William Tufts Brigham

William Tufts Brigham (1841-1926) was an American geologist, botanist, and ethnologist who was the first director of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

Biography

William Tufts Brigham was born on May 24, 1841. After finishing the Boston Latin School he attended the Harvard University and graduated with the degree Master of Arts in 1862. In 1864 he studied Botany and from 1864 and 1865 he accompanied botanist Horace Mann Jr. on Botanical surveys to the Hawaiian Islands where they discovered many new plant taxa. By 1892 he became the first curator of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum and from 1898 until his retirement in 1918 he was the first director of that museum. He died on January 30, 1926.

Brigham was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the California Academy of Sciences, of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

The Hawaiian lobelioid genus Brighamia was named in his honour.

Works (selected)

*"Bibliography of the Hawaiian Islands" (with Sanford B. Dole), 1869
*"Cast catalogue of antique sculpture; With an introduction to the study of ornament", 1874
*"Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands", (with Charles Nordhoff) ( [http://www.archive.org/details/nocaloregsand00nordrich Online] ), 1875
*"Guatemala: The Land of the Quetzal", 1887
*"Hawaiian feather work", 1899
*"An index to the islands of the Pacific Ocean : a handbook to the chart on the walls of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History", 1900
*"A handbook for visitors to the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History" ( [http://www.archive.org/details/handbookforvisit00bernrich Online] ), 1903
*"Additional notes on Hawaiian feather work", 1903
*"The ancient Hawaiian house", 1908
*"The volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii : their variously recorded history to the present time", 1909

References

*Roger G Rose: "A museum to instruct and delight: William T. Brigham and the founding of Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication)] " Greenwood Press (September 1982) ISBN 978-0313220616

External links

* [http://www.bishopmuseum.org/press/aboutus.html Bishop Museum Press]
* [http://angel.library.ubc.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/bookplate&CISOPTR=478&REC=5 Short Biography]