Outram Bangs

author

Outram Bangs

1862–1932

A careful American zoologist and collector, he helped shape early scientific work on birds and mammals in the Americas. His name still appears across museum collections and taxonomic literature more than a century later.

1 Audiobook

Notes on Philippine Birds Collected by Governor W. Cameron Forbes Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College, Vol. LXV. No. 4.

Notes on Philippine Birds Collected by Governor W. Cameron Forbes Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College, Vol. LXV. No. 4.

by Outram Bangs

About the author

Born in Watertown, Massachusetts, Outram Bangs studied at Harvard from 1880 to 1884 and went on to become an important figure in American zoology. He is best remembered for his work in ornithology and mammalogy, especially through his long connection with Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

In 1900, he became Curator of Mammals at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. He published widely on birds and mammals from North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and beyond, and took part in fieldwork including a 1906 trip to Jamaica, which was cut short by dengue fever after he had collected more than 100 birds.

Bangs died in Massachusetts in 1932, but his legacy remained in both the scientific record and museum collections. Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology still identifies an "Outram Bangs Collection," a reminder of how much of his life's work was built specimen by specimen and paper by paper.