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The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds Daniel Lewis
Yale University Press
2012
"Daniel Lewis here explores the professionalization of ornithology through one of its key figures: Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institution's first curator of birds and one of North America's most important natural scientists. Exploring a world in which the uses of language, classification and accountability between amateurs and professionals played essential roles, Lewis offers a vivid introduction to Ridgway and shows how his work fundamentally influenced the direction of American and international ornithology. He explores the inner workings of the Smithsonian and the role of collectors working in the field and reveals previously unknown details of the ornithological journal The Auk and the untold story of the color dictionaries for which Ridgway is known."
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Robert Ridgway: With A Bibliography Of His Published Writings And Fifty Illustrations
Harry Harris
Volume XXX, Number 1, pages 5-118
The Condor
1928
A biography of Ridgway with a lengthy bibliography of his published writings up to October 1927.
Opening lines: "RARELY does the genius in any field of intellectual endeavor, especially when the achievements of a long life of labor have resulted in world-wide recognition of his authority, enter the ripening years of his life so little known personally to his public as has Robert Ridgway, now in his seventy-eighth year.Still encompassed in the aura of self-effacing reserve and silent modesty that has ever characterized his social contacts, comparatively few have been privileged an intimate knowledge of his boundless capacity for friendship, or have been permitted to know firsthand those traits of character that stamp him a fine and rare type of man- hood. His studied and inflexible avoidance of any form of personal publicity, extending to his almost sly shirking of the rostrum at all times, together with a self-imposed retirement, will make evident how difficult it has been for the interested public to experience his personal qualities. To the great and ever-increasing body of students who early learn to acknowledge him Dean, the name of Ridgway is at once a monument and a myth."
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Ninety Minutes with Robert Ridgway
Dayton Stoner
The Wilson Bulletin Vol XLVI, Issue 2, pages 90-92
Wilson Ornithological Club
1934
Opening lines: "Contacts with the masters lend inspiration and enthusiasm to the efforts of those who would learn. Such a contact serves as the basis for the present brief narrative. In the course of an automobile trip from Denver, Colorado, to Gainesville, Florida, taken in October, 1927, by Mrs. Stoner and the writer, we recalled, as we neared Olney, Illinois, that this was the home town of Robert Ridgway, who, at the time of his death in 1929, without doubt was entitled to the distinction of being the Dean of living American ornithologists. Accordingly, it was decided to halt at this shrine for a passing visit."
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