Robert Ridgway

This article is about the American ornithologist. For the Virginia congressman, lawyer and editor, see Robert Ridgway (congressman).

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Robert Ridgway
Born	July 2, 1850(1850-07-02) Mount Carmel, Illinois
Died	March 25, 1929 (aged 78) Olney, Illinois
Nationality	United States

Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist.

Born in Mount Carmel, Illinois, Ridgway was a protégé of zoologist Spencer Fullerton Baird, who, on becoming the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, appointed Ridgway the first full-time curator of birds at the United States National Museum. He served from 1880 until his death in 1929. Ridgway also published one of the first and most important color system for bird identification, with his 1886 book A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists (Boston: Little, Brown & Co.). In 1912 he self-published a larger work on color nomenclature, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, financed using money from his friend and colleague José Castulo Zeledón of Costa Rica.^[1] Ornithologists all over the world continue to cite Ridgway's color studies and books.

In the Spring of 1867, at the age of 16, Ridgway was hired as the naturalist on Clarence King's Survey of the 40th Parallel. In an undertaking that lasted nearly two years, Ridgway collected many bird specimens and served as a key member on one of the four great surveys of the American West. Upon his return to the Smithsonian, he was taken on in an informal basis until he was formally named as the Curator of Ornithology. Ridgway had nothing more than a high school education (as well as an honorary master's degree in science from Indiana University in 1884, as a sign of gratitude for his supplying them with bird specimens after their museum burned down).^[2] However, he was articulate and literate, and served as the Smithsonian's mouthpiece and representative for many years in the study of birds. Friends and colleagues described him as almost painfully shy, and he generally shirked publicity and the limelight.^[3]

In 1875 he married Julia Evelyn Parker. They had one son, Audubon Whelock Ridgway, who died of pneumonia in 1901 while working at the Field Museum in Chicago.^[4]

In 1899, he was invited to join the famous Harriman Alaska Expedition.

Near his birth home of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, where Ridgway had spent his childhood, was an outstanding characteristic of the man, and in 1916 he removed to Olney, Illinois, where eventually he acquired two properties, the first a tract of eighteen acres located in the country, which he called Bird Haven (located on present day, North East Street, Millers Grove, adjacent to East Fork Lake) and which he developed as a bird sanctuary.

Mrs. Ridgway’s health was such that it was not advisable to live remote from town so that he obtained a home in the outskirts of Olney, which he called Larchmound, where he lived until his death, making regular visits however to Bird Haven and improving the grounds there as opportunity presented. In this seclusion he continued steadily at his task of writing, producing the eighth volume of his Birds of North and Middle America (known as "Bulletin 50") in 1919.

With increasing age it became necessary for him to conserve his strength, and it was no longer possible for him to work the long hours each day that had been his custom. In the following years he frequently expressed a wish to retire, influenced in part by failing eyesight,and at one time made definite application for retirement but at my own urgent request was prevailed upon to continue.

Although Ridgway must have realized that in all probability he would not see his work on Bulletin 50 completed, he continued work on the last two volumes of the series, working particularly on the diagnoses of genera, families, and other higher groups. As a worker of the older school Ridgway's writing was all in long hand, prepared carefully, with an corrections and interlineations required made with meticulous care.

His manuscripts were completed in so legible and accurate a condition that they were given to the printer without necessity of being typewritten,being set in type directly from the long hand copy. To assist in his work thousands of specimens were measured for him by Mr. J. H. Riley and others, and Mr. Riley assisted also in compiling references for the synonymies given under each species. To Dr. Charles W. Richmond, Ridgway also owed much for careful and painstaking aid in the reading of proofs, a tedious task in which Dr. Richmond through long training has become particularly adept, aided especially through his comprehensive and exact knowledge of ornithological literature.

The accuracy of the references in the completed volumes of Bulletin 50 owe much to this aid. As recreation from his literary labors Ridgway chose horticulture and was particularly expert in his knowledge of trees and shrubs. Under his careful tending the grounds at Larchmound were landscaped with such skill and understanding that they attracted much attention, so much so that Ridgway was solicited by others for aid in developing estates.

Ridgway published a number of papers dealing with the woody plants of his region.^[5]The death of Mrs. Ridgway in May 24, 1927, after fifty-two years of wedded life affected Ridgway tremendously.^[6] A widowed sister, Mrs. Lida R. Palmatier, came from California to take charge of Larchmound, and Ridgway continued his writing and his interest in the maintenance of his favored birds and shrubs until a few hours before his death on March 25, 1929, in his seventy-ninth year. Both Ridgway and his wife are laid to rest in their bird sanctuary north of Olney, Illinois called Bird Haven, (located on present day, North East Street, Millers Grove, adjacent to East Fork Lake.)

Ridgway was the joint author (with Thomas Mayo Brewer and Spencer Fullerton Baird) of History of North American Birds (Boston, 1875-1884; Land Birds, 3 vols., Water Birds, 2 vols). He also authored several other books and monographs, and had a total of more than 450 articles and publications to his credit. His largest work, on bird systmatics, was the monumental 6,000-page The Birds of North and Middle America, published by the Smithsonian in twelve volumes between 1901 and 1947. Ridgway finished the first ten before his death, leaving Alexander Wetmore of the Smithsonian to complete the final two volumes.

In 1899, he joined E. H. Harriman on his famous Harriman Alaska Expedition of the Alaska coastline, where he was accompanied by John Muir and a number of other naturalists and scientists, for an extended study of Alaska's coastline flora and fauna.

Robert Ridgway's brother, John Livzey Ridgway (1859–1947) was an illustrator who worked for the Smithsonian, the California Institute of Technology, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

Birds named for Ridgway include the Buff-collared Nightjar, Caprimulgus ridgwayi, Ridgway's Hawk, Buteo ridgwayi, the Aztec Thrush Ridgwayia pinicola, and the Caribbean subspecies of the Osprey, Pandion haliaetus ridgwayi.

References

1. ^ Ridgway, Robert to Ridgway, John Livzey, 8/26/1918, Robert Ridgway Collection, Blacker-Wood Library, McGill University, Montreal
2. ^ University Archives, Indiana University. Details on the conferral of his honorary master's degree in the Board of Trustees minutes for 1884, p.81. Also see the title page for his 1912 work Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, where he lists his title as "M.S."
3. ^ Harris, Harry. “Robert Ridgway, with a Bibliography of His Published Writings,” Condor 30 (1928), 5-118.
4. ^ Harris, 36, and Auk, 1901, v. 18, p. 221, obituary for A.W. Ridgway
5. ^ Wetmore, Alexander. “Biographical Memoir of Robert Ridgway, 1850-1929,” Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 15 (1931), 57-101, which details most of his publications, including all of his plant-related works.
6. ^ Ridgway's correspondence at the Blacker-Wood Library in Montreal details his sense of loss. See, for instance, Ridgway to Wood, Casey Albert, 10/16/1927, Robert Ridgway Collection, Blacker-Wood Library, McGill University, Montreal.

Bibliography

• Barrow, M. V. A passion for Birds: American ornithology after Audubon. Princeton University Press. 1998
• Harris, Harry (1928) Robert Ridgway. Condor 30(1):5-118 PDF
• National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America , Biographical Memoirs, Volume XV, Second Memoir, Biographical Memoir of Robert Ridgway,1850-1929. By: Alexander Wetmore, Presented to the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America, Annual Meeting, 1931. ^[1]

Gallery

A painting of a Bald Eagle by Robert Ridgway in 1893

References

External links

• Ridgway Family Papers at Utah State University
• A Nomenclature of Colors (1886) and Color Standards and Color Nomenclature (1912) - text-searchable digital facsimiles at Linda Hall Library
• The National Academies Press