Daniel Giraud Elliot (March 7, 1835 – December 22, 1915) was an American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and the founder of the American Ornithologist Union.

Life

He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on March 7, 1835, to George and Rebecca Elliot. In 1858, he married Ann Eliza Henderson. From 1869 to 1879, he was in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and established strong links to British ornithologists and naturalists. Elliot used his wealth to publish a series of sumptuous color-plate books on birds and other animals. Elliot wrote the text himself and commissioned artists such as

Joseph Wolf Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820 – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livi ...

and

Joseph Smit Joseph Smit (18 July 1836 – 4 November 1929) was a Dutch zoological illustrator. L.B. Holthuis, Leiden, (1958, 1995) ''Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, 1820 - 1958''. page 47reprint manuscript, PDF Background Smit was born in Lisse. H ...

, both of whom had worked for

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

, to provide the illustrations. The books included ''A Monograph of the Phasianidae (Family of the Pheasants)'' (1870–72), ''A Monograph of the Paradiseidae or Birds of Paradise'' (1873), ''A Monograph of the Felidae or Family of Cats'' (1878) and ''Review of the Primates'' (1913). In 1890, he was President of the American Ornithologists' Union. Elliot became the first curator of zoology at the Field Museum in Chicago, and in 1896, accompanied by

Carl Akeley Carl Ethan Akeley (May 19, 1864 – November 17, 1926) was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwauk ...

, led the museum's expedition to Somaliland, the first African zoological collecting expedition to be mounted by a North American museum. In 1899, Elliot was invited to join the elite Harriman Alaska Expedition to study and document wildlife along the

Alaskan Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

coast.Goetzmann, W.H. & Sloan, K. (1982). ''Looking far north: The Harriman expedition to Alaska, 1899''. New York: The Viking Press. Elliot was one of the founders of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

, of the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

and of the

Société zoologique de France La Société zoologique de France ( en, "Zoological Society of France"), founded in 1876 by Aimé Bouvier, is a scientific society devoted to Zoology. It publishes a bulletin and organises the Prix Gadeau de Kerville de la Société zoologique d ...

Death

He died in New York City on December 22, 1915, of pneumonia.

Legacy

The

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

awards the

Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Gir ...

"for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology published in a three- to five-year period. Established through the Daniel Giraud Elliot Fund by gift of Miss Margaret Henderson Elliot."

Selected publications

A monograph of the Paradiseidae or birds of paradise
by Elliot, Daniel Giraud, 1873
''Catalogue of a Collection of Birds Obtained by the Expedition into Somali-land''
(1897). * ''The Gallinaceous Game Birds of North America, Including the Partridges, Grouse, Ptarmigan, and Wild Turkeys'' (1897).
''Accession Record, Zoology 141''
(1897).
''Catalogue of Mammals from the Olympic Mountains, Washington, with Descriptions of New Species''
(1899).
''Description of an Apparently New Species of Mountain Goat''
(1900).
''The Caribou of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska''
(1901).
''The Deer Family''
(1902, with

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, Theodore S. Van Dyke and A.J. Stone).
''Catalogue of Mammals Collected by E. Heller in Southern California''
(1904).
''The Land and Sea Mammals of Middle America and the West Indies''
(1904).
''A Check List of Mammals of the North American Continent, the West Indies and the Neighboring Seas''
(1905).
''A Catalogue of the Collection of Mammals in the Field Columbian Museum''
(1907). * Review of the Primates, Volume I : Lemuroidea; Anthropoidea (Seniocebus to Saimiri) NY, 191
Smithsonian Libraries

Gallery

File:Daniel-Giraud-Elliot-001.jpg, Hybrid pheasant ''Chrysolophus pictus'' × ''Chrysolophus amherstiae''. File:Penelopides manillae.jpg, ''Penelopides manillae''. File:Tockus fasciatus.jpg, ''Tockus fasciatus''. File:Anorrhinus galeritus.jpg, ''Anorrhinus galeritus''. File:Penelopides panini (Couple).jpg, ''Penelopides panini''.

Footnotes

External links

*
Works by Daniel Giraud Elliot
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

* View works b
Daniel Giraud Elliot
online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliot, Daniel Giraud

Elliot Elliot (also spelled Eliot, Elliotte, Elliott, Eliott and Elyot) is a personal name which can serve as either a surname or a given name. Although the given name has historically been given to males, females have increasingly been given the name ...

Elliot, Daniel Giraud

People associated with the American Museum of Natural History