Barbara Elaine Russell Brown

Barbara Elaine Russell Brown (February 14, 1929 - January 7, 2019) was an American biologist and philanthropist.

Barbara Elaine Russell Brown
Born14 February 1929
Chicago
Died7 January 2019
Alma materUniversity of Illinois
OccupationZoologist; ornithologist
EmployerField Museum of Natural History

Early life

Brown was born Barbara Russell, on 14 February 1929 in Chicago; her parents were Jewish immigrants from Romania and Russia.[1] She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in Economics.[1][2] In 1953, she married Roger Brown; they went on to have six children together.[1]

Career

For 47 years, she worked at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Her career began as an assistant to the zoologist Philip Hershkovitz.[2] Her field research included expeditions to the Cerrado savanna and to the Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil.[2] She was a skilled animal collector, with expertise in preparing specimens and setting traps.[2]

Eponyms
Range of Barbara Brown's Titi
Echimyidae phylogeny - including isothrix barbarabrownaea

Brown has had 4 new species named after her.[3][1] These include:

Philanthropy

With her husband Roger Brown, she has philanthropically supported the Field Museum, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Chicago Botanic Garden.[3] This endowment included the new post - the Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology - who directs the Science Museum of Minnesota’s new ornithology department.[6]

References
  1. "Barbara Brown Obituary - Skokie, IL | Chicago Tribune".
  2. Megan, Graydon. "Barbara Brown, Field Museum research assistant on expeditions to far-flung locales, dies". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  3. "Barbara Brown, Field Museum staffer, donor who had 4 species named for her, dies".
  4. bpatterson (Feb 23, 2011). "Scientists discover striking new species of cloud-forest rodent in Peru". Field Museum.
  5. Beolens, Bo. (2009). The eponym dictionary of mammals. Watkins, Michael, 1940-, Grayson, Michael. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8018-9533-3. OCLC 593239356.
  6. "$2 million donation is largest in Science Museum of Minnesota's history". May 18, 2018.


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