author
Charles B. (Charles Barney) Cory
1857–1921
A wealthy Boston-born naturalist turned a teenage fascination with birds into one of America’s great private collections, then helped build the Field Museum’s ornithology department. He also wrote widely on birds and game animals, bringing field observation and collecting together in a very nineteenth-century way.
1 Audiobook
Montezuma's Castle, and Other Weird Tales
by Charles B. (Charles Barney) Cory
About the author
Born in Boston in 1857, he became deeply interested in birds while still a teenager and began building a large study collection. That passion grew into a major body of work as an ornithologist and author, with books and papers on birds of the West Indies, the Bahamas, and North America.
When his bird collection outgrew his home, he donated roughly 19,000 specimens to what became the Field Museum in Chicago and was named Curator of Ornithology. After losing much of his fortune in 1906, he took on a salaried museum role and continued his scientific work there for the rest of his life.
He died in 1921, but his name remains closely tied to the early growth of American bird study and museum collections. He is also remembered for a life that ranged beyond science, including outdoor sport and competitive golf.