1873-1963
Born in 1873, Barnum Brown's parents named him after the illustrious circus man P.T. Barnum to add a little flare to his common surname. In the early 1890's Barnum Brown studied under Samuel Williston at the University of Kansas. He attended graduate school at Columbia University in New York and in 1897 Barnum began his life-long career in Paleontology as an assistant to Henry Fairfield Osborn at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Like many of the dinosaur hunters of his time, Barnum preferred the field rather than the classroom, thus not finishing his doctorate at Columbia University.
Barnum travelled all over the world collecting dinosaurs and fossil mammals.
In 1899, his director Henry Osborn sent 26 year old Barnum to represent the American Museum of Natural History on Princeton University's Patagonia expedition. He worked in Patagonia for nearly 2 years.
In 1902, Barnum took the train to Miles City, Montana, hired a wagon and a team and journeyed 5 days north to a small settlement called Jordan. He proceeded through the rough badlands terrain and set up camp at the head of Hell Creek where he found some Triceratops fossils. A few days into his expedition Barnum made a discovery that would make him famous. In a sandstone bluff across the creek he found the first bones of an almost complete skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex. He spent that summer and the next blasting and chiseling away the sandstone matrix from around the skeleton and hauling it, with a team of 4 horses, back to the railroad station at Miles City. Barnum returned to Hell Creek in 1908 where he made his second Tyrannosaurus rex discovery. He also excavated in Red Deer River badlands in Alberta from 1909-1910. Fossil remains had been found in the Red Deer River badlands as early as 1884, but in 1910 Barnum and C.H. Sternberg, from the Geological Survey of Canada, competed in the Second Great Bone War (following Cope and Marsh). This new rush to find new fossils provided great insight into the world of the Late Cretaceous.
Barnum was always impeccably dressed, wearing a tie and full length fur coat, even in the field. Barnum was popular among the ladies, being an accomplished ballroom dancer and an engaging dinner guest. When he would return to excavation areas he was often met at the train station by women competing for the honor of driving him to their homes for dinner. Many of Barnum's greatest discoveries are displayed at the American Museum of Natural History, including those first specimans of Tyrannosaurus rex. He completed a famous series of dinosaur mounts in the Museum and wrote successful popular accounts of his expeditions, although he published little scientific research.
The Sinclair Oil Company sponsored Barnum's digs, and in return Barnum wrote promotional pamphlets for the oil company to distribute in the 1930's and 1940's.
Dr. Barnum Brown died in January 1963 at the age of 89, just a week shy of his 90th birthday, in New York.
Dinosaurs Barnum named:
-FAMILY OF ANKYLOSAURIDAE (1908)
-ANKYLOSAURUS (1908)
-KRITOSAURUS (1910)
-SAUROLOPHUS (1912)
-HYPACROSAURUS (1913)
-LEPTOCERATOPS (1914)
-ANCHICERATOPS (1914)
-CORYTHOSAURUS (1914)
-PROSAUROLOPHUS (1916)
co-named with E.M. Schlaikjer:
-DROMAEOSAURUS (1922)
-PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS (1943)
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Bibliography:
EnchantedLearning. Paleontologists-AllAboutDinosaurs.com: Barnum Brown. http://www.enchantedlearning.com; 2002.
American Museum of Natural History. Barnum Brown. http://www.amnh.org
Dinosaur Hunters. Dinosaur Hunters: Barnum Brown. http://www.dinohunters.com
John Noble Wilford. The Riddle of the Dinosaur. New York: 1986. pp. 123-126.
