BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GEORGE NEWBOLD 

 LAWRENCE. 



Spencer F. Baird, who has aptly been considered the Nestor of 

 American ornithologists, possessed, besides the capacity for organiza- 

 tion, the power of guiding as well as enkindling enthusiasm. 



Fortunate was it for ornithological science when, in 1841, Prof. 

 Baird and ]\Ir. George X.Lawrence formed an acquaintanceship, which 

 soon ripened into a close and lasting intimacy. Stimulated by this, 

 Mr. Lawrence then commenced the scientific study of birds. From his 

 earliest recollection, however, birds had attracted him and he had paid 

 considerable attention to tliem. 



George Newbold Lawrence was born in the city of New York, where 

 he has always resided, on October 20, 1806. His parents were both of 

 English stock; his father's ancestors, coming to this country in 1635, 

 finally settled in New York, and those on his mother's side located in 

 Burlington County, N. J., in 1681. 



His business career was an active and successful one, he having at the 

 early age of twenty entered into a partnership, with his father and 

 others, in the wholesale drug business in New York City. In this he 

 continued for thirty-six years, devoting assiduously his spare time to 

 ornithology. In his earlier efforts to preserve bird-skins he endeavored 

 to do so without removing the body of the bird, lacking as yet the 

 counsel of a skilled taxidermist. This indicates that he felt an irre- 

 sistible spur to action, the impelling force of all earnest souls. 



Kepeatedly he was of service to the Smithsonian Institution in the 

 details of outfitting expeditions for field work, and in many ways aided 

 Prof. Baird in scientific matters. He took the initiative in organizing 

 the Ober expedition to the Lesser Antilles. 



He became a near neighbor of John James Audubon at about the 

 close of the life of that illustrious naturalist, and was very familiar 

 with his sons Victor and John. For the many years covered by his 

 activity in ornithology he has conducted an extensive correspondence, 

 embracing most of the naturalists throughout the world, particularly 

 those interested in ornithology. 



His collection of bird-skins of great scientific value, numbering about 

 8,000 specimens, and containing some 300 types of new species of birds, 

 was deposited in the American Museum of Natural History, New York 

 City, in May, 1887. 



