Donald Ryder Dickey

Donald Ryder Dickey

Donald Ryder Dickey, holding a bat
Born (1887-03-31)March 31, 1887
Dubuque, Iowa, United States
Died April 15, 1932(1932-04-15) (aged 45)
Pasadena, California, United States
Nationality American
Fields Ornithology, Mammalogy
Alma mater Yale University
Notable awards Brewster Medal

Donald Ryder Dickey (1887–1932) was an American ornithologist, mammalogist, and nature photographer. He collected 50,000 specimens and produced 7,500 photographs and moving images of nature subjects. At his death, his collection of bird and mammal specimens was the largest private collection in the United States.[1][2]

Biography

Donald Ryder Dickey was born on March 31, 1887 in Dubuque, Iowa, the son of Anna Roberts Ryder and Ernest May Dickey (superintendent of the Diamond Joe Steamship Line).[3][4] In 1902, Dickey and his mother, also an avid naturalist, joined a Sierra Club group hiking King's River Cañon and climbing Mount Whitney. Others on this trip included John Muir, C. Hart Merriam, Dr. Henry Gannett, historian Theodore Hittell and landscape artist William Keith.[4]

Dickey entered the University of California in 1906, but received his B.A. degree (with honors) from Yale University in 1910. His collegiate society memberships included Psi Upsilon, Elihu, and Phi Beta Kappa.[3] He was active in music societies (the University and Apollo Glee Clubs and the College Choir)[5] and was captain of the University Gun Team.[6] During his senior year at Yale, Dickey suffered severe heart failure; he slowly recovered his health during a three-year convalescence, living for a time first in Ojai[5] and later at his parents' home in Pasadena.

Dickey married Florence Van Vechten on June 15, 1921, and became active in community and business affairs, serving as a trustee of the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles (1920–1928), and President of the Board of Pasadena Hospital (1924–1925),[3] and as a director of the Pasadena branch of the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank (1924–29).[7]

Field research

Upon recovering his health, Dickey began to pursue his interests in natural history by photographing and collecting birds and small mammals. He ultimately determined upon a goal of establishing a major research collection on Southern California fauna.[6]

Dickey's field investigations included a 1915 expedition to San Clemente Island, seven summers in Canada, the 1923 Smithsonian-sponsored Tanager Expedition to Laysan Island in Hawaii to study the seabird rookeries there, and trips to Baja California, northern Michigan, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and El Salvador.[8][6] Among his field assistants and collaborators were Adriaan Joseph van Rossem, Laurence M. Huey, Ruben Arthur Stirton and George A. Stirton, William Henry Burt, Henry Hargrave Sheldon, and John Zoeger.[8] In 1925, he was awarded an honorary M.A. from Occidental College,[3] and from 1926, he was Research Associate in Vertebrate Zoology at the California Institute of Technology.[3] His professional memberships included the American Ornithologists' Union, the Cooper Ornithological Society (of which he was a governor from 1926 until his death) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[5] Dickey was posthumously awarded the 1941 William Brewster Memorial Award by the American Ornithologists' Union, sharing the honor with A.J. van Rossem in recognition of their 1938 monograph "Birds of El Salvador."[9]

Dickey's research collection of bird and mammal specimens and still photographs and moving images ultimately comprised 50,0000 specimens, 10,000 natural history books and papers, and 7,500 photographs. In 1926, Cal Tech provided Throop Hall to house the growing collection.[6] In 1940, Dickey's widow donated the collection to the University of California, Los Angeles.[10]

Dickey died on April 15, 1932 in Pasadena, California.

Photography

Dickey's nature photography, in both still and motion picture work, was extensive and widely admired. His photographs are reprinted in The Birds of California by William Leon Dawson (1873–1928) and Life Histories of North American Birds by Arthur Cleveland Bent (1866–1954).

Gambel Sparrow on Log From a photograph, Copyright 1914, by D. R. Dickey Taken in Pasadena. From The Birds of California (1923).

Patronyms

References

  1. ↑ "Donald Ryder Dickey". The Diamond of Psi Upsilon. 18 (4): 254. 1932.
  2. ↑ Muir, John (2004). Branch, Michael P.; Pyle, Robert Michael, eds. John Muir's last journey: South to the Amazon and east to Africa. Unpublished journals and selected correspondence. Island Press. p. 202.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Wood, Casey A. (October 1932). "Obituaries: Donald Ryder Dickey". The Auk. 49 (4): 517.
  4. 1 2 UCLA: Library Special Collections, History and Special Collections for the Sciences. "Finding Aid to the Anna Ryder Dickey collection, 1889-2000". Online Archive of California.
  5. 1 2 3 "Donald Ryder Dickey, B.A. 1910" (PDF). 1931-1932 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University: 125. 1932.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Harris, Harry (1934). "An appreciation of Donald Ryder Dickey" (PDF). Condor. 36 (2): 62.
  7. ↑ "Donald Ryder Dickey, B.A. 1910" (PDF). 1931-1932 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University: 126. 1932.
  8. 1 2 "Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection 1908-1962 (biography)". Online Archive of California.
  9. ↑ Hicks, Lawrence E. (January 1942). "Fifty-nine stated meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union". The Auk. 59 (1): 144.
  10. ↑ "Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology UCLA --". Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Bibliography

External links


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