RIDGWAY, Robert, ornithologist, was born in Mount Carmel, Ill.,
July 2, 1850; son of David and Henrietta James (Reed) Ridgway, and
grandson of Richard and Sarah Ridgway and of Joseph and Eliza (Bell)
Reed. He was educated in the public schools, and at an early age turned
his attention to natural history. He served as zoölogist to the U.S.
geological exploration of the 40th parallel under Clarence King in
California, Nevada, southern Idaho, and Utah, 1867–69; was occupied
chiefly with government work, 1869–80, and was curator of the
ornithological division of the U.S. National museum from July 1, 1880.
He was married, Oct. 12, 1875, to Julia Evelyn, daughter of Horace and
Elizabeth (Nichols) Perkins of New York city. He was one of the founders
of the American Ornithologists' union in 1883; its vice-president,
1883–98, and its president, 1899–1900. He received the degree M.S., from
the Indiana State university in 1884; was a member of the permanent
ornithological committee of the first international congress at Vienna
in 1885, and an honorary member of the second congress Ornithologique
International at Budapesth in 1891. He became a corresponding member of
the Zoölogical society of London, and of the Academies of Science of New
York, Davenport, Ia., and Chicago, Ill.; a foreign member of the
British Ornithologists' union; an honorary member of the Nuttall
Ornithological club of Cambridge, Mass., the Brookville, Ind., Society
of Natural History, the Ridgway Ornithological club of Chicago, Ill.,
and a member of the committee of patronage of the International Congress
of Zoölogy at London. He published more than 200 descriptive papers of
new species and races of American birds, many of which appeared in the
"Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum"; several catalogues of North
American and other birds contained in the museum, and is the joint
author with Professor Spencer F. Baird and Dr. Thomas M. Brewer of:
A History of Northern American Birds (3 vols., 1874), and of
The Water Birds of North America (2 vols., 1884), in which he wrote a large portion of the technical parts. He also published:
Report on Ornithology of the Fortieth Parallel (1877); A
Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists (1886);
Manual of North American Birds (1887);
The Ornithology of Illinois (2 vols., 1889–1895), and
The Birds of North and Middle America (8 vols., 1901).
Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Biographies of Notable Americans, 1904 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 1997. Original data: Johnson, Rossiter, ed.. Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. I-X. Boston, MA, USA: The Biographical Society, 1904.
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