Captain Burton, and Louis Bradley for work on the Museum’s Cuthbert Rookery diorama. They traveled with the Pearl. (8)
1910: Orizaba, Mount (peak) (Expedition Site) Fuertes traveled with Chapman to Eastern Mexico and the Yucatan (Chapman Mexican Expedition). They explored Mount Orizaba’s bird life for a habitat group representing the tropics. Other participants: Chapman’s wife and son, F. W. Patterson (of the Explorers’ Club), Doctor Bumpus (archaeologist), Herbert Spinden (archaeologist). The second part of the expedition, which included Chapman and Fuertes, concerned Spoonbills; specimens of them were added to the Museum's Cuthbert Rookery diorama. (9)
1912: Became fellow, American Ornithologists' Union.
1913 January 8 - 1913 May: Bogotá (national district) (Expedition Site) Fuertes's second expedition to Columbia (onboard the Zacapa) on behalf of the Museum (South America Ornithology Expedition). Other members were Chapman, George K. Cherrie, Paul Howes, Thomas Ring, and Geoffrey O’Connell. They studied bird life and collected birds for Magdalena Valley diorama─over two thousand specimens were brought back─and observed Bogotá. (10)
1914: Heron Lake (lake) (Expedition Site) Chapman and Fuertes collected here on behalf of a diorama. (11)
1922 November - 1927: Lectured at Cornell University, his alma mater. , Ithaca .
1927 August 22: Fuertes died shortly after returning to United States, following an expedition in Ethiopia. , New York (state) .

Terms

localDescription: enhanced
localDescription: affiliated person
place: Andros Island (island)
(Expedition Site)
dates: 1902 April 22-1902?
Fuertes joined the American Museum of Natural History's expedition in Bahamas to learn about the nestings of flamingos. Participants included Frank M. Chapman and his wife, J. Lewis Bonhote and his wife, plus additional men. They traveled on the Estrella. (6)
place: Saskatchewan (province)
(Expedition Site)
dates: 1907 June 5-1907 July
Fuertes and Chapman observed geese and collected specimens for prospective Museum groups during a trip to Maple Creek (Saskatchewan, Canada) (Field Trip to Canada). Destinations included Lake Louise and Ptarmigan Lakes. The men located materials and took notes and photographs for the planned Birds of Rockies diorama. Fuertes found nests of Ptarmigan and Pipit. (7)
place: Everglades National Park (national park)
(Expedition Site)
dates: 1908 March 25-1908?
Fuertes visited Cuthbert Rookery, Florida, with Chapman, Arthur Cleveland Bent, Captain Burton, and Louis Bradley for work on the Museum’s Cuthbert Rookery diorama. They traveled with the Pearl. (8)
place: Orizaba, Mount (peak)
(Expedition Site)
dates: 1910
Fuertes traveled with Chapman to Eastern Mexico and the Yucatan (Chapman Mexican Expedition). They explored Mount Orizaba’s bird life for a habitat group representing the tropics. Other participants: Chapman’s wife and son, F. W. Patterson (of the Explorers’ Club), Doctor Bumpus (archaeologist), Herbert Spinden (archaeologist). The second part of the expedition, which included Chapman and Fuertes, concerned Spoonbills; specimens of them were added to the Museum's Cuthbert Rookery diorama. (9)
place: Bogotá (national district)
(Expedition Site)
dates: 1913 January 8-1913 May
Fuertes's second expedition to Columbia (onboard the Zacapa) on behalf of the Museum (South America Ornithology Expedition). Other members were Chapman, George K. Cherrie, Paul Howes, Thomas Ring, and Geoffrey O’Connell. They studied bird life and collected birds for Magdalena Valley diorama─over two thousand specimens were brought back─and observed Bogotá. (10)
place: Heron Lake (lake)
(Expedition Site)
dates: 1914
Chapman and Fuertes collected here on behalf of a diorama. (11)

Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

: American Museum of Natural History
colleagueOf: Chapman, Frank M. (Michler)
associated dates: 1896-1927
Creator of American Museum of Natural History's Hall of North American Birds. The curator of birds traveled extensively with Fuertes. After Fuertes's death, Chapman purchased his artwork for the Museum. (12)
: Fuertes, Estevan Antonio
Louis’s father (born in Puerto Rico), an engineer, became a dean at Cornell University in 1903.

Related Resources

creatorOf: Louis Agassiz Fuertes artwork and other material
Four collections in American Museum of Natural History, Department Orinthology Archives: artwork (21 linear feet); exhibition posters, plaques, and so on (3.5 linear feet); art collection card index (2 linear feet); and correspondence (1.5 linear feet) (ORN 51, ORN 224, ORN 10, ORN 192).
subjectOf: Souvenir of the Harriman Alaska Expedition, May-August, 1899
Two volumes illustrated with photographs from the 1899 voyage. Fuertes’s colleagues included John Burroughs, John Muir, and Edward S. Curtis. AMNH local call number RF-37-D.
subjectOf: Chapman Colombian Expedition Field Photographs
associated dates: 1911-1912
This collection contains 375 photonegatives of fieldwork from the American Museum of Natural History's 1911-1912 Chapman Colombian Expedition. Fuertes is represented in prints from the 1911-1912 and 1913 expeditions. AMNH local call number: Photographic collection number 45.
subjectOf: Abyssinia [videorecording]
associated dates: 1926-1927
Filmed by Charles Suydam Cutting (with Alfred M. Bailey) during the Field Museum-Chicago Daily News Abyssinian Expedition, 1926-1927 (Ethiopia). Fuertes is included in the footage. AMNH local call number: Film Collection no. 163.
creatorOf: Louis Agassiz Fuertes Papers, 1892-1954, 1892-1927 (bulk)
Cornell University holds the bulk of Fuertes’s papers (Collection Number 2662). Also available: Louis Agassiz Fuertes Image Database and Fuertes’s journal from the Harriman Alaska Expedition (1899).
subjectOf: Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927
His record in Social Networks and Archival Context contains links to collections and visual information.

Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927

Show/Hide All Variant Names