Bashford Dean

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Bashford Dean

Bashford Dean (October 28, 1867 – December 6, 1928) was an American zoologist, specializing in ichthyology, and at the same time an expert in medieval armor. He is the only person to have held concurrent positions at the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was Honorary Curator of Arms and Armor; the Metropolitan Museum purchased his collection of arms and armor after his death, which his friend Daniel Chester French commemorated with a plaque.

Dean was born on October 28, 1867[1] in New York City. He graduated in 1886 from the College of the City of New York, and in 1890 received his Ph.D from Columbia University, where he was an assistant for Professor John Strong Newberry and later became a professor of zoology. His studies with Newberry of the Devonian armored fishes eventually resulted in Dean's "Studies on fossil fishes (sharks, chimaeroids and arthrodires", published in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History[2] and other articles on the Arthroleptid frog Astylosternus robustus and on the egg capsules of Chimaera.

For his volume, Bibliography of Fishes,[3] Dean was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1921.[4] He is also the author of Catalogue Of European Court Swords And Hunting Swords: Including the Ellis, De Dino and Reubell Collections.[5]

In 1927, Dean retired from the Metropolitan Museum and embarked on the addition of an armor hall to his home at Wave Hill.[1] After undergoing surgery, he unexpectedly died on December 6, 1928, in Battle Creek, Michigan,[6] missing, only the day before his death, the opening of the Hall of Fishes, his crowning work at the American Museum of Natural History.[7] Following his death, his friends and family completed construction of the armor hall at his home and installed it with his private collection. The Metropolitan Museum later became home to about half of his armor collection of 800 items through an outright bequest and through purchases made possible by gifts by friends and trustees of the museum.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 La Rocca, Donald (2012-10-28), "Bashford Dean and the Creation of the Arms and Armor Department" (video), Sunday at the Met, New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, retrieved 2013-02-12, "As part of a special Sunday at the Met program held in conjunction with the exhibition Bashford Dean and the Creation of the Arms and Armor Department, Donald J. La Rocca explains the founding and history of the department." 
  2. ↑ Dean, Bashford (1909). "Studies on fossil fishes (sharks, chimaeroids and arthrodires)" (PDF). Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 9 (5). Retrieved 2013-02-11. "The Devonian Sharks known generally as "Cladodonts" and technically as Cladoselachians, i.e., a particular group of Cladodontid sharks, have, during the past decade, figured prominently in studies on the morphology of fishes." 
  3. ↑ Dean, Bashford (1916). Charles Rochester Eastman, ed. A Bibliography of Fishes 1. New York, New York: The Museum. Retrieved 2013-02-11. 
  4. ↑ "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2013-02-11. 
  5. ↑ Dean, Bashford (1929). Catalogue of European Court Swords and Hunting Swords: Including the Ellis, De Dino, Riggs, and Reubell Collections (Spine title: Court Swords and Hunting Swords). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2013-02-11. 
  6. ↑ "Bashford Dean Dies After Operation". The New York Times. 1928-12-08. p. 15. Retrieved 2013-02-12. "Noted Zoologist Was Also the Leading American Expert on Ancient Armor. A TIRELESS COLLECTOR Was Honored by Natural History and Art Museum--Tributes Follow Sudden Death. Won Elliot Medal. Gave of Own Means. Hall of Fishes Crowned Labor." 
  7. ↑ Board of Trustees (1929-01-01). "In Memory of Bashford Dean" (PDF). Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 24 (1): 5. Retrieved 2013-02-12. "At a meeting of the Board of Trustees, held on December 17, 1928, the following memorial resolution upon the late Bashford Dean was adopted." 

Further reading

  • Shor, Elizabeth Nobel (1970–80). "Dean, Bashford". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 610–611. ISBN 0684101149. 

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