CHAS Ornithology (Arctos)

The Chicago Academy of Sciences ornithology collection includes over 13,000 specimens, with approximately 12,000 skins and 1,000 mounted specimens. An important addition in 1965 was the donation of 3,600 specimens from S. S. Gregory, which includes the extinct Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and Carolina Parakeets. In all, 583 species of North American birds are represented. Thirty percent of the birds were collected before 1900, including important Illinois specimens from Robert Kennicott and Benjamin T. Gault. There is also a valuable collection of nearly 1,000 Alaskan skins. Other notable collectors include Alfred M. Bailey, P. Brodkorb, Charles D. Brower, Henry K. Coale, Francis S. Dayton, Ruthven Deane, Stephen Strong Gregory, Charles D. Klotz, Roy V. Komarek, Edwin V. Komarek, C. C. Sanborn, and Earl G. Wright.