Background
Deane, Ruthven was born on August 20, 1851 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Charles and Helen Elizabeth (Waterston) Deane.
Deane, Ruthven was born on August 20, 1851 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Charles and Helen Elizabeth (Waterston) Deane.
Educated at Cambridge.
From an early age, he was an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist. At about 18 years of age, he obtained employment in Boston at Dana Brothers, a company that imported sugar and molasses from the West Indies. In 1883 Ruthven Deane was one of the main organizers of the American Ornithologists" Union.
In 1897 the Illinois Audubon Society was organized, the fourth of the state societies, with Ruthven Deane as its first president
He was successively re-elected for the next 16 years, serving as president from 1898–1914. In 1903 he retired from business at the age of fifty-two to devote himself to ornithology.
He made available his collection of bird skins to the Chicago Academy of Sciences and donated his collection of 43 albino stuffed birds to the Field Museum of Natural History. His publications occur mainly in The Auk and the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithology Club, with 112 titles in those two journals.
He was a collector of Audubonia, photographic portraits of ornithologists and naturalists, and bookplates.
He died in Chicago, aged 82.
Fellow American Ornithologists’ Union, since 1883. Member Chicago Academy Sciences.
Married Martha R., daughter Children: Charles, Henry Towner.