Elsa Guerdrum Allen (1888,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

– 29 January 1969,

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the ...

) was an American ornithologist, lecturer, author and historian of ornithology, known for her 1951 book ''The history of American ornithology before Audubon''. Elsa Guerdrum received her B.S. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1912 and married the ornithologist Arthur A. Allen in August 1913. They had five children, all of whom were born between 1918 and 1927. She earned a Ph.D. in zoology from Cornell in 1929. Most of her scholarly work dealt with the history of ornithology in North America before 1830. According to Alan Feduccia, the first major archival study of Mark Catesby's life was Elsa Allen's 1937 article in ''

The Auk ''Ornithology'', formerly ''The Auk'' and ''The Auk: Ornithological Advances'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official publication of the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It was established in 1884 and is published quarterly. ...

''. Her unpublished work includes a biographical study of John Abbot, a novel "The Story of Lalla", her diaries from 1912 to 1966, and "Minerva's Daughter".Guide to the Elsa Guerdrum Allen Papers, 1885–1976, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
/ref> she died in New York at age 81

Selected publications

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Jacques le Moyne Jacques le Moyne de Morgues ( 1533–1588) was a French artist and member of Jean Ribault's expedition to the New World. His depictions of Native American life and culture, colonial life, and plants are of extraordinary historical importa ...

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Nicolas Denys Nicolas Denys (1598? – 1688) was a French-born merchant, governor, author, and settler in New France. He founded settlements at St. Pierre (now St. Peter's, Nova Scotia), Ste. Anne (Englishtown, Nova Scotia) and Nepisiquit (Bathurst, New Br ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Elsa Guerdrum 1888 births 1969 deaths American ornithologists Women ornithologists Cornell University alumni 20th-century American zoologists