Vertebrate Zoology

Ornithology

History of the Collections

Before the 1950s, the combined skin, skeleton and wet preserves collections in ornithology in theYale Peabody Museum’s Division of Vertebrate Zoology consisted of less than 10,000 specimens. Earlier collecting in ornithology had been spotty, the collection had been used principally for teaching, and the bulk of the material had been purchased from commercial collectors.

After World War II, William Robertson Coe donated funds and library materials for collections expansion and the furtherance of ornithological studies at Yale. In 1946, S. Dillon Ripley III was hired as the Peabody’s first Curator of Ornithology. He quickly built a thriving enterprise and his own collecting activities added greatly to the collections.

The Coe endowment made possible the purchase of collections of various sizes and importance, and sponsored ornithological expeditions around the world. Collectors contributing significantly to the collection included, among others: Philip Humphrey (Haiti, Argentina, Chile), George Watson (Greece, Turkey), S. Dillon Ripley (New Guinea, Philippines), Raymond Paynter (Yucatan, India, Pakistan). In 1959, the expanding ornithological collections and library moved to the newly opened Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory.

After Charles G. Sibley arrived in 1965, emphasis shifted away from collecting and the acquisition of skins slowed. However, field parties were still sent to acquire blood and tissue samples for the systematic research being carried out by Sibley using DNA hybridization techniques. The skeletal and wet preserve collections started in the Ripley era by Philip Humphrey and Peter Ames were significantly augmented by Sibley’s research programs.

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