Carl Ethan Akeley (born May 19, 1864, Clarendon, New York— died November
17, 1926, Belgian Congo, Africa), taxidermist, sculptor, inventor, explorer, and
naturalist, who led five expeditions to Africa, three of which for the Museum of
Natural History where he gathered specimens for his African Hall Exhibition. He
is the author of the book In Brightest Africa.
In 1920, the Cartier Expedition led by Nels C. Nelson, Curator of North
American Archaeology, accompanied by B.T.B. Hyde, went to Grand Gulch in an
attempt to identify the particular cliff-houses and canyons from which the
museum’s collection was taken.
The Hyde Exploring Expeditions to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico excavated
ancient Anasazi cliff dwelling civilizations and discovered an earlier
"Basketmaker" civilization beneath the canyon floor. The expeditions were
sponsored by Benjamin Talbot Babbitt (B.T.B.) Hyde and and his younger brother
Frederic Erastus Hyde, Jr., were conducted under the auspices of Frederic
Putnam, Curator of Anthropology in the American Museum of Natural History.
Richard Wetherill was the expedition leader and guide. George Hubbard Pepper was
the lead archaeologist. The Hyde expeditions also included ethnological studies
by Aleṧ Hrdlička, who set up a laboratory in Pueblo Bonito.
Libbie Henrietta Hyman (born December 6, 1888, Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1888 —
died August 3, 1969, New York, New York), scientist, zoologist, author, who
researched and published numerous writings on invertebrates. She became
affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History in 1933, when she
accepted a position as a research associate in the Department of Experimental
Biology. In 1943, she was named research associate in the Department of
Invertebrates. She is the author of numerous publications, including: A
Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoology, A Laboratory Manual for Comparative
Vertebrate Anatomy, six volumes of The Invertebrates.
The American Museum of Natural History's 1901-1904 Expedition to China was
one of the first American attempts to study the history and culture of a
literate, technologically sophisticated civilization. Led by Berthold Laufer,
the expedition was intended to be a holistic anthropological study, documenting
the industrial and social life of the Chinese people. Laufer's work encompassed
ethnology, archaeology and physical anthropology; his collections included
books, paintings, inscriptions, bas-reliefs, bronzes, pottery, metal mirrors,
theater puppets and musical transcriptions.(1)
Berthold Laufer was a philologist, anthropologist, museum curator and sinologist. Laufer was born in Germany and studied Asian languages at the University of Leipzig. In 1898 and 1899 he led expeditions to Sakhalin and the Amur River region of Siberia during the Jesup North Pacific Expedition directed by Franz Boas, who became Laufer's mentor. From 1901 to 1904, Laufer worked in China, collecting for the American Museum of Natural History. Laufer moved to the Field Museum of Natural History in 1907, becoming curator of anthropology, and leading two more expeditions: to China and Tibet in 1908-1910, and to China in 1923. Laufer published over 200 works on ethnology, language studies, art, archaeology, and the histories of domestic animals and cultivated plants.