Robert Thomas ("R. T.") Moore (June 24, 1882 – October 30, 1958) was an American businessman, ornithologist, philanthropist, the founder and
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
of the
Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards
The ''Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards'' was an annual series of poetry anthologies first published in 1949. The poems were selected from those published in a given year in English-language magazines and books; in each volume, individual poems wer ...
. In his obituary,
Lionel Stevenson wrote, "Robert Thomas Moore was an exceptional amalgam of the poet, the scientist, and the man of affairs."
Moore was the son of Henry D. Moore, a wealthy
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
businessman.
Moore earned a bachelor's degree from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1904 and an M. A. from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1905 in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
.
Moore's father was from
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, and owned a family vacation camp at
Big Benson. Moore purchased land on Borestone Mountain in Maine and began the Borestone Mountain Fox Company. The Company ran several
fur farms that raised
fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
es for their pelts, which were used for
fur garments.
In 1921 the Borestone Mountain farm was referred to as "the leading ranch in North America". In the 1920s Moore opened the Borestone Mountain Ranch, which was a fur farm near
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is a snow and rain fed lake, having no other means of tributaries or mechanical replenishment. At a surface elevation of , it ...
in
southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
.
In addition to his business activities, Moore was an active ornithologist who published about 60
scientific papers
: ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.''
Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scienti ...
.
From 1911–1916 Moore edited ''
Cassinia
''Cassinia'' is a genus of about fifty-two species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae that are native to Australia and New Zealand. Plants in the genus ''Cassinia'' are shrubs, sometimes small trees with leaves arranged alternately, a ...
'', which is the journal of
the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club. Moore moved to California around 1929, and became an associate of the Department of Zoology at 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 ...
. In 1933 he hired Chester C. Lamb to help build his
collection of birds; Lamb worked with Moore on the project for 22 years, collecting ~40,000 bird and mammal specimens in Mexico from 1933 until 1955. Herbert Friedmann has written that Moore's "great achievement was his forming of the Moore collection, containing about 65,000 birds, over 80 percent of which are from Mexico, and 1,000 mammals, now housed in a building given by him to
Occidental College
Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...
in Los Angeles, with an endowment for its maintenance and for furthering studies on American birds, particularly those of Mexico and adjacent areas."
The Moore Laboratory of Zoology at Occidental College is still in operation half a century following Moore's death; the present director is Dr. John E. McCormack. Friedmann also particularly notes Moore's discovery of two new bird species and a genus;
Moore is credited at the
Integrated Taxonomic Information System
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagenc ...
with the discoveries of five bird species (the
tufted jay, the
masked mountain-tanager, the
maroon-fronted parrot
The maroon-fronted parrot (''Rhynchopsitta terrisi'') is a large, macaw-like parrot. It is dark green with a dark red shoulder and a maroon forehead and eye-stripe. Its underside of the wings and tail appear to be black when it is in flight. It m ...
, the
short-crested coquette, and the
Balsas screech-owl
The Balsas screech owl (''Megascops seductus'') is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is endemic to Mexico.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Balsas screech owl is monotypic.
Description
The Balsas screech owl is among the larger mem ...
) and thirty subspecies.
Moore was first to
climb the Ecuadorean
stratovolcano
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...
Sangay
Sangay (also known as Macas, Sanagay, or Sangai) is an active stratovolcano in central Ecuador. It exhibits mostly strombolian activity. Geologically, Sangay marks the southern boundary of the Northern Volcanic Zone, and its position straddlin ...
in 1929.
From 1934–1938, Moore chaired the Galápagos Commission of Ecuador, which has worked to conserve the natural history of the
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...
.
In 1940, he was elected a Fellow of the
American Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...
.
In 1946, Moore established the
Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards
The ''Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards'' was an annual series of poetry anthologies first published in 1949. The poems were selected from those published in a given year in English-language magazines and books; in each volume, individual poems wer ...
.
In 1949, he published an anthology of poems selected from those published in 1948 by English-language magazines around the world; the authors of several of these poems were awarded cash prizes by a panel of noted poets working as volunteer judges. The prizes and publication of the anthology were continued annually through 1977, well past Moore's death in 1958. Moore had established a charitable foundation
A foundation (also a charitable foundation) is a category of nonprofit organization or charitable trust that typically provides funding and support for other charitable organizations through grants, but may also engage directly in charitable act ...
to underwrite the expenses of administering the prizes and publishing the anthology.
Upon his death, Moore bequeathed the land he owned on Borestone Mountain
Borestone Mountain is a mountain in Piscataquis County, Maine. It is a popular hiking spot near the center of the state, with a trailhead located on Mountain Road near Willimantic. The mountain is part of the Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary ...
to the Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...
; the Audubon holdings were later enlarged by additional gifts from Moore's son and daughter and from others to its present size of . In 2000, ownership of the sanctuary was transferred to the Maine Audubon Society; the sanctuary is open to hikers, and incorporates the Robert Thomas Moore Nature Center.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Robert Thomas
American ornithologists
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Harvard University alumni
People from Haddonfield, New Jersey
1882 births
1958 deaths
Businesspeople from New Jersey
20th-century American philanthropists
20th-century American zoologists
20th-century American businesspeople