Background
Delacour, Jean Theodore was born on September 26, 1890 in Paris. Naturalized citizen of the United States, 1946. Son of Theodore and Marguerite (Rousseau) Delacour.
Delacour, Jean Theodore was born on September 26, 1890 in Paris. Naturalized citizen of the United States, 1946. Son of Theodore and Marguerite (Rousseau) Delacour.
Student Jesuit School, Rue de Madrid, Paris. Lic.S., University Lille, 1914.
He was renowned for not only discovering but also rearing some of the rarest birds in the world. One of the birds he discovered was the imperial pheasant, later found to be a hybrid between the Vietnamese pheasant and the silver pheasant. He served in the French Army during the First World War, a war which devastated the family estate, as well as killing his only surviving brother.
Moving to Chateau Clères in Normandy, he created a second zoo, eventually donating it to the Museum National d"Histoire Naturelle in 1967.
He went on numerous scientific expeditions to Indochina, particularly Vietnam, as well as to Venezuela, the Guianas and Madagascar. During the Second World War Delacour lived in the United States, working as a technical adviser for the New York Zoological Society (now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society) as well as on avian systematics at the American Museum of Natural History.
In 1952 he became director of the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, retiring in 1960. Thereafter he divided his time seasonally, spending summer at his estate at Clères in France, and wintering in the United States, mainly in Los Los Angeles
Member Knickerbocker Club, Century Association, Explorers, Coffee House Club, California Club.
