William Earl Dodge Scott (April 22, 1852 – August 21, 1910) 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 ...

and naturalist.

Biography

Scott was born to Moses Warren Scott and Juliet Ann Cornell. He was the grandson of notable surgeon

Joseph Warren Scott Joseph Warren Scott (November 21, 1778 – April 27, 1871) Colonel in U.S. Army who lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was born to Moses Scott, the senior surgeon during the US Revolutionary War. Moses named Joseph Warren Scott I, for his f ...

. Scott, like his recent ancestors, attended university, first at

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 teach an ...

, before transferring to

Harvard 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 ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

to study natural history. While at Harvard, Scott befriended the young group of ornithologists, such as William Brewster,

Henry Wetherbee Henshaw Henry Wetherbee Henshaw (March 3, 1850 – August 1, 1930) was an American ornithologist and ethnologist. He worked at the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology from 1888 to 1892 and was editor of the journal ''American Anthropologist''. Biography Early l ...

, Ruthven Deane,

Daniel Chester French Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, best known for his 1874 sculpture ''The Minute Man'' in Concord, Massachusetts, and his 1920 monume ...

, Charles Johnson Maynard, and Henry Augustus Purdie, all of whom founded the first ornithological organization in the country, the

Nuttall Ornithological Club The Nuttall Ornithological Club is the oldest ornithology organization in the United States. History The club initially was a small informal group of William Brewster's childhood friends, all of whom shared his interest in ornithology. These fr ...

. In 1873, he graduated from Harvard, and in 1874, he went to the

Penikese Island Penikese Island is a island off the coast of Massachusetts, United States, in Buzzards Bay. It is one of the Elizabeth Islands, which make up the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts. Penikese is located near the west end of the Elizabeth island cha ...

to study natural history at the Anderson School, which was founded by the recently deceased

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...

. After his schooling, Scott briefly headed West for a while, but ultimately returned to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and found work as a taxidermist until he was hired as acting

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the museum of biology at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1875. In 1897, he became curator of the department of ornithology at Princeton. Throughout these years he made several collecting trips across the country and in Jamaica in search of bird specimen for the university. He died suddenly in 1910 at his home in Saranac Lake, New York.Ibis. Vol. 53, No.3. Pages 556-561, July 1911

Select Publications

* Bird Studies (1897) * Story of Bird Lover (1902) * Birds of Patagonia (1903)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, William Earl Dodge 1852 births 1910 deaths American ornithologists American naturalists Harvard University alumni