Herbert Keightley Job (November 29, 1864 – June 17, 1933) was an American lecturer, bird photographer, conservationist, and writer who worked as an economic

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 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

Life and career

Job was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Daniel Ward and Susan Grey (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Adams) Job. He received a BA from Harvard in 188 and graduated from the

Hartford Theological Seminary The Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary) is a Private university, private Seminary, theological university in Hartford, Connecticut. History Hartford Seminary's origins date back to 1833 when th ...

in 1891 and became a Congressional pastor in N. Middleboro, Massachusetts, and later in Connecticut. He became the state ornithologist for Connecticut and also served as faculty at the

Connecticut Agricultural College The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

from 1908 to 1914 and served as an economic ornithologist from 1914 to 1924. He also established an ornithological station at Amston, Connecticut, and served as a field agent for the Audubon Society in South Carolina. He married Elsie Anne Curtiss (1865) on September 10, 1891, at Mayville and they had a son and a daughter. Herbert K

Conservation work

Job was an early promoter of bird conservation, to him birds were creations of God and citizens had a "holy obligation" to protect them and their nests. He sought the protection of the Florida Keys and considered it a memorial to

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

. He followed on the footsteps of Audubon but where Audubon had shot birds with a gun, he took photographs. Job called for a move away from hunting and towards photography as a substitute sport. Job's book ''Wild Wings'' (1905) caught the fancy of

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 ...

who created the

Key West National Wildlife Refuge The Key West National Wildlife Refuge is a 189,497 acre (766.867 km2) National Wildlife Refuge located in Monroe County, Florida, between Key West, Florida and the Dry Tortugas . Only 2,019 acres (8.171 km2) of land are above sea lev ...

in 1908. In June 1915, Job accompanied Roosevelt on a visit to the beaches of Louisiana, taking photos which are now archived in the Library of Congress. Job's visit to Florida was financed by his church. He lectured on birds around the United States (including Virginia), while also photographing birds in the wild, and wrote several books. Among these, ''Wild Wings'' published in 1905 included a preface by Roosevelt, a fellow Harvard student.

Life and career

Conservation work

References

External links