Item 0009 - Letter, 12 April 1877

Albert Smith Bickmore was born on March 1, 1839, in Martinsville, St. George, Maine.

He was an American naturalist and one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He attributed his childhood lived on the beach and near a forest to his love of nature and vocation as a naturalist. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Dartmouth College. In 1862, he joined the 44th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers that was sent to Newbern, NC to serve under Major General John G. Foster. They encountered the Confederate Army at Whitehall, sustaining heavy casualties. Bickmore remained unharmed and returned home to resume his studies at Harvard University where he also worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Then he traveled for three years (1864 - 1867) through Indonesia, East Asia, Siberia, and Europe, collecting specimens and studying ethnology. Upon his return to the U.S., he worked with a group of prominent New Yorkers to draw up a petition and plan for an American natural history museum. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City opened in 1871 and Bickmore became its first president and curator. He developed a series of Lectures to teachers (1888-1903), covering all the scientific disciplines in which the museum was involved.

He died on August 12, 1914, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.