Albert S. BickmoreBorn 1 Mar 1839; died 12 Aug 1914 at age 75.Albert Smith Bickmore was an American naturalist, traveller and museum curator who acquired his love of natural history as a result of growing up in a coastal town. He studied natural history under Professor Agassiz, and shortly also began to care for the department of Mullusca at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. There he conceived the idea of the American Museum of Natural History. By 1865, he set off on a three-year expedition to the East Indies, China, Japan, Russia and Europe gathering specimens to form the basis of the future museum's collection. Upon his return, he devoted himself to indeed establishing the institution, and was able to arrange for its funding. He wrote of his travels in Travels in the East Indian Archipelago (1869). In 1870, he was appointed Professor Natural History at Madison University, Hamilton, New York. The cornerstone of the new building was laid on 2 Jun 1874, by President Grant.« |
