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Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857-1935

 Person

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 35 Collections and/or Records:

American Museum of Natural History, Department of Preparation and Installation: Diorama and Hall construction

 Collection
Identifier: DR 104
Scope and Content Note This collection spans the planning and development of the Department of Preparations for the dioramas of the various halls. These folders detail the requests and expenditures for the efforts made in travel, models, and sketches. The majority of the correspondence is directed from or to James L. Clark, the Director of the Department of Preparations between the 1930’s-1940’s. Much of the correspondence from James Lippit Clark, is directed to trackers, guides, taxidermists, donors, and...
Dates: 1919-1962

Department of Vertebrate Paleontology correspondence

 Collection
Identifier: DR 084
Scope and Contents

Correspondence relative to the formation and organization of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology. Correspondence between Morris K. Jesup, Henry Fairfield Osborn, C.O. Marsh, J.L. Wortman, J.B. Hatcher, O.A. Peterson, W.H. Utterback. Many letters from Volume II have been removed. Two volumes containing approximately 100 letters.

Dates: 1891-1906

Department of Vertebrate Paleontology field work collection

 Collection
Identifier: VPA 101
Scope and Contents

The Department of Vertebrate Paleontology began sending staff into the field as early as the first year of its founding, 1891. Since then the department has organized and supported decades of seminal field work as it continues to do so today.

Dates: 1880-2000

Department of Vertebrate Paleontology correspondence

 Collection
Identifier: VPA 105
Scope and Contents Department of Vertebrate Paleontology correspondence from 1887-1966, alphabetized by subject or author. Hundreds of scientists worldwide are represented by correspondence and include Alexander Agassiz, Glover M. Allen, Florentino Ameghino, Erwin H. Barbour, Franz Boas, Stephen F. Borhegyi, Robert Broom, Barnum Brown, Hermon C. Bumpus, Edwin H. Colbert, Thomas Alva Edison, Walter Granger, William T. Gregory, Claude W. Hibbard, D.A. Hooijer, William T. Hornaday, Remington Kellogg, Charles R....
Dates: 1887-1966

Edward Drinker Cope papers, 1846-1897

 Collection
Identifier: Mss .C67
Scope and Contents Contains chiefly letters written by Cope to his family and correspondence between him and Henry Fairfield Osborn, some illustrated or with newspaper clippings attached. Also included are childhood report cards, a few mss. of his poems and essays (1854), a pamphlet by him entitled "The marriage problem" (1888), shipping notices from expedition sites (1881-1884), and a copy of his will.Box 1. Letters, 1846-1875 -- Box 2. Letters, 1876-1888 -- Box 3. Letters, 1889-1897. Cope-Osborn...
Dates: 1846 - 1897

Frick Laboratory administrative and personnel records

 Collection
Identifier: VPA 111
Scope and Contents

This collection consists of Childs Frick correspondence. The majority of the papers consern his relationship with the American Museum of Natural History while running the Frick Laboratory as well as his role as museum Trustee.

There is also Frick's correspondence with other scientists and institutions that deals with both research in paleontology and Frick's financial support of their activities.

A very small number of letters are of personal nature.

Dates: 1912-1968

William King Gregory papers, 1889-1948 (bulk 1906-1948)

 Collection
Identifier: Mss .G7441
Scope and Contents The collection consists of administrative, scientific, academic and personal papers, and correspondence. Papers include Gregory's general correspondence with universities, colleges and scientists about his research topics and publications; correspondence with museums about purchasing replicas of fossils; and with students seeking employement. Other papers include lecture notes prepared for zoology classes emphasizing evolution, 1925-1926 and 1939; and manuscripts and notes for his...
Dates: 1889-1948; Majority of material found within 1906-1948

Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935) / Behind subject's shoulder "M. Flinsch Buba 1938"

 Item
Identifier: Art Survey No. 653
Scope and Contents

Portrait bust of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Paleontologist and AMNH President from 1908-1933. Inscription: On base plate "For Him the Dry Bones Came to Life/and Giant Forms of Ages Past/Rejoined the Pageant of the Living." On marble base "Joy Flinsch Buba/1942".

Dates: 1938