Henry Fairfield Osborn (August 8, 1857–November 6, 1935) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist, "a first-rate science administrator and a third-rate scientist."
Osborn was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, and studied at Princeton University. He was professor of comparative anatomy from 1883 to 1890 at Princeton. In 1891 he was hired jointly by Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, New York. He became p...
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Henry Fairfield Osborn (August 8, 1857–November 6, 1935) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist, "a first-rate science administrator and a third-rate scientist."
Osborn was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, and studied at Princeton University. He was professor of comparative anatomy from 1883 to 1890 at Princeton. In 1891 he was hired jointly by Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, New York. He became professor of biology at Columbia University, becoming professor of zoology in 1896. At the museum he succeeded Morris K. Jesup as president in 1908, serving until 1933, during which time he accumulated one of the finest fossil collections in the world. He assembled a great team of fossil hunters and preparators, which included Roy Chapman Andrews, a gentleman allegedly a possible inspiration for the creation of the fictional archeologist Indiana Jones, and Charles R. Knight, who made murals of dinosaurs in their habitats and sculptures of the...
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