William Temple Hornaday is one of the great figures in the world of natural science. As a very young man he was a famous explorer and collector of zoological specimens from the jungles of Venezuela, Borneo, and India. As chief taxidermist of the Smithsonian Institution he pioneered the art of mounting animals realistically and displaying them in natural settings. Almost single-handedly he preserved the American bison from total extinction. He was the first director of the Bronx Zoo, a post he held for thirty years. At a time when few people in America recognized the need to preserve our...

Frank Eugene Lutz became an entomologist at a time when this science was still new. He was one of the first to set up experiments in the study of heredity using the common fruit fly. In his many field trips he observed unusual insects in their natural habitats and brought back thousands of valuable specimens. As curator of the Department of Entomology at the American Museum of Natural History, he was responsible for innovations in labeling and museum display. His observations of more than one thousand species found in his own back yard were the basis for his classic book, Lots of Insects. He...