American Baptist Home Mission Society, New York City

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 two-volume autobiography (1908); handwritten letters to his family, the earliest dating from 1854, and other personal items including photographs; and a typescript of a report on the work of the Dept. of Public Instruction dated February 9, 1900. The collection also includes a handwritten letter from Cyrus W. Field, dated May 7, 1892, in which he offers his collections of stuffed birds (accepted by Frank M. Chapman) and slides of soundings of the Atlantic Ocean to the museum; newspaper clippings and photocopies of articles about Bickmore and the AMNH; a list of Bickmore's donations to the AMNH; and an undated drawing by P.R. Uhler and Bickmore of a plan for a natural history museum. Correspondents include William Beutenmüller, Frank M. Chapman, Frederick A. Cook, Bashford Dean, Melvil Dewey, George T. Emmons, Louis A. Fuertes, George W. Fuller, J.B. Holder, William H. Holmes, E.O. Hovey, Charles R. Knight, George F. Kunz, Eadweard Muybridge, Henry F. Osborn, President Theodore Roosevelt, Heinrich Schliemann, Ernest Thompson Seton, Nikola Tesla, and A. Hyatt Verrill.