Frederick Albion Ober
Frederick Albion Ober ( born February 13, 1849 in Beverly, Massachusetts, † May 31, 1913 in Hackensack, New Jersey) was an American naturalist and author.
Life
Even as a boy showed a high natural history interest. He collected almost all the birds of New England and recorded her behavior. After a general education, he worked from 1862 to 1866 as a shoemaker. Then he enrolled at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. For lack of funds, however, he left college after a short time. From 1867 to 1870 he was a clerk in a drug store. He then worked again as a shoemaker.
In 1872 he gave up his business to go to Florida to hunt. In 1874 he explored the Lake Okeechobee, about which he published a description of the lake and its shores in periodicals. From 1876 to 1878 he made ornithological excursions to the Lesser Antilles, where he discovered 22 new Vogeltaxa. Two of them - the small Antillean Flycatcher ( Myiarchus oberi ) and the Montserrattrupial (Icterus oberi ) - were named 1877 and 1880 by George Newbold Lawrence in his honor.
From the desire driven to see the traces of early American civilization, traveled Upper 1881 by Mexico. During this and two other trips he collected the material for several books. After his return he prepared, on behalf of scientific societies, lectures, of his trips before. Later, he organized a series of popular lectures in which he projected his photographic representations by means of a magic lantern. These lectures, originally before the Lowell Institute were held in Boston, among others, the title of " Mexico, Historical and Picturesque ," " Ancient Cities of Mexico ," "The Mexican Indian " had " Adventures in the West Indies" and "Through Florida with Gun and Camera. " During his 30 -year career as an author has published more than 40 top works, among them were mainly travel books, but also books about birds and biographical works about Amerigo Vespucci, Hernán Cortés and Israel Putnam. In 1904 he was one of the founders of the Explorers Club.