Daniel Lewis is an environmental historian and Senior Curator at the Huntington Library in Southern California. He oversees the Huntington’s vast history of science, medicine, and technology holdings and serves as Chief Curator of Manuscripts for the institution. His last book, The Feathery Tribe, examined the professionalization of science in the nineteenth century through the life of Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian’s first Curator of Birds. Dr. Lewis holds a teaching appointment as Associate Research Professor at Claremont Graduate University and teaches courses on the history of science at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His permanent exhibition Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World was named by the American Alliance of Museums as the best exhibit in America in 2009.
RCC Research Project: Chasing Extinction: Hawaiian Avifauna Among Tropical Culture, Politics, and Law
Selected Publications:
- "How Red is Dragon’s Blood?" Smithsonian Magazine. 24 June 2014.
- "The Book that Helped Scientists Crack Evolution and Understand Mars." Washington Post. 10 June 2014.
- The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
- Iron Horse Imperialism: The Southern Pacific of Mexico, 1880–1951. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007.
- Star Struck: One Thousand Years of the Art & Science of Astronomy. San Marino: Huntington Library Press; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001. (together with Ronald Brashear)