ROLLO HOWARD BECK was born on August 26, 1870 in Los Gatos, CA to Laura
Elizabeth Vance Beck and Thomas Beck. His sister, Dr. Edna Beck Keisler, worked
as a missionary in India.
Charles Marcus Breder (1897-1983) was an ichthyologist who held curatorial and directorial positions at the New York Aquarium and the American Museum of Natural History, including the Museum’s Lerner Marine Laboratory. His repute rests in part on work in fish behavior, including locomotion, and prodigious writing. Throughout his career he undertook fieldwork within the Americas. Breder died at age eighty-six on October 28, 1983, in Englewood Hospital, Florida.
Frederick B. Butler, (born October 5, 1886, California--died June 20,
1987, California), cartographer and Army engineer, who was appointed assistant
topographer for the 1925 field season of the Third Asiatic Expedition. After
graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1918, Butler had a
long career in the Army until his retirement ca. 1954.
James Paul Chapin (1889-1964) was a noted Ornithologist and former Curator
at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. At the age of 19 he
took the role of assistant to the American Museum Congo Expedition (1909-1915).
This began his life-long association with that region and established his place
as an expert on the birds of the Congo. A graduate of Columbia University,
Chapin worked at the Museum from 1905 until his official retirement in 1948,
after which he took the role of research associate in African Ornithology and
curator emeritus until his death.
JOSE GONCALVES CORREIA was born on January 27, 1881 in Flamengos, Fayal
Island, in the Azores to Anna Correia (née Jacintha) and Jose Goncalves Correia.
He had two brothers, Manuel and John, and two sisters, Mariana Goncalves and
Margarida de Rosa.
WILLIAM F. COULTAS acted as leader of the Whitney South Sea Expedition
from April 1925 to October 1935. The Whitney South Sea Expedition was an
ornithological expedition originated by Dr. Leonard C. Sanford and funded by
Harry Payne Whitney, with the mission of systematically exploring Polynesia,
Melanesia, and Micronesia for previously undiscovered or little-known bird
specimens. It was the largest ornithological expedition ever conceived. Active
field research was conducted from 1920 to 1941.
C. Suydam Cutting was born in New York City in 1899, and died in 1972. He was the son of Robert Fulton Cutting (1852-1934). Cutting senior was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, and a banker; politician; society figure; and philanthropist.(1) C. Suydam Cutting served in both world wars and was a decorated veteran. He had a Croix de Guerre (with gold star) and Croix Noire from the French. He was also an Honorary Commander, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. (2)
George Clyde Fisher, known as Clyde, was a scientist and educator who
worked for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) from 1913 until his
retirement in 1941. He worked in the Department of Education before his
involvement in the development of the Astronomy department. He was instrumental
in the planning and execution of the Hayden Planetarium, and acted as its first
curator when it opened in 1935.
HANNIBAL HAMLIN was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1904 to Hattie Hamlin
(née Bennion) and Cyrus Hamlin. He had two sisters, Sally Cworowsky (née Hamlin)
and Eleanor Vendig (née Hamlin).
Herbert Lang (1879-1957) was a German-born taxidermist, mammalogist, naturalist and photographer. He was originally employed by the American Museum of Natural History in 1903 as taxidermist in the presentations department, and worked for that institution for almost twenty-three years. He is best known as the leader and photographer of the 1909-1915 American Museum Congo Expedition. He later acted as a Curator in the Department of Mammalogy, and would continue to participate in research expeditions. Although he maintained association with the American Museum of Natural History, he moved to South Africa in 1925 and began a working relationship with the Transvaal Museum. He is well-respected for his wildlife and ethnographic photographs.
THOMAS LINDSAY MACMILLAN was born in 1906 on Tanna, an island in Vanuatu
(New Hebrides) to an Australian father who was a doctor and missionary on the
island. He spent most of his life in this island group and Australia, working as
a farmer, managing a mission, and for five years as leader of the American
Museum of Natural History Whitney South Sea Expedition. For the Whitney South
Sea Expedition, he explored and collected in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides
island groups.
William James Morden was born in Chicago, Ill. on January 3, 1886 to a
wealthy family with a railroad business. He graduated from the Sheffield
Scientific School of Yale University in 1908 with an advanced degree in
engineering, which he put to use while working for his family’s company before
serving as a lieutenant in the Army Engineers Corps in France during WWI. Morden
began his life as an explorer in 1921 when he took off on his first journey, an
AMNH expedition to the Yukon Territory. Four major expeditions followed which
were also under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History. These
included voyages to central Asia for the Morden-Clark Asiatic Expedition in 1926
and the Morden-Graves Expedition in 1929-1930, and to Africa for the Morden
African Expedition in 1922-1923 and for another expedition conducted 1947 and
again in 1953.