John Livzey Ridgway was an American scientific illustrator and brother of ornithologist Robert Ridgway. John collaborated with his brother on ornithological illustration and published his own works. John Ridgway was born in Mount Carmel, Illinois to David and Henrietta Reed Ridgway, and attended public schools in Illinois. Robert Ridgway brought him to work as a copyist and draftsman for the United States National Museum

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 in the 1880s. John Ridgway was a draftsman for the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

 (USGS) from 1884-1918, and its chief illustrator from 1918-1920. He also worked for the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1920 he moved to California, where he worked for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building, with fitted marble walls and domed and...

 and the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

, working for the latter institution up until his death.

John Ridgway illustrated several works in the fields of ornithology and paleontology. Notable among these were:

• Contributions to the Natural History of Alaska (1886)
• Report upon Natural History Collections Made in Alaska between the Years 1877 and 1881 (1887) .
• Fish and game of the State of New York: Seventh Report Forest, Fish and Game Commission (circa 1901).
• A series of watercolors of eggs of North American birds that were used as the basis of chromolithographic plates in Arthur Cleveland Bent's (1866-1954) Life Histories of North American Birds (various dates)
• Illustrations of Pleistocene fossils at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building, with fitted marble walls and domed and...
  
  (California) in the 1920s.

Ridgway authored Scientific Illustration (Standford University Press, circa 1938) and The preparation of illustrations for reports of the United States Geological survey (USGS, 1920).

Links

• Ridgway Family Papers at Utah State University
• Smithsonian Institution Archives
• Article from The Condor, vol. 29, 1927--describes work on Bent's Life Histories, work at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
• Brief obituary from The Auk, v. 71, April 1954