American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Lanyon, Wesley E.
Dr. Wesley E. Lanyon (1926-), Lamont Curator of Birds and former chairman in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, was born in Norwalk CT, on June 10, 1926. He received his B.A. degree from Cornell University in 1950 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1955. Lanyon joined the Museum staff in 1957 as assistant curator in the Ornithology Department. He became associate curator in 1963, curator in 1967, and was chairman from 1973 to 1980. He was named Lamont Curator of Birds in 1977. In 1958, he became the resident director of the Museum’s Kalbfleisch Field Research Station in Huntington Long Island where he lived with his family throughout the facility’s operation during the 1960s and 1970s. A publisher of dozens of articles and two books on ornithology, Dr. Lanyon also received numerous awards throughout his distinguished career from the American Ornithologist’s Union, the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund. He retired from the Museum in 1988.