Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874 – 1927) was an American ornithologist, illustrator and artist.
Fuertes decided to concentrate on painting birds as a career after meeting Elliott Coues in 1894 while on a trip to Washington, D.C. with the Cornell University Glee Club. He would receive the first of his many commissions for illustrating birds while still an undergraduate. At Cornell, he was elected to the Sphinx Head Society, the oldest senior honor society at the University. In 1899, he accompanied E. H. Harriman on his famous exploration of the Alaska coastline, the Harriman Alaska Expedition. Following this, Fuertes would travel across much of the United States and to many countries in pursuit of birds, including the Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Ethiopia. Fuertes collaborated with Frank Chapman, Curator of the Museum of Natural History, on many assignments including field research, background dioramas at the museum, and book illustrations. While on a collecting expedition with Chapman in Mexico, Fuertes discovered a species of oriole. Chapman would name the bird after his friend, Iceterus fuertesi, commonly called Fuerte’s Oriole.[1] He lectured on ornithology at Cornell University from 1923, and the libraries there hold extensive collections of his artwork and personal papers. In 1926-27 Fuertes participated in the Chicago Field Museum/Daily News Abyssinian (Ethiopia) Expedition led by Wilfred Hudson Osgood. He would produce some of his most exquisite bird and mammal watercolors as a result of this trip. Tragically, he lost his life in an accident not long after returning to his home in Ithaca, New York. Fuertes would be a major influence on many wildlife artists to follow including George Miksch Sutton, who he mentored, Roger Tory Peterson, and Jorg Khun.
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In his lifetime Fuertes illustrated more than 60 books and contributed hundreds of works for magazine articles.[2] The following are some noted books published during and after his lifetime.
In 1927, the Boy Scouts of America made Fuertes an Honorary Scout, a new category of Scout created that same year. This distinction was give to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys...". The other eighteen who were awarded this distinction were: Roy Chapman Andrews; Robert Bartlett; Frederick Russell Burnham; Richard E. Byrd; George Kruck Cherrie; James L. Clark; Merian C. Cooper; Lincoln Ellsworth; George Bird Grinnell; Charles A. Lindbergh; Donald Baxter MacMillan; Clifford H. Pope; George Palmer Putnam; Kermit Roosevelt; Carl Rungius; Stewart Edward White; Orville Wright. [3]
 Cardinal, from Citizen Bird (1897) |
 Eastern Kingbird, from The Second Book of Birds (1901) |
 Williamson's Sapsucker, from Birds of the Rockies (1902) |
 Chestnut-backed Chickadee, from Harriman Alaska Series (1904) |
 Pomarine Jaeger, from Harriman Alaska Series (1904) |
 Yellow-throated Warbler, from Warblers of North America (1907) |
 Great Horned Owl, from United States Department of Agriculture Yearbook (1908) |
 Goshawk, from Birds of New York (1910-1914) |
 Nightjars, from Birds of New York (1910-1914) |
 Pileated Woodpecker, from Birds of New York (1910-1914) |
 Magnolia Warbler, from The Warblers of North America (National Geographic, 1917) |
 White-faced Ibis, from Game Birds of California (1918) |
 Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, from Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals (1930) |
 Black-bellied Bustard, from Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals (1930) |
 African Fish Eagle, from Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals (1930) |
   | Cornell University - Louis Agassiz Fuertes |
| | Around the World - National Affairs: Around the World - TIME |
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