Harold Elmer Anthony (born April 5, 1890, died March 29, 1970) was a mammalogist and worked at the American Museum of Natural History for over 50 years. He specialized in mammals of the Western Hemisphere and led many expeditions to South and Central America. Anthony was the Chairman and Curator in the Department of Mammalogy and was the Dean of Scientific Staff for several years. The Museum's mammal halls were created under his leadership: Hall of North American Mammals, Akeley Hall of African Mammals and Hall of South Asiatic Mammals. He wrote "Field Book of North American Mammals" (1928) and "Mammals of Porto Rico, Living and Extinct" (1925, 1926, in two volumes).
The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902) was sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to investigate the links between the people and the cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and the Eastern Coast of Siberia. Ostensibly the goal of the expedition was to prove the Bering Strait Migration theory which postulated that the North American continent was populated by the migration of Asian peoples across the Bering Strait. However, Franz Boas, the leader of the expedition was more concerned with documenting the cultures on both sides of the Northern Pacific that he and many other anthropologists feared were soon to be lost to colonialism and acculturation.
The Rainey Asiatic Expedition began in July of 1918 and lasted until the
end of World War I in 1919. It traversed Siberia to the Ural Mountains by
railway. Nominally sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, the
expedition was entirely funded by philanthropist, hunter, explorer and
photographer Paul J. Rainey. Rainey acted as leader and requested Edmund Heller
to join him as scientist and naturalist. (1)