Elliot, Daniel Giraud, naturalist, was born in New York city, March 7, 1835; son of George T. and Rebecca Giraud (Foster) Elliot; and grandson of Clarke and Nancy (Thompson) Eliot and of Andrew and Ann (Giraud) Foster. He was descended on his father's side from Richard Treat, a colonist of Wethersfield, Conn., early in the 17th century; and on his mother's side from the Girauds who emigrated from France with the Huguenots and settled first in New Rochelle and later in New York. He was prepared for Columbia college, but ill-health compelled him to go to warmer climates, where he continued his studies in zoölogy in which he had always been deeply interested. He spent the years 1856-57 in travel and study in Europe and the east, and in 1858 was married to Anna Eliza Henderson of New York city. He afterward confined his study to mammals and birds, and in 1859 published his first scientific paper in The Ibis. He continued to write for periodicals, and the value of his contributions to science was repeatedly acknowledged by various European governments and by the leading scientists of the world. He was decorated commander of the royal orders of the crowns of Italy, Spain and Wurtemburg; was made knight of the imperial and royal orders of Francis Joseph of Austria, and of six other royal orders, and received many other equally important honors. He was made a fellow of the royal society of Edinburgh and of the "Zoölogical society of London." He was a founder and became president of the American ornithological union, and was also a founder and vice-president of the Zoölogical society of France, and was elected to numerous offices in the principal scientific societies of America. In 1887 he presented to the American museum of natural history, New York city, a valuable library and a unique collection of humming birds. In 1894 he was appointed curator of zoölogy in the Field Columbian museum of Chicago, Ill., and in March, 1896, commanded an expedition into Central Africa to collect specimens for the museum, securing a large number of very rare animals. During the summer of 1898 he led a scientific expedition for the Field museum into the Olympic mountains, northwest Washington, and was the first naturalist to penetrate into this unknown range, where he obtained over five hundred specimens of the mammals inhabiting it. His published writings include more than one hundred and fifty scientific papers.
Contributed by FAG member Bobby Kelley