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

Whitfield, R. P. (Robert Parr), 1828-1910; Whitfield, R. P. (Robert Parr), 1828-1910; Whitfield, Robert Parr
birth: 1828 May 27
death: 1910 April 6
R. P. Whitfield, the first curator of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), was, by the time of his death one of the most eminent paleontologists in the world [1,2]. He was self-educated [3] and possessed tremendous drawing skills which work to his specific advantage as a paleontologist [1,2]. Professor Whitfield served the American Museum of Natural History for 33 years [2] and at the time of his death was Emeritus Curator of the Geology Department. He was succeeded by Edmund Hovey in 1909 upon his retirement [1,2,3,4].
Robert P. Whitfield was born in New Hartford, New York to William Fenton and Margaret (Parr) Whitfield on May 27, 1828 [3,5,6]. His father was a spindle maker and as such his first job was working in the family business [1,2,3] for seven years [5]. He attended the Stockport Sunday School and utilized its library during his family’s six-year stay in England [5,6]. This formal instruction ended when his family returned to New York in 1841. In 1847 Whitfield married Mary Henry of Utica, together they had four children [5]. During his employment at the Utica “philosophical” instruments he developed his “considerable skills and drafting ability” [5,6]. Whitfield served as manager of the firm after 1849 [5].
Whitfield, through his association with the Utica Society of Naturalists and his resultant fossil collection was sought by James Hall of the New York State Survey [1,2,3,5,6] whom he began to assist in 1856 [1,2,3,5]. Whitfield succeeded Fielding Meek in 1858 [5]. In 1870, Whitfield was appointed curator of the New York State Museum. During his 20 year association with James Hall, R.P. Whitfield prepared thousands of drawings of various fossil groups including graptolites, crinoids and brachiopods [1,2,5,6] as part of the Paleontology of New York project [1,5,6]. He was also involved with other projects such as the Nevada and Utah Clarence King’s Fortieth Parallel Survey, Black Hills Newton-Jenney Survey in 1875 [5], the Paleontology of Ohio, Canada, Iowa and Wisconsin [1,5,6]. Although this was a productive period, it proved also to be very controversial in that there were often conflicts in authorship between himself and Hall [5,6,7]. During the period 1872 to 1875, Whitfield lectured (informally as part of Hall’s commitment to the institution) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he was however formally appointed as Professor of Geology and served in this capacity from 1876 to 1878 subsequent to Hall’s retirement [3,5,6].
In 1876, the AMNH purchased the James Hall Collection [1,2,5,8,9] and in 1877 Robert Parr Whitfield was hired to curate and care for the collection [1,2,5,6]. Given his association with Hall, Whitfield was the most suitable candidate for this task [1]. Whitfield was initially hired for a period of eight months for $2000 [10]. Whitfield used the Hall Collection to populate specimen cases in the exhibition hall in the West Wing [2] and was in the process of preparing colored maps to show the respective formations associated with the fossils [9].
Professor Whitfield began his tenure at the AMNH as Curator of Geology in 1877 [1,2,3,5,6,8,9]. By 1885 his title was changed to Curator of Geological and Mineralogical Department as the collection grew through donations grew through donations and purchases [11]. His title was again adjusted in 1887 to include conchology (Curator of Geological, Mineralogical and Conchological Department) [12]. There were three more changes to his title over the next number of years : 1891 – Curator of the Department of Geology, Mineralogy, Conchology and Marine Invertebrates [13]; 1891 – Curator of the Department of Geology, Mineralogy and Invertebrate Paleontology [14] and finally by the time of his death in 1910 was Emeritus Curator of the Department of Geology, Mineralogy and Invertebrate Paleontology [15]. Professor Whitfield during his years of service at the AMNH was assisted by various persons, of note are Drs. Luis Gratacap [16] and Edmund Hovey [17]. The former was Curator of Geology from 1880 to 1917 and the latter Assistant Curator of Mineralogy from 1901 to 1909. The 12th annual report mentions a man by the name of A. Woodward as Assistant in Geology [18] who later became the Librarian in 1881 [19] and was responsible for the acquisition of the Whitfield Geology and Paleontology Library which numbered 883 volumes and 912 pamphlets [20].
Whitfield himself published widely [1,2,3,5,6] and was responsible for the establishment of the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History [1,2,5,21] where he published many of his works . The Invertebrate Paleontology database lists Whitfield as having authored 1585 species and collected 2085 specimens. Notable items in his repertoire of works include “Fossils from the Hall Collection” [22] (some of his fossil drawings reside in the Art Collection – 126 art originals from the Hall Collection and 70 from the Lake Champlain fossils), “List of fossils types and figured specimens used in the Palaeontological work of R.P. Whitfield” [23] “Catalog of the types and figured specimens in the Palaeontological Collection of the Geology Department” [24] and description of rudist bivalve specimens from Jamaica [25,26]. Of special note are items from the Whitfield Library, namely his personal copy of “Fossils of the Tertiary Formations of North America: Illustrated by figures drawn on stone” where Whitfield removed all the plates from volume 1, number 1, reattached them onto note leaves, added his notes and annotations and had the book rebound [27]. Within this collection, the original manuscript from Conrad appears with notes on the printed copy from comparison [28].
Hovey in his tribute [2] to Whitfield after his death indicated that Whitfield never went on expeditions but did most of his collecting during his vacations. The Invertebrate Paleontology database indicates 52 recorded collections by Whitfield from locations in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Ohio, Bermuda and Nassau, Bahamas [29] (each donation is recorded within the annual reports). He studied material from the Peary Expedition and also worked on material deposited in the Museum by Francis Child Nicholas from specimens collected in Jamaica [30].
Whitfield was an original fellow of the AAAS, Fellow of the Geological Society of America [3].
Robert Parr Whitfield died peacefully after a long illness on April 6, 1910 [1,2,3,5,6]. At his death he was survived by his son James Edward Whitfield who was a Chemist [6]. He is buried in Rural Cemetary at Albany not far from the grave of James Hall [6].
1828 May 27Birth
1841Returned to the states after ving 6 years in England with his parents
1847Married Mary Henry
1910Curator Emeritus of Department of Geology and Invertebrate Palaeontology
1910 April 6Death after weeks of illness