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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 2 Collections and/or Records:

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

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

Filtered By

  • Subject: Department Records X

Additional filters:

Subject
Correspondence 1
Natural history museums -- Educational aspects 1