Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Lewis, Daniel, 1959-

Title The feathery tribe : Robert Ridgway and the modern study of birds / Daniel Lewis
Published New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, ©2012

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xxi, 346 pages) : illustrations
Contents Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Transcription Notes -- Chapter 1. The Making of a Bird Man -- Chapter 2. The Smithsonian Years -- Chapter 3. To Have or Have Not: America�s First Bird Organizations -- Chapter 4. Bird Study Collections -- Chapter 5. Nomenclatural Struggles, Checklists, and Codes -- Chapter 6. Publications about Birds -- Chapter 7. Standardizing the Colors of Birds: Ridgway�s Color Dictionaries -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Robert Ridgway�s Published Works -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A
Bc -- d -- e -- f -- g -- h -- i -- j -- k -- l -- m -- n -- o -- p -- r -- s -- t -- u -- v -- w -- y -- z
Summary "Amateurs and professionals studying birds at the end of the nineteenth century were a contentious, passionate group with goals that intersected, collided and occasionally merged in their writings and organizations. Driven by a desire to advance science, as well as by ego, pride, honor, insecurity, religion and other clashing sensibilities, they struggled to absorb the implications of evolution after Darwin. In the process, they dramatically reshaped the study of birds. Daniel Lewis here explores the professionalization of ornithology through one of its key figures: Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institution's first curator of birds and one of North America's most important natural scientists. Exploring a world in which the uses of language, classification and accountability between amateurs and professionals played essential roles, Lewis offers a vivid introduction to Ridgway and shows how his work fundamentally influenced the direction of American and international ornithology. He explores the inner workings of the Smithsonian and the role of collectors working in the field and reveals previously unknown details of the ornithological journal The Auk and the untold story of the color dictionaries for which Ridgway is known"--Provided by publisher
"Long forgotten, the Smithsonian Institution's first curator of birds, Robert Ridgway, is one of America's most important scientists. This book centers itself around a biographical treatment of Ridgway, but even more important considers what it meant to be a professional and an amateur in biology in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and shows how the field of ornithology was professionalized as evolutionary theory made its mark on the study of birds"--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Ridgway, Robert, 1850-1929.
SUBJECT Ridgway, Robert, 1850-1929 fast
Subject Ornithologists -- United States -- Biography
Ornithology.
ornithology.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Science & Technology.
NATURE -- Birdwatching Guides.
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Zoology -- Ornithology.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- General.
NATURE -- Animals -- Birds.
Ornithologists
Ornithology
United States
Genre/Form Biographies
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2011050618
ISBN 9780300183450
0300183453