William Brewster

The Ernst Mayr Library has digitized more than 56,000 pages of the journals and diaries of William Brewster, a prolific ornithologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are mostly handwritten volumes that are not suitable for Optical...

William Brewster (1851-1919) was a renowned American amateur ornithologist, serving as a co-founder of the American Ornithologists’ Union, the first president of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and a curator at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology...

This post is part of a series on the collection of ornithologist William Brewster (1851-1919) at the Ernst Mayr Library, written by Elizabeth Meyer, library project assistant. A 1907 journal entry finds Brewster weighing in on the ‘nature fakers’...

This post is part of a series on the collection of ornithologist William Brewster (1851-1919) at the Ernst Mayr Library, written by Elizabeth Meyer, library project assistant. This past weekend I went with a friend to visit October Farm, William Brewster...

This post is part of a series on the collection of ornithologist William Brewster (1851-1919) at the Ernst Mayr Library, written by Elizabeth Meyer, library project assistant. “The conditions which govern the singing of birds are a constant puzzle to me,”...

This post is also published on the Biodiversity Heritage Library blog. As a part of the Field Notes Project, the Ernst Mayr Library is digitizing the journals, correspondences and photographs of William Brewster (1851-1919), a self-trained ornithologist...

This post is part of a series on the collection of ornithologist William Brewster (1851-1919) at the Ernst Mayr Library, written by Elizabeth Meyer, library project assistant. In 1890, Wiliam Brewster (age 39) wrote a letter of encouragement to a younger...

Illustration on an American Long-eared Owl, from 'Birdcraft', New York: Macmillan Co., 1897. See volume on BHL. Modern scientists usually try to minimize their presence when studying wild animal behaviors, but William Brewster’s approach was often up...

Illustration of the cones and needles of the White Pine (Pinus strobus), from 'A description of the genus Pinus,' by Lambert. London: J. White, 1803-1824. See volume on BHL. In September I shared some notes from the Brewster journals on ecological changes...

Moose illustration from 'Our living world; an artistic edition of the Rev. J. G. Wood's Natural history of animate creation', vol. 1, by Wood and Holder. New York :S. Hess, 1885. See volume on BHL In late August 1869, Brewster went canoeing alone in a...