- Ernest Thomas Gilliard
Ernest Thomas Gilliard (
23 November 1912 –26 January 1965 ) was an American ornithologist andmuseum curator who led or participated in several ornithological expeditions, especially toSouth America andNew Guinea .Gilliard was born in
York, Pennsylvania . He began a lifelong association with theAmerican Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York in 1932 by working there as a volunteer. In 1933 he was employed there as an assistant and subsequently passed through the full range of promotions to become Curator of Birds in 1963, dying unexpectedly in office two years later, in his 53rd year, of a sudden heart attack.During the 1930s Gilliard was involved in expeditions to
Quebec , Newfoundland andVenezuela , and in the 1940s toBrazil , thePhilippines andNew Guinea . The 1950s saw more expeditions, not only to New Guinea, but also toNepal and theWest Indies . New Guinea, and especially its Birds of Paradise andbowerbird s, kept drawing him back, and he led a total of five expeditions there, his final one in 1964.As well as numerous papers in the scientific publications of the AMNH, he wrote many illustrated articles for "Natural History" and the "
National Geographic Magazine ". He wrote "Living Birds of the World" (1958), "Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds" (1969), and coauthored (withAustin L. Rand ) the "Handbook of New Guinea Birds" (1967). Gilliard was an expert photographer and cinematographer; he was involved in making the documentary "Search for Paradise" (1957), which was directed by Otto Lang.References
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_n8_v107/ai_21191226 Lawrence, Jenny. (1998). The passionate naturalist - ornithologist E. Thomas Gilliard. "Natural History" (October 1998).] Downloaded 13 March 2007
* Mayr, Ernst. Foreword in: “Gilliard, E. Thomas. (1969). "Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds". Series: The World Naturalist. Weidenfeld & Nicholson: London”. ISBN 0-297-17030-9
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.