Charles K. Carpenter (born in 1872 in Illinois, died in 1948) was a prominent

minister Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

in northern Illinois and a charter member of the Illinois State Academy of Science. During his years of service as a minister, his avocation was recording observations of nature and preparing study skins and life mounts of animals of the region. After his retirement from the church in 1940, he organized his collections and observations into the Northern Illinois Museum of Natural History, which he maintained at his home in Baileyville, Ogle County, Illinois. After his death in 1948, most of his life mounts were given to a high school, where they remained until 1983 when they were donated to the Illinois State Museum. Many of his bird study skins, egg sets, and photographs were given to Cornell College in

Mount Vernon, Iowa Mount Vernon is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, adjacent to the city of Lisbon. The population was 4,527 at the time of the 2020 census. Mount Vernon is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Mount Vernon ...

; in 1985-1986 these were transferred to the Illinois State Museum. Among his specimens was a life mount of a (now

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

) passenger pigeon, ''Ectopistes migratorius'' ( Linnaeus, 1766), collected by his father, Edwin A. Carpenter (born in 1846 in Pennsylvania, died in 1919 in Illinois). This specimen is one of only 19 complete and 7 partial skeleton specimens of passenger pigeons known to exist in museum collections.Purdue & Webb, ''loc. cit.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Charles K. 1872 births 1948 deaths American naturalists American clergy People from Ogle County, Illinois Scientists from Illinois 20th-century American scientists