Background
Murphy, Robert Cushman was born on April 29, 1887 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Son of Thomas D. and Augusta (Cushman) Murphy.
Murphy, Robert Cushman was born on April 29, 1887 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Son of Thomas D. and Augusta (Cushman) Murphy.
Bachelor of Philosophy, Brown University, 1911. Master of Arts, Columbia, 1918. Doctor of Science, honoris causa, University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru, 1925, Brown, 1941.
Doctorate. Science (honorary), Long Island University, 1964.
Curator of mammals and birds, Brooklyn Museum, 1911-1917, curator of the department natural science, 1917-1920. Associate curator of birds, American Museum Natural History, 1921-1926, assistant director, 1924-1936, curator of oceanic birds, 1927-1942, department chairman of birds 1942-1954, Lamont curator of birds, 1948-1955, emeritus 1955-1973, research associate, 1955-1973. Leader expedition for American Museum Natural History and Brooklyn Museum into tropical and sub-antarctic Atlantic Ocean, 1912-1913.
Into Lower California, Mexico, for Brooklyn Museum, 1915.
To coast and islands of Peru for Brooklyn Museum, American Museum Natural History and American Geography Society, 1919-1920. To Peru and Ecuador for American Museum Natural History, 1924-1925.
To western Mediterranean, 1926. To Pacific Coast of Colombia, 1937, and 1941.
To Pearl Islands, 1945.
To New Zealand and Islands to the South, 1947-1949. Bermuda, 1951, 71, Venezuela and Caribbean Islands, 1952. Peru, 1953-1954; Bahama Islands, 1953-1954.
Antarctica, 1960.
Delegate 3d Pan American Science Congress, Lima, 1924. To 6th International Ornithological Congress, Copenhagen, 1926. To British Association Advancement of Science, Oxford, 1926.
To 7th Pacific Science Congress, New Zealand, 1949, International Ornithological Congress, Upsala, 1950.
United States delegate 8th Pacific Science Congress, Philippine Islands 1953, 9th Pacific Science Congress Bangkok, 1957, 12th Pacific Science Congress, Canberra, Australia, 1971. President Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1940-1952.
Member Antarctic programs committee National Science Foundation, 1963-1967. Fellow American Geography Society (councilor), New York Academy Science (vice president 1924), American Ornithologists’ Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Zoological Society, Zoological Society London. Member Long Island Biological Association, Association American Geographers, American Geophysical Union, American Philosophical Society, National Audubon Society (past, and honorary president), California Academy of Sciences, Linnaean Society of New York, Royal Society of New Zealand correspondent.
Member Deutsche Ornithologische Gesellschaft, Sociedad Ornitologica del Plata (Argentina).
Member Royal Hungarian Institute, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa. Clubs: Explorers, Century Association.
Married Grace East. Barstow, February 17, 1912. Children: Alison M. Conner, Robert Cushman, Amos Chafee Barstow.