Lucas, Frederic A. (Frederic Augustus), 1852-1929

Frederic A. (Augustus) Lucas (1852-1929) was a museum curator and adminstrator. He was born in Plymouth, MA on March 25, 1852. He received an honorary D.Sc. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1909. Lucas began his career at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, NY. There he practiced taxidermy, osteology and museum technique. He transferred to the U.S. National Museum in 1882 and remained there until 1904. From 1904-1911 he was curator-in-chief of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. In 1911 he became Director of the American Museum of Natural History where he remained until 1923. From 1924 to 1929 he was honorary director.He died in Flushing, NY on February 9, 1929.

Frederic A. (Augustus) Lucas (1852-1929) was a museum curator and adminstrator. He was born in Plymouth, MA on March 25, 1852. He received an honorary D.Sc. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1909. Lucas began his career at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, NY. There he practiced taxidermy, osteology and museum technique. He transferred to the U.S. National Museum in 1882 and remained there until 1904. From 1904-1911 he was curator-in-chief of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. In 1911 he became Director of the American Museum of Natural History where he remained until 1923. From 1924 to 1929 he was honorary director. He died in Flushing, NY on February 9, 1929.

Frederic A. Lucas, a naturalist specializing in vertebrate anatomy, was director of the American Museum of Natural History from 1911-1924, then honorary director until his death in 1929.

Lucas began his career mounting skeletons of game animals at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, N.Y. In 1882 he went to the U.S. National Museum, where he was curator of the Dept. of Comparative Anatomy, of Vertebrate Fossils, and in charge of exhibits for the Dept. of Biology and the Children's Room. In 1904 Lucas became head of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. At the AMNH, Lucas oversaw the preparation of exhibits for many important new collections, including those of the Roosevelt South American expeditions, the Lang-Chapin Congo Expedition, Carl Akeley's African expeditions, the Vernay-Faunthorpe Indian expeditions, and the Roy Chapman Andrews Central Asiatic Expeditions.

Oldfield Thomas, a mammalogist and taxonomist, was Senior Assistant in charge of Mammalia at the British Museum (Natural History), 1876-1923.

From his position at the British Museum, Thomas encouraged the work of scientific expeditions in order to obtain specimens of new species for classification. His publications include works on antelopes, on the mammals of Peru, Patagonia and South Africa, and on the British Museum's collection of marsupials and monotremes.

William T. Hornaday, a naturalist and conservationist, was the principal planner and first director of the New York Zoological Park from its establishment in 1896 until his retirement in 1926.

Hornaday, like F.A. Lucas, began his career at Ward's Natural Science Establishment and the U.S. National Museum, where he was chief taxidermist from 1882-1890. The American bison group, for which Hornaday mounted and collected the specimens, was a prototype of the habitat exhibits later seen in many museums. Increasingly interested in wildlife conservation, Hornaday was instrumental in the establishment of the U.S. National Zoological Park in 1889.