Frederic Augustus Lucas Papers (PP)

The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. © 2005

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Biography of Frederic Augustus Lucas

Frederic Augustus Lucas was a curator and naturalist born in Plymouth, Massachusetts on March 25, 1852. He received and honorary D.Sc. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1909. In 1871 Lucas entered Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York, where he remained for eleven years working in taxidermy, osteology, and museum technique. He began his curatorial career at the United States National Museum in 1882. From 1904 to 1911 he was the curator-in-chief of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. In 1911, Lucas became the director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he remained until 1923, and served as the honorary director from 1924 to 1929.

Lucas' work was mainly in the field of museum administration, the preparation of museum materials, and osteology. Throughout his career, he belonged to numerous professional societies and published many works on the anatomy of birds, fossil vertebrates, and museum methods. He was the author of two books, Animals of the Past (1901), and Animals Before Man in North America (1902).

In 1933, the American Museum of Natural History published his biography, Fifty Years of Museum Work which includes a bibliography of his writings.

Scope and Content

The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, postcards and photographs on administrative operations, building construction and design, display techniques and devices, museum training, and charter guidance for natural history institutions throughout the United States, most notably the United States National Museum.

Restrictions

Access restrictions

This collection is open for research with permission from Mertz Library staff.

Copyright

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be submitted in writing to the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden.

Related Material

Brooklyn Museum Archives

Office of the Director, records, 1986-[ongoing] Franklin W. Hooper correspondence, 1904-1906

American Museum of Natural History, Department of Library Services

Administrative Files, 1969-1978 Expeditions and Scientific Staff Records, Department of Mammalogy, 1885-[ca. 1970]

New York Zoological Society Archives

Records of the Department of Tropical research. Office of the Director and General Associate, 1909-1947

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Frederic Augustus Lucas (PP), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated to the New York Botanical Garden.

Processing Information

Originally processed April 2000. Reprocessed March 2005 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) PA-50678-04.

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