Emery Cottrell Greenwood was a noted naturalist devoted to ornithology. He was born on September 9, 1852 in Ipswich, Massachusetts to Thomas S. Greenwood (1807-1883) and Paulina Thurow (1809-1894). Emery’s father was a mariner, shoe manufacturer, farmer and keeper of the Ipswich Lighthouse. He owned Greenwood Farms, which is now a historical landmark. In 1839, Thomas was awarded a gold medal by the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for his efforts in rescuing survivors during a shipwreck.
Emery married Marion Fuller (1855-1940) about 1876. He’s listed in the 1880 federal census as a taxidermist in Ipswich, MA and they had a daughter, Eva (1877-1931).
About 1884, it appears Emery was hired by a museum in Massachusetts to obtain local birds within a specific county and mount them for the institution. For a while, the curator was very pleased with the supply of birds. However, a visitor to the museum noticed that birds labeled local were found outside the county and informed the curator. In disbelief, the curator put a watchful eye on Emery and discovered he had been purchasing bird skins from various dealers and thus mounting them for the museum with false data to suit the requirements initially set in their agreement. A dealer who was unaware of what Emery was doing helped the curator with providing records of the marked skins. Emery was confronted by the curator, and he denied any wrongdoing. Alas, he eventually broke down and told the truth. The money he was paid for the skins & mounts was retrieved by the museum’s officers and Emery pleaded with the curator to hold his secret. (See letter March 29, 1884 to William Brewster) Evidently, Mr. Brewster was not a forgiving man as he informed the ornithology community of Emery Greenwood’s actions. (See article, “An Ornithological Swindler”, The Auk, July 1884)
In the mid-1880’s Emery partnered with Henry M. Field in the sale of natural history specimens in Brownsville, Texas. He sued his wife, Marion for divorce in September 1887 and in the spring of 1889, he made a collection trip to Tampico, Mexico with John Caldwell. Both men came down with a fever and Caldwell died. Emery made it back to Texas where he died on July 21, 1889 at the young age of 37.
Sources: Biodiversitylibrary.org, Ancestry.com, Findagrave.com, Newspapers.com
The Pember has in their collection a set of Wood Ibis eggs that were collected by Greenwood in 1883 in Florida. After researching this collector for the exhibit, we now know it’s a possibility that he did not do the actual collecting. However, the handwriting appears to be Emery’s.
