Wirt Robinson
Colonel Wirt Robinson (16 October 1864 – 19 January 1929) was an American army officer, naturalist, and served as a professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology at the
Life and work
Robinson was born at Fernley, Buckingham County, Virginia, son of William Russell and Evelyn Cabell. Fernley was a plantation begun by his grandfather Clifford Cabell on the edge of the
Robinson collected specimens of natural history and anthropology during his travels. His first major trip in 1892 was to the island of Curaçao in Columbia accompanied by his wife (Alice after whom the bird Amazilia aliciae was named but is now treated as a subspecies of the copper-rumped hummingbird) and brother Clifford “Cabell” Robinson. He wrote about the journey in A Flying Trip to the Tropics (1895).[2] In 1900 he visited La Guaira with M. W. Lyon Jr. He established a private collection at his home in Wingina and collected across taxonomic groups, including a large number of insects in Jamaica, Venezuela and other places.[3] He also made observations on birds in life, an interest he gained in early life from his father.[4] Marmosa robinsoni was named after him from a specimen he had collected on Margarita Island, Venezuela in 1895.[5] Other species named after him include a beetle Arthromacra robinsoni[6] and an island form of the vermilion cardinal which was named as Cardinalis robinsoni but not considered[7] a valid subspecies.[8][9] He also collected skeleton remains from native American burials.[10]
Robinson married Alice Phinney, of Newport in 1890 and after her death in 1918 he married Nancy Hinman Henderson in 1920. A son was born from the first marriage and a daughter from the second.
References
- ^ The Howitzer 1929. The annual of the US Corps of Cadets. West Point, New York: US Military Academy. 1929. pp. 46–47.
- ^ a b [C.W.R.]. "Obituaries" (PDF). The Auk. 46 (2): 283–284.
- ^ Calvert, P.P. (1929). "[Colonel Wirt Robinson]". Entomological News. 40 (5): 168.
- doi:10.2307/4068621.
- ^ Bangs, Outram (1898). "A new murine opossum from Margarita Island". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 12: 95–96.
- ISSN 0028-7199.
- ^ Hellmayr, Charles E. (1938). Catalogue of birds of the Americas. Part XI. Field Museum of Natural History. p. 74.
- ISSN 0004-8038.
- ISSN 0004-8038.
- ^ "Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior". National Park Service, Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown, VA. 11 July 2022.