DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT 
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ON THE OCCASION OF HIS EIGHTIETH 
BIRTHDAY TO EMPHASIZE HIS LONG DEVOTION TO SCIENTIFIC 
WORK AND HIS SERVICES TO THE MUSEUM 
HE month of March, 1915, brings 
the eightieth anniversary of the 
birth of Daniel Giraud Elliot, 
the man who with the late Professor 
Albert S. Bickmore shares the honor of 
being one of the two scientific founders 
of the American Museum of Natural 
History. The original collection of 
birds belonging to Dr. Elliot was the 
nucleus of the Museum’s later riches 
and his purchases and gifts laid the 
foundation of the great department of 
mammals and birds. Also from the 
standpoint of knowledge in natural 
history, he was authority in New York 
City at the time of the foundation of 
the Museum, the best-equipped, practi- 
cally the only man able to give advice 
in scientific matters relating to the 
institution. Thus to the trustees of 
the Museum, men of business who 
wished to promote science and build up 
a great educational and scientific institu- 
tion, Dr. Elliot was an efficient guide. 
Professor Bickmore conceived the idea 
of the Museum; he gave his effort to 
create interest in the plans and to raise 
funds to carry them out, but he came 
to Dr. Elliot for advice involving scien- 
tific knowledge. 
In the winter of 1868-69 when Pro- 
fessor Bickmore had just returned from 
the Malay Archipelago and the charter 
for the Museum had lately been given 
to the body of New York merchants, he 
especially depended upon Dr. Elhot for 
advice. He hoped also to obtain Elhot’s 
collection of birds to start the exhibits 
of the new Museum. The collection 
consisted of some one thousand speci- 
mens, a large number for that early 
time, covering most of the described 
species of North America. It had been 
accumulated during a period of ten to 
fifteen years, in fact ever since Elliot’s 
early boyhood. This collection at the 
moment was of considerable concern to 
Elliot because he was planning to go 
abroad for an indefinite period of study. 
No storage building at that time was 
fireproof and there was also the danger 
from moths. ‘Therefore when Professor 
Bickmore suggested that he dispose of 
the collection to the new Museum, he 
accepted the plan. This particular col- 
lection was the first material of any kind 
the Museum obtained. It was turned 
over to J. G. Bell, then the leading tax1- 
dermist in New York, and as fast as 
mounted the birds were put on exhibition 
in the Arsenal in Central Park, where the 
Museum had its temporary quarters. 
Among the specimens in this collec- 
tion were five of the Labrador duck.! 
1The following facts were gained from Dr. 
Elliot regarding the disappearance of the Labra- 
dor duck at the time he was a boy: 
The cause of the extinction of the Labrador 
duck is a mystery. The bird was a strong flier 
and a sea duck, having no special enemies that 
anyone knew of, and in the earliest part of the last 
century was a very common bird. Imperceptibly 
its numbers began to grow less, a fact that at 
first excited very little comment. When Elliot 
as a boy in continually adding to his bird collec- 
tion visited the New York markets, especially 
Washington and Fulton, he would find many 
Labrador ducks hanging up for sale, sometimes 
as many as would make a barrel of them. After 
a few years, he found however, that the full- 
plumaged males did not appear, that the birds 
the markets received were mostly females and 
young males. Then it began to dawn upon those 
interested that the bird was gradually becoming 
extinct, and it seemed from that time on to fade 
rapidly out of existence. ‘The last bird that Dr. 
Elliot received, a splendidly full-plumaged male 
which is in the Museum now, was killed on Long 
Island. 
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