John Livzey Ridgway (28 February 1859, in

Mount Carmel, Illinois Mount Carmel is a city in and the county seat of Wabash County, Illinois, United States. At the time of the 2010 census, the population was 7,284, and it is the largest city in the county. The next largest town in Wabash County is Allendale, po ...

– 27 December 1947, in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

) (also known as John Livsey Ridgway or John Livesy Ridgway) was an American scientific illustrator and brother of

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 ...

Robert Ridgway Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of bird ...

. Ridgway collaborated with his brother on ornithological illustration and published his own works. Ridgway was born in Mount Carmel, Illinois to David and Henrietta Reed Ridgway, and attended public schools in Illinois. Robert Ridgway brought him to work as a copyist and draftsman for the

United States National Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

in the 1880s. Ridgway was a draftsman for the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

(USGS) from 1884–1918, and its chief illustrator from 1918–1920. He also worked for the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

. In 1920 he moved to California, where he worked for the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

and the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, working for the latter institution up until his death. John Ridgway illustrated several works in the fields of ornithology and paleontology. Notable among these were: * ''Contributions to the Natural History of Alaska'' (1886) * ''Report upon Natural History Collections Made in Alaska between the Years 1877 and 1881'' (1887) . *''Fish and game of the State of New York: Seventh Report Forest, Fish and Game Commission'' (circa 1901). * A series of watercolors of eggs of North American birds that were used as the basis of chromolithographic plates in Charles Bendire's ''Life Histories'' (1892–1895) * Illustrations of Pleistocene fossils at the

(California) in the 1920s. Ridgway authored ''Scientific Illustration'' (Stanford University Press, circa 1938) and ''The preparation of illustrations for reports of the United States Geological survey'' (USGS, 1920).

External links

Ridgway Family Papers at Utah State University

* —describes work on Bendire's Life Histories, work at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgway, John Livzey 1859 births 1947 deaths American ornithologists Scientific illustrators American bird artists 19th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists American male painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists