author
Charles B. (Charles Barney) Cory
1857–1921
Best known as a pioneering American ornithologist, he turned a lifelong passion for birds into influential studies of Caribbean and North American species. His work also helped shape major museum collections and early scientific publishing in the field.
1 Audiobook
Montezuma's Castle, and Other Weird Tales
by Charles B. (Charles Barney) Cory
About the author
Born in Boston in 1857, Charles B. Cory developed an interest in birds while still young and built an important ornithological collection. He became known for studying the birdlife of the Caribbean, especially the West Indies, and wrote works including The Birds of Haiti and San Domingo and The Birds of the West Indies.
Cory was one of the founders of the American Ornithologists' Union and later worked with the Field Museum in Chicago, where his collection and research supported the museum's growing importance in natural history. He also contributed to larger reference projects on the birds of the Americas and was respected as both a collector and a prolific writer.
Outside ornithology, he was known as an outdoorsman and golfer, which gives his career an appealingly wide range. He died in 1921, but his name remains closely tied to early American bird study and to the development of museum ornithology.