CLASS OF 1860

Albert Smith Bickmore, naturalist and educator, died August 12 of pneumonia at his summer home at Nonquitt, Mass.

Professor Bickmore was born in St. George, Alaine, March 1, 1839, his parents being John and Jane (Seavy) Bickmore. His father was a sea captain. It is recalled that he was "a very queer child, always looking at worms and butterflies and shells and birds." He fitted at New London, N. H., teaching in the winters during both academy and college course. He graduated with Phi Beta Kappa rank.

For four years after graduation he studied with Agassiz at Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University, becoming an assistant in the Harvard Museum and in the summer of 1862 making a voyage to Bermuda to collect shells for the, Museum. From September, 1862, to June, 1863, he was a private in the 44th Massachusetts Volunteers, serving in North Carolina.

January 5, 1865, he sailed for the East Indies, and for over three years traveled through those islands and in Japan and China, returning to Europe through Siberia. In.the course of his journeys he made valuable collections of bird skins, now preserved in the natural history collections of Colgate University. He was the discoverer of the Ainus of Yezo, the remnant of the aborigines of Japan, and published in London and New York a monograph concerning them. He also penetrated to some regions of China which no white man had before traversed.

Throughout this journey his mind was constantly at work upon the project of an American Museum of Natural History in New York, and he came home in 1868 with the purpose of devoting himself to its establishment. He was called to the professorship of natural history in Madison, now Colgate, University, but relinquished this position after a year to become executive secretary of a society formed for carrying out the enterprise he had conceived.

From 1869 to 1884 he was general superintendent of the steadily growing Museum, and for the next twenty years he had charge of its department of public instruction, which he originated. He was one of the first educators to use stereopticon illustrations in teaching. He brought the Museum into organized relations with the public schools of the city and state of New York, and delivered many courses of lectures in all parts of the state.

The Museum building was designed from the plan Professor Bickmore brought with him on his return from his Eastern travels, and is now second only to the British Museum in its dimensions and equipment and in the wide range of its collections. In its educational work and its opportunities for scientific research it is unsurpassed.

Ten years ago Professor Bickmore was incapacitated for active service by chronic rheumatism, which confined him to a wheeled chair, and he was then made curator emeritus of the department of public instruction.

He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Hamilton College in 1870 and from Dartmouth in 1889, and that of Doctor of Laws from Colgate in 1905. He was a life fellow of the British Royal Geographical Society, a charter member of the American Geological Society, a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a trustee of Colgate University and of Vassar College, and a member of the Century Club.

December 16, 1373, Professor Biokmore was married to Charlotte A., daughter of John M. Bruce of New York, who survives him. Their only child, a son, died at • the age of six years.

A man of simple and religious faith, Mr. Bickmore had been connected since boyhood with churches of the Baptist order. He had been deacon of Central church in New York, and for many years had been a teacher of Bible classes of young men.