Josselyn Van Tyne


Josselyn Van Tyne was an American ornithologist and museum curator of birds.
A son of the historian Claude H. Van Tyne, Josselyn Van Tyne received his A.B. from Harvard University in 1925 and his Ph.D. in 1928 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He became Assistant Curator of Birds at the U. of Michigan's Museum of Zoology and in 1931 Curator of Birds, a position he held until his death; his successor as the Museum's Curator of Birds was Harrison B. Tordoff. In 1930 Van Tyne became an instructor in the U. of Michigan's Department of Zoology, then assistant professor, associate professor, and finally professor in 1953.
Van Tyne was editor of the Wilson Bulletin from 1939 to 1948 and the president of the Wilson Ornithological Society from 1935 to 1937. In 1936 he was elected a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union and served as the Union's President from 1950 to 1953.
In 1933 he married Helen Belfield Bates, a daughter of Henry Moore Bates.

Selected works