(Bookplate of Ornithologist Ruthven Deane, hand-colored by Mrs

Ruthven Deane (20 August 1851 – 20 March 1934) 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 ...

, noted as a founding member 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 ...

and for his collection of photographic portraits of ornithologists and naturalists.

Early life

Deane was born in

Cambridgeport Cambridgeport is one of the neighborhoods of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue, the Charles River, the Grand Junction Railroad, and River Street. The neighborhood contains predominantly residential homes, many of the ...

. From an early age, he was an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist. As a schoolboy he was a close friend to William Brewster and Daniel French and went on field trips with those two and other boys. At about 18 years of age, he obtained employment in Boston at Dana Bros., a company that imported sugar and molasses from the West Indies. The Boston Fire of 1872 caused him to find employment in the insurance business, where he continued until 1880, when he moved to Chicago to join his brother Charles E. Deane in the wholesale grocery firm of Deane Bros. and Lincoln.

AOU and later

In 1883 Ruthven Deane was one of the main organizers of the American Ornithologists' Union. In 1885 he married. In 1897 the Illinois Audubon Society was organized, the fourth of the state societies, with Ruthven Deane as its first president; he was successively re-elected for the next 16 years, serving as president from 1898–1914. In 1903 he retired from business at the age of fifty-two to devote himself to ornithology. He made available his collection of bird skins to the

Chicago Academy of Sciences (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and donated his collection of 43 albino stuffed birds to the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

. His publications occur mainly in ''

The Auk ''Ornithology'', formerly ''The Auk'' and ''The Auk: Ornithological Advances'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official publication of the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It was established in 1884 and is published quarterly. ...

'' and the ''Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithology Club'', with 112 titles in those two journals. He was a collector of Audubonia, photographic portraits of ornithologists and naturalists, and bookplates.Ruthven Deane Bookplate Collection
Library of Congress. He died in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, aged 82.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deane, Ruthven American ornithologists 1851 births 1934 deaths