Frederic Augustus Lucas

The son of Augustus Henry, a merchant seaman who was captain of a sailing vessel, he accompanied his father on two long voyages, the first (1861-1862) at the age of 9 and the second (1869-1870) when he was 17.

From this he developed an ambition to become a taxidermist and entered Ward's Natural Science Establishment at Rochester, New York, to learn the techniques involved.

Yet his competency in this area was sufficient to provide him an appointment to mount and prepare avian specimens at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC in 1882, at the age of 21 where he was given the title of curator.

While the ship passed northern islands, he collected biological specimens, aiming primarily to retrieve any remains of the extinct bird.

Thousands of bones of varying quality were collected but were able to only form around a dozen complete skeletons of the extinct bird, which were then distributed to various natural history museums.

In seeing firsthand the decimation of the herds, Lucas began a personal campaign advocating for the animal, interjecting environmentalist themes into the label of a fur seal taxidermy group directed by him and displayed in the Brooklyn Museum.

[5] In 1909, Lucas was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor Fur Seal Advisory Board, alongside fellow members from past commissions including Jordan, Townsend, Stejneger, Edward W. Sims, and Clinton H.

[8] After instruction in the techniques of scientific writing and manuscript preparation by a friend early in his career, he published more than 350 articles, primarily in the area of avian osteology but also relating to natural history and the role of the museum and public education.