Robert Wilson Shufeldt

Robert Wilson Shufeldt Jr. (December 1, 1850January 21, 1934) was an American osteologist, myologist, museologist and ethnographer who contributed to comparative studies of bird anatomy and forensic science. He held strong views on race and was a proponent of white supremacy. A scandal and subsequent divorce from his second wife, the granddaughter of the famous ornithologist John James Audubon, led to a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court of the United States of America on the subject of alimony and bankruptcy. Life and career Son of Admiral Robert Wilson Shufeldt and Sarah Shufeldt, he was born in New York in 1850. After a school education in the United States and Havana, he joined as a Captain's clerk on the US Gunboat which was under the command of his father. In 1872 he joined Cornell University to study medicine and obtained a degree in 1876 from Columbian, Washington, D.C. He joined the Medical Department of the Army as a Lieutenant and was posted to Fort McHenry. He later worked as a surgeon in the campaign against the Sioux Indians. He retired in 1891 from the army as a Captain but was readmitted and posted on duty in the Army Medical Museum as a curator in 1882. He retired on January 9, 1919, as a surgeon. From 1884 to 1888 he was stationed at Fort Wingate in New Mexico, collecting in the Zuni Mountains and nearby regions. He was a lifelong member of the Democratic Party and a supporter of Woodrow Wilson. Scientific contributions Shufeldt's scientific interests began during his years in surgical practice. He had made zoological and botanical collections and had published extensively on osteology. He became an honorary curator at the Smithsonian Institution in 1882 and held it until 1892.