George Miksch Sutton (May 16, 1898, Bethany, Nebraska – December 7, 1982) was an American ornithologist and bird artist. He published numerous technical papers in ornithology as well as more popular works illustrated with his own art. His early artistic work was inspired and tutored by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. In 1931, he was the first ornithologist to find the eggs of the

Harris's sparrow Harris's sparrow (''Zonotrichia querula'') is a large sparrow. Their breeding habitat is the north part of central Canada (primarily the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, ranging slightly into northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan), making it C ...

, one of the last North American birds to have its nest and eggs described. In 1935. he was part of the team of

Arthur Augustus Allen Arthur Augustus Allen (28 December 1885 – 17 January 1964) was an American professor of ornithology at Cornell University. Allen was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Daniel Williams Allen and Anna née Moore. He studied at Cornell Univers ...

during an expedition to the Singer Tract in Louisiana to make sketches of

ivory-billed woodpecker The ivory-billed woodpecker (''Campephilus principalis'') is a possibly extinct woodpecker that is native to the bottomland hardwood forests and temperate coniferous forests of the Southern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and hunting ...

. He did extensive field work in the Arctic (including

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

), Oklahoma, Labrador, and Mexico. He received his doctorate 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 ...

and held academic posts at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

, Norman. The George M. Sutton Avian Research Center in Oklahoma was named after him. His book-length works include: * ''Mexican Birds: First Impressions'' (1951) * ''Iceland Summer'' (1961) * ''Oklahoma Birds'' (1967) * ''High Arctic'' (1971) * ''At a Bend in a Mexican River'' (1972) * ''Portraits of Mexican Birds'' (1975) * ''Fifty Common Birds of Oklahoma'' (1977) * ''To a Young Bird Artist'' (1979) Books illustrated by Sutton include: * ''American Bird Biographies'' (1934); author – Arthur A. Allen, PhD; publisher – Comstock Publishing Company, Inc.; detail – 10 color plates and 10 wash drawings * ''The Golden Plover and Other Birds'' (1939); author – Arthur A. Allen, PhD; publisher – Comstock Publishing Company, Inc.; detail – 7 color plates * ''Birds of Western Pennsylvania'' (1940); author -

W. E. Clyde Todd Walter Edmond Clyde Todd (Smithfield, Ohio, September 6, 1874 – June 25, 1969) was an American ornithologist who worked at the Carnegie Museum. He collected specimens mainly in the arctic zone and was the author of several books. Biography In ...

; publisher - University of Pittsburgh Press; detail - 23 color plates showing 81 species, and 60 pen-and-ink drawings.

References

* * * Sutton, George Miksch (1980). ''Bird Student: An Autobiography''. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press,

External links

George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
''George Miksch Sutton Artist, Scientist, and Teacher''
By Jerome A. Jackson (biography published in 2007) 1898 births 1982 deaths Cornell University alumni American ornithologists John Burroughs Medal recipients University of Oklahoma faculty American bird artists University of Michigan faculty 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American male artists {{US-artist-stub