Raven, Henry Cushier, 1889-1944

Henry Cushier Raven (1889-1944) began his zoological career in the Department of Preparation of the American Museum of Natural History in 1907. While there he worked with Jesse D. Figgins and Herbert Lang, noted taxidermists. When Figgins moved to the Colorado Museum of Natural History in 1910, he took Raven with him. In 1912, the Smithsonian Institution and William Louis Abbott were looking for a young collector and explorer to carry on Abbott's work in the East Indies. Hearing good reports regarding Raven, they hired him; and he spent most of the next six years in the islands. His travels in the Pacific took him to Borneo, the Celebes, and the Moluccas. Raven entered Cornell as a special student in zoology in 1918 and also served as Curator of the zoology museum. In 1919, the Smithsonian again employed him as a field collector, this time for the Cape-to-Cairo African Expedition. Upon his return in 1920, he entered Columbia and there studied comparative anatomy under William King Gregory. From 1921 to his death, Raven was employed by the American Museum of Natural History as a collector and Curator of Comparative Anatomy. He also held appointments with New York University, 1924-1926; Columbia University, 1926-1944; Johns Hopkins University, 1936-1938; and the New York Zoological Park, 1921-1944. Raven's major research contributions dealt with the distribution of animals in East Asia, the sperm and beaked whales, and the comparative anatomy of primates, especially gorillas.

Henry C. Raven was an American zoologist and anatomist, renowned for his anatomical studies of humans and other primates.

Mostly self-taught, Raven worked for the American Museum of Natural History as taxidermist and collector, before accepting positions on two Smithsonian expeditions: to Borneo and Celebes from 1912 to 1916; and to Africa in 1919. On his return, Raven enrolled in a course at Columbia on the evolution of mammals, and joined the AMNH Dept. of Comparative Anatomy, soon becoming assistant to William K. Gregory. Raven, as field representative and eventually curator, devoted the rest of his career to expeditions all over the world and to the resulting research. He died of malaria, probably contracted on his first expedition.