Person

Bangs, Outram, 1862-1932

1862-1932

Outram Bangs was born on January 12, 1863, in Watertown, Massachusetts.

He was an American naturalist and ornithologist. In 1884, he graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. Harvard awarded him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1918. In 1900, Bangs became curator of mammals at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and, in 1924, curator of birds. He visited Jamaica in 1906 and collected over 100 birds there, but his trip was cut short by dengue fever. His collection of over 10,000 mammalian skins and skulls, including over 100 type specimens, was presented to Harvard College in 1899. In 1908, he presented his collection of over 24,000 bird skins to the Museum of Comparative Zoology. In 1925, he travelled to Europe, visiting museums and ornithologists and arranging scientific exchanges. He wrote over 70 books and articles. He was a Fellow of the American Ornithologist Union, a foreign member of the British Ornithologist Union, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Washington Academy of Sciences.

In 1892, he married Elizabeth A. Bangs (1868–1907) and, in 1909, he remarried Annie Freeby. He died on September 22, 1932, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.