The Biographical Dictionary of America/Allen, Joel Asaph

ALLEN, Joel Asaph, naturalist, was born at Springfield, Mass., July 19, 1838. He studied at Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge, and accompanied Agassiz on the expedition to Brazil in 1865. In 1870 he was elected assistant in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, Cambridge; was awarded the Humboldt scholarship in 1871; became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and of the National Academy of Science in 1876, and received the degree, Ph.D. from Indiana university. From 1885 he was curator of the American Museum of Natural History of New York. He made numerous geological surveys for the government; edited the "Auk" and "The Bulletin" of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, and published, "Mammals and Winter Birds of East Florida" (1871); "The American Bison, Living and Extinct" (1872); "Monographs of North American Rodentia" (with Elliott Cowes, 1877); "History of North American Pinnipeds" (1880); and "The American Ornithologist's Union" (1891); besides shorter works.