William Alanson Bryan
William Alanson Bryan (born December 23, 1875 in New Sharon , Iowa , † June 18, 1942 ) was an American zoologist , ornithologist , naturalist and museum director.
Life
Bryan was born on a farm near New Sharon, Iowa. After his school education and his zoology studies, he graduated in 1896 with a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State College . In 1900 he came to Hawaii and received a curatorial position in ornithology at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum . In June of the same year he married Ruth May Goss, who died in 1904. In 1907 he left the museum and founded the Pacific Scientific Institution, an institution whose aim is to advance biological and ethnological research in the Pacific. He then became professor of zoology on the faculty of the College of Hawaiʻi . In 1909 he married Elizabeth Letson Bryan (1874-1919), who worked as a mussel and snail collector. The malacological collections of Elizabeth Bryan were described by Henry Augustus Pilsbry (1862-1957) in his Manual of Conchology (1912-1914). Bryan, who was a Quaker and prohibitionist , took part in the 1913 and 1918 gubernatorial elections in Hawaii without success. After the death of his wife, he finished his work at the College of Hawai'i and went to South America. In January 1920 he went on an expedition to Easter Island .
From 1921 until his retirement in 1940, he was director of the Museum of History, Science and Art .
Bryan described three bird taxa: Anous minutus marcusi (subspecies of the white headed noddi ), Myadestes lanaiensis rutha (subspecies of Lanaiklarinos ) and the Nihoa honeycreeper ( Telespiza ultima ). In addition, he was the last researcher to detect the extinct soot mamo ( Drepanis funerea ) in 1907 .
Works (selection)
- A key to the birds of the Hawaiian group, 1901
- A monograph of Marcus Island, 1903
- The Pacific Scientific Institution, 1908
- Some birds of Molokai, 1908
- Report of an expedition to Laysan Island in 1911, 1912
- A marine biological laboratory for Hawaii, 1912
- Natural History of Hawaii - Being an Account of the Hawaiian People, the Geology and Geography of the Islands, and the Native and Introduced Plants and Animals of the Group, 1915 [1]
literature
- Jaques Cattell Press: American men of Science , Bowker, 1921: p. 95
- George Norbury: Colonial families of the United States of America , The Grafton Press, 1917: p. 104
- Who was who in American history-science and technology: a component of who's who in American history . Marquis Who's Who, 1976: ISBN 978-0-8379-3601-7 : p. 79
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bryan, William Alanson |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American zoologist, ornithologist, naturalist, and museum director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1875 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | near New Sharon , Iowa |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 18, 1942 |