Elsie Margaret Binger Naumburg (July 7, 1880 – November 25, 1953) was an American

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Biography

Naumburg was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family 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 ...

, the daughter of Frances (née Newgass) and Gustav Binger. She had three brothers: Robert Binger,

Walter D. Binger Walter D. Binger (January 16, 1888 - March 17, 1979) was a civil engineer and member of the historical preservationist movement in New York City. Early life and education Walter Binger was born in New York City on January 16, 1888. His parents ...

, and Carl Binger. She studied at the Sachs Institute at the University of Frankfurt and at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

, and studied with

Carl Edward Hellmayr Carl Eduard Hellmayr (29 January 1878 in Vienna, Austria – 24 February 1944 in Orselina, Switzerland) was an Austrian ornithologist. Biography Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not complete hi ...

for several years. On returning to the United States she joined the staff of the Bird Department at 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 ...

, under Frank Chapman. She specialised in South American birds. Naumburg's most important work was on the birds of the

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP. Neighboring ...

, based on collections made by

George Kruck Cherrie George Kruck Cherrie (August 22, 1865 – January 20, 1948) was an American natural history, naturalist and explorer. He collected numerous specimens on nearly forty expeditions that he joined for museums and several species have been named after ...

during the

Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition The Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition (Portuguese: Expedição Científica Rondon–Roosevelt) was a survey expedition in 1913–14 to follow the path of the Rio da Dúvida ("River of Doubt") in the Amazon basin. The expedition was jointly ...

led by

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 ...

and

Cândido Rondon Marshal Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (5 May 1865 – 19 January 1958) was a Brazilian military officer most famous for his telegraph commission and exploration of Mato Grosso and the Western Amazon Basin, as well as his lifelong support f ...

. She later employed Emil Kaempfer to collect birds in southeastern Brazil. Naumburg married Victor Reichenberger in 1908, and some of her early publications were under that name. Reichenberger died in 1913, and she married Walter W. Naumburg in 1923.

Works

*"The birds of Matto Grosso, Brazil. A report on the birds secured by the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition" New York (1930). *"Gazetteer and Maps Showing Collecting Stations Visited by Emil Kaempfer in Eastern Brazil and Paraguay" Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 68, Art. 6, pp. 449–469 (1935). *"Studies of Birds from Eastern Brazil and Paraguay, Based on a Collection Made by Emil Kaempfer" Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 74, Art. 3: 139–205 (1937). *"Studies of Birds from Eastern Brazil and Paraguay, Based on a Collection Made by Emil Kaempfer (Concluding part of the study of the Formicariidae)" Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 76, Art. 6: 231–276 (1939).

References

* *Mary LeCro
"Elsie Margaret Binger Naumburg"
Jewish Women's Archive 1880 births 1953 deaths American ornithologists American Jews Women ornithologists People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Goethe University Frankfurt alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American zoologists Naumburg family {{ornithologist-stub