Dyche received his AB.BS. in 1884, his A.M. in 1886, and his M.S. from KU in 1888. He joined the faculty of KU as an Instructor of Natural History in 1882 and became a Professor of Systematic Zoology in 1889. He became world renown at the 1893 Colombian Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago when he displayed his collection of taxidermied animals from around the globe. These animals constituted the beginning of the Museum of Natural History at KU, which is housed in a building named in his honor. The collections he gathered from his many travels were also the beginnings of the collections at KU's Museum of Anthropology. He died in 1915.
From the guide to the Personal Papers of Lewis L. Dyche, 1882-1914, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library University Archives)