Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857-1935
Dates
- Existence: 1857-08-08 - 1935-11-06
Abstract
Henry Fairfield Osborn was a paleontologist, museum curator and administrator at the American Museum of Natural History. His 45-year career at the museum established it as a leading institution of research and scholarship in the fields of paleontology and evolution. Osborn's interest in paleontology, atypically for his time, derived as much from biology as from geology; in his undergraduate and graduate studies, he concentrated on biology, anatomy, embryology and neurology. In 1891, Osborn began his tenure at the AMNH by organizing and heading the new department of mammalian paleontology, while simultaneously accepting a similar position in biology at Columbia University. The AMNH department, which was eventually renamed vertebrate paleontology, was definitive in the museum's research and mission: the study and teaching of evolution. Osborn began his administrative work in 1899, becoming president in 1908, a position he held for twenty-five years. His strength was in leadership and education rather than empirical science; under his guidance, the museum expanded greatly in physical space and endowment, scientific staff, research and public education. Like his predecessor Albert S. Bickmore, Osborn recognized the need to combine information with entertainment. He popularized paleontology by ensuring that the museum's exhibits did not merely display the researchers' work, but also explained it in an attractive and accessible manner. Osborn, like so many of his contemporaries, was a prolific writer. His attempt to research and publish a definitive record of all the fossil mammals of North America was wildly overambitious, but by the time of his death he had completed substantial works on Equidae, titanotheres, rhinoceroses and Proboscidea, as well as on sauropod dinosaurs; his total publications number 940 (books, monographs, articles and papers), about half devoted to vertebrate paleontology.
Citation:
From biographical note for Osborn's archive collection at the AMNH Library, Mss .O835, written by Ann Herendeen.Topics
Found in 18 Collections and/or Records:
Associate curatorship of Dr. Chester Reeds, 1917-1919
Correspondence among Hovey, Chester A. Reeds, and Henry Fairfield Osborn regarding appointment of Dr. Reeds as Associate Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology.
Budget, 1917-1924
Primarily correspondence among E. O. Hovey, Chester Reeds, and museum administrators regarding budgets for the Department of Geology. Also includes handwritten budgets and notes.
Editorship of Division I papers, 1924
Correspondence regarding Hovey's appointment as Editor of the Publications of Division I and other editorial matters. Minutes of the Committee on Publication.
Faculty meetings, 1923-1924
Correspondence from Chester A. Reeds to museum administrators and scientific staff regarding faculty meetings.
Museum matters, 1910-1915
Primarily correspondence between E. O. Hovey and museum administrators or staff. Also contains quarterly and annual departmental reports, meeting minutes, and "Index to Letters."
Museum matters, 1909-1913
Primarily correspondence between E. O. Hovey and museum administrators or staff. Also contains sketches of museum floor plans, meeting minutes, departmental reports, financial statements, photographs of geological formations, and "Index to Letters."
Museum matters, 1916-1925
Primarily correspondence between E. O. Hovey and museum administrators or staff. Also contains departmental reports, memoranda, and photographs of exhibits and geological formations.
Museum matters, 1911-1912
Primarily correspondence between E. O. Hovey and museum administrators on various museum matters, including Hovey's acceptance of the position of Acting Director of the museum. Contains "Index to Letters" (1 p.).
Museum matters, 1911
Primarily correspondence between E. O. Hovey and museum administrators. Contains "Index to Letters" (1 p.)
Museum matters, 1913-1914
Primarily correspondence between E. O. Hovey and museum administrators. Also contains minutes of Sub-Committee on Publications and statements of Department of Geology receipts and expenditures. Contains "Index to Letters" (1 p.)
American Museum of Natural History
Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5192