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Frick, Childs, 1883-1965

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: March 12, 1883 - May 8, 1965

Biography

Childs Frick was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of the coke and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) and Adelaide Howard Childs.

Frick graduated from Princeton in 1905. He had a life-long interest in natural science, especially the evolution of mammals. In the years after graduating from Princeton he focused on collecting specimens of living fauna for Carnegie Museum, the Field Museum, and the National Museum of Natural History. Since he was interested in evolution of the present mammal forms, his activities shifted to paleontology.

The American Museum of Natural History Department of Vertebrate Paleontology began a long association with Childs Frick in 1916 and in 1920 Frick was elected Trustee of the Museum. Frick was subsequently elected an Honorary Trustee in 1955.

Using his personal fortune to employ a small army of collectors and researchers including Morris Skinner, Theodore Galusha and Beryl Taylor, he established the Frick Laboratory that was based at the Museum. Over the decades Frick and his employees accumulated a collection of over 200,000 fossil mammals, which formed the basis of a series of monographic studies on mammal evolution. The collection was donated to the Museum after Frick's death in 1965. The financial assets of the Childs Frick Corporation, which were donated to the Museum along with Frick's fossil collections in 1968, assisted in the construction of a new, 10-story collection and office building, which opened in 1973.

Childs Frick was a generous supporter of many natural science projects both within and outside of the American Museum of Natural History. This fact is not greatly known since Frick instisted on keeping a low profile.

Sources:
AMNH website
Theodore Galusha, "Childs Frick and the Frick Collection of Fossil Mammals", The Curator, Volume 18, number 1, 1975

Occupations

Topics

Found in 12 Collections and/or Records:

American Museum of Natural History photographic slides of Fine Art collection

 Collection
Identifier: PSC 46
Scope and Contents Slides of fine art sculptures and paintings held in the American Museum of Natural History. Artwork includes Andy Warhol "Endangered Species" (1983) silkscreens, De Lazslo portrait (1908) of Theodore Roosevelt, Roy Chapman Andrews portrait by Charles Arthur Rose (1937), Williams C. Whitney bust"Moquin Prayer for Rain" sculpture by H. A. MacNeill"Theodore Roosevelt as a Rough Rider" by Frederick MacMonnies, portraits of Childs Frick, Morris K. Jesup and others. Three watercolors by Louis...
Dates: circa 1980s-1990s

Barnum Brown papers

 Collection
Identifier: VPA 114
Scope and Contents

The collection consists of Brown's correspondence, notes, images and maps relating to his field work, papers of his second wife, Lilian Brown, drafts of unfinished autobiography, notes and illustrations for his scientific articles, records of his work for the museum, including exhibition halls, records of his commercial work as well as reports from his consulting work for the goverment. The collection also contains papers of Peter Kaisen who was a long-term Brown's assistant.

Dates: 1877-1963

Childs Frick fieldwork and original handwritten field diaries, 1927-1950

 Series
Identifier: VPA 108
Scope and Contents Childs Frick's original handwritten field diaries. All have been retyped and the copies are housed elsewhere. Box 1 contains a black looseleaf notebook and 15 handwritten notebooks. Boxes 2-4 contain notebooks of handwritten lists. The Pliocene Fund, established by Childs Frick, financed certain work carried out in field explorations for fossilized remains of extinct mammals in Vertebrate Paleontology. The Frick expeditions were undertaken by field parties working in various...
Dates: 1927-1950

Correspondence and diaries, 1906-1993

 Series
Identifier: VPA 127
Scope and Contents This series is composed of 33 boxes containing the notebooks, diaries, correspondence, photographs, and other personal papers of Morris F. Skinner. It is a consolidation of the old VPA collections 24, 27a, and 27b. Boxes 1 & 1A through 19 (1906 – 1982) contain personal papers, correspondence, administrative documents,, field and study notes, maps, charts, photographs, original plates, drawings, materials for his bison study. Box 13 also contains an oral history interview...
Dates: 1906-1993

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

Charles H. Falkenbach papers

 Collection
Identifier: VPA 119
Scope and Contents Charles H. Falkenbach Administrative Files contain correspondence, AMNH pension fund records, expense accounts, specimen exchanges, field work accounts, manuscript notes, and geological surveys. The collection is arranged by individuals, institutions, and by subject. Box 1 (1927-1961) contains correspondence from A to Christman; Box 2 (1956-1959) contains correspondence from Davies to Frick; Box 3 (1956-1962) contains correspondence from Frick to Schultz; Box 4 (1950-1951)...
Dates: 1916-1962; Majority of material found within 1940-1962

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

Charles C. Mook papers

 Collection
Identifier: VPA 123
Scope and Contents Mook's papers consist of two folders containing annotated manuscripts, pencil illustrations and charts on fossil mammals and reptiles with notes and exchanges with William King Gregory, William Diller Matthew and Childs Frick. The collection includes materials for courses at Columbia University and outlines of lectures by various lecturers. The materials are organized into two folders and are roughly chronological, though many items are undated. There is also correspondence and...
Dates: 1900-1966