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Bickmore, Albert S. (Albert Smith), 1839-1914

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1839 March 1 - 1914 August 12

Biography

Abstract:

Albert S. Bickmore was an American museum curator and superintendent. Bickmore was the principal founder of the American Museum of Natural History.

Albert S. Bickmore was a museum curator and superintendent. Bickmore was the principal founder of the American Museum of Natural History and the organizer and first curator of the Department of Public Education; he was also curator of archaeology and curator of ethnology. After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from Dartmouth, and working at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, Bickmore traveled for three years between 1864 and 1867, through Indonesia, East Asia, Siberia and Europe, collecting specimens and studying ethnology, visiting the Ainu, Gilyaks and other peoples. On his return to the U.S., Bickmore worked with a group of prominent New Yorkers, including Morris K. Jesup, to draw up a petition and plan for an American natural history museum. When the AMNH opened in 1871, Bickmore was appointed superintendent. He developed a series of Lectures to teachers (1888-1903), illustrated with lantern slides, covering all the scientific disciplines in which the museum was involved, which could be presented to school groups or used by teachers in their classrooms. In 1884, he resigned his post of superintendent in order to act as curator of the Dept. of Public Instruction (later named the Dept. of Public Education), established in 1886. Bickmore continued to expand the educational work of the museum, offering lectures to the public and, in collaboration with Columbia University, developing courses in forestry, astronomy, mineralogy and chemistry. He retired in January 1905 to become curator emeritus.

Topics

Found in 10 Collections and/or Records:

Albert F. Bickmore (1839-1914) / Subject's left shoulder "Wm Couper New York"

 Item
Identifier: Art Survey No. 622
Scope and Contents

Portrait bust of Albert Bickmore, AMNH founder and museum educator. Inscription: Extensive on plaque.

Dates: 1909

American Museum of Natural History correspondence regarding acquisition of image negatives, 1895

 Collection
Identifier: DR 140
Abstract

Contains two letters from S.R. Stoddard, publisher of photographs, guide books, and art of the Adirondacks and northern New York State, to A.S. Bickmore. Letters contain lists of images that were requested by Bickmore for which publisher states he will provide negatives. Letters are annotated with locations and numbers. Bickmore may have used these images for lantern slide lectures.

Dates: 1895

Architecture for Dinosaurs lecture slides

 Collection
Identifier: PSC 48
Scope and Contents

Slides for Nina J. Root's lecture titled "Architecture for Dinosaurs" 1992. Covers the American Museum of Natural History's first home in the Central Park Arsenal through the various reconstruction and restorations of the building and exhibit halls.

Dates: 1992

Albert S. Bickmore papers

 Collection
Identifier: Mss .B5351- .B5358
Scope and Contents The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, reports, newspaper clippings and photocopies of journal articles, photographs of Bickmore, and one drawing. The bulk of Bickmore's papers (32 boxes) consists of correspondence, mostly typewritten, relating to his work as superintendent of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and curator of the Dept. of Public Education. Additional material consists of handwritten diaries from Bickmore's travels; the typescript of his...
Dates: 1854-1914; Majority of material found within ( 1865-1903)

Frederick Ward Putnam Agassiz Museum photograph

 Collection
Identifier: PPC .P88
Scope and Contents

Original photograph of the old Agassiz Museum building and a "letter-press description" of the Museum from 1907, with an accompanying letter signed by F.W. Putnam to Albert Bickmore dated Feb. 17, 1910 regarding the old Agassiz Museum building, from the Peabody Museum of Harvard University.

Dates: 1910

Lectures to teachers : [microform]

 Collection
Identifier: Archives Microfilm #70

Edgar A. Mearns correspondence, 1883-1915

 Collection
Identifier: Mss .M43
Scope and Contents

The collection consists entirely of photocopies of handwritten letters. The first letter, dated May 17, 1883, is from Albert S. Bickmore, founder and superintendent of the AMNH, concerning Mearns's proposed donation of a collection of birds. The second letter is from curator J.A. Allen, discussing details of the specimens. Other correspondents include James P. Chapin, Frank M. Chapman, L.P. Gratacap, C. Hart Merriam, Jenness Richardson and Anthony Woodward.

Dates: 1883-1915

Nuttall Ornithological Club photographs of ornithologists and other scientists

 Collection
Identifier: PPC .N87
Scope and Contents

Portraits of scientits that were used in the following publications: Origins and Development of North American Avian Biogeography, p. 392; Contributions to the History of North American Ornithology, pp.387-428.

Dates: 1995?

Department of Public Instruction correspondence

 Collection
Identifier: DR 047
Scope and Contents The archive is arranged in two boxes of 42 consecutively numbered folders, covering the years 1903-1908 (with one exception: a letter dated 1909 in folder 39). It comprises correspondence, administrative paperwork, and other documents regarding the following: (1) planning, scheduling, and ticketing for school and public lectures and for the development and delivery of circulating collections for classroom use; (2) correspondence and orders from the Department to...
Dates: 1903-1909; Majority of material found within 1904-1909

Additional filters:

Subject
Archives Microfilm 2
Department Records 2
Manuscript Collection 2
Photographic Print Collection 2
Ainu 1