When birds leave your neighborhood do you know where they have gone? And why? Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978) an agent of the Bureau of Biological Survey, part of the United States Department of Agriculture, found himself in South America in 1920 and 1921 studying North American birds, specifically North American migratory birds. Recognized as one of the more important investigations of his long career as an ornithologist and avian paleontologist, Wetmore took care to record his extensive field work with journals, notes, photographs and sometimes film. This album of photographs documents this study of North American migratory birds in South America in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Help us transcribe the captions of these photos and get a firsthand look at the broad variety of details that caught Wetmore's attention from vegetation and terrain, birds and their nests, to his transport, colleagues, local workers and more.
When birds leave your neighborhood do you know where they have gone? And why? Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978) an agent of the Bureau of Biological Survey, part of the United States Department of Agriculture, found himself in South America in 1920 and 1921 studying North American birds, specifically North American migratory birds. Recognized as one of the more important investigations of his long career as an ornithologist and avian paleontologist, Wetmore took care to record his extensive field work with journals, notes, photographs and sometimes film. This album of photographs documents this study of North American migratory birds in South America in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Help us transcribe the captions of these photos and get a firsthand look at the broad variety of details that caught Wetmore's attention from vegetation and terrain, birds and their nests, to his transport, colleagues, local workers and more.
Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978) was the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. A well-known ornithologist and avian paleontologist, Wetmore served as Secretary from 1945 to 1952. Wetmore came to the Smithsonian in November 1924 as Superintendent of the National Zoological Park after a fourteen-year career with the Bureau of Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture. In March 1925, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian in charge of the United States National Museum (USNM), a post he held until his appointment as Secretary in 1945. Wetmore retired in 1952 and was made an honorary Research Associate of the Smithsonian, where he continued his study of recent and fossil birds until his death.