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

Lucas, Frederic A. (Frederic Augustus), 1852-1929
birth: March 25, 1852
death: February 19, 1929
Frederic A. Lucas, a naturalist specializing in vertebrate anatomy, was director of the American Museum of Natural History from 1911-1924, then honorary director until his death in 1929. Lucas began his career mounting skeletons of game animals at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, N.Y. In 1882 he went to the U.S. National Museum, where he was curator of the Dept. of Comparative Anatomy, of Vertebrate Fossils, and in charge of exhibits for the Dept. of Biology and the Children's Room. In 1904 Lucas became head of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. At the AMNH, Lucas oversaw the preparation of exhibits for many important new collections, including those of the Roosevelt South American expeditions, the Lang-Chapin Congo Expedition, Carl Akeley's African expeditions, the Vernay-Faunthorpe Indian expeditions, and the Roy Chapman Andrews Central Asiatic Expeditions.
Trustee, American Museum of Natural History.