Edward Howe Forbush
American ornithologist and writer (1858-1929)
Edward Howe Forbush (April 24, 1858 – March 7, 1929) was a ornithologist and a prolific writer who lived in Massachusetts, best known for his book Birds of New England.
Biography
Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1858, he was a precocious naturalist. His family moved to West Roxbury, when he was seven. As an older child, he conducted field studies of area wildlife and also studied taxidermy. Once again, his family moved to Worcester, where he became a member of the Worcester Natural History Society, and began to publish the results of his studies. At the age of sixteen he was appointed Curator of Ornithology of the Society's museum.
When he was nineteen, he mounted an expedition to Florida — this would be the first of many trips he took around the United States to study birds.
In 1893, Forbush was appointed Ornithologist to the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. His primary studies at this time were "economic ornithology" — that is, determining whether a given species of bird was beneficial or detrimental to agriculture.
In 1908 he became the Massachusetts State Ornithologist.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5343521. VIAF identifies the subject as 24662669. The Library of Congress control number is no99050943. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1858, 1929, 1893 and 1908.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edward Howe Forbush” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.