History of Ornithology at the Smithsonian
Ornithology is one of the historic passions of the Institution.
Three of the Smithsonian’s 11 Secretaries were noted ornithologists,
- from the pioneering exploration of North American birds by Spencer Baird in the mid-nineteenth century,
- to the global pursuit of birds and bird fossils of Alexander Wetmore a century later,
- and finally the authoritative accounts of rails and of the avifauna of the Indian subcontinent by S. Dillon Ripley.
Today, the pursuit of ornithology at the Smithsonian is both broad and deep, thanks in part to the scholarship and legacy of these three past leaders.
View a timeline of ornithological research at the Smithsonian Institution.