#  Celebrating Robert Gilbert 

 





June 05, 2020

 

 

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Robert A. Gilbert (1870-1942) was an African-American naturalist and photographer, the long-time assistant to ornithologist William Brewster and a staff member of the MCZ. He was an Associate of the American Ornithologists' Union. The MCZ Archives holds some [correspondence](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/263190#page/1/mode/1up) between Gilbert and Brewster, accessible through the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

   ![handwritten letter on yellow paper](/sites/g/files/omnuum6411/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/library/files/gilbertbrewsterjuly1898_01.jpg?itok=urxLKgEF) 

 

More resources on Gilbert:

An [obituary](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4079251?seq=1) of Gilbert by MCZ curator Glover Allen in the Auk, (v. 59, p. 467, middle of the pdf file).

[Thomas Barbour's report on the death of Gilbert in January 1942 and Allen's passing a few weeks later](/%C2%A0https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41230401). (Annual Report of the MCZ 1941-42)

Ernst Mayr Library blog post from 2016, [Notes from William Brewster: Trials in Wildlife Photography](/blog/notes-william-brewster-trials-wildlife-photography)

A 2017 blog post from Audubon California, [An Early Contributor to our Knowledge of Birds and Nature](https://ca.audubon.org/news/early-contributor-our-knowledge-birds-and-nature)

John Hanson Mitchell's book, [Looking for Mr. Gilbert : the Unlikely Life of the First African American Landscape Photographer](https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01HVD_ALMA512314966970003941&context=L&vid=HVD2&search_scope=default_scope&tab=books&lang=en_US) (2014 e-book edition) or the original 2005 [Looking for Mr. Gilbert: the Reimagined Life of an African American](http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990095394630203941/catalog).



 

 

 



 

 

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