Biography

Ober was born February 13, 1849 in Beverly, Massachusetts

Beverly, Massachusetts

Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...

. From 1862 to 1866 he had an occupation as shoemaker. Subsequently he attended the Massachusetts Agricultural College

University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

 but due to the lack of funds he was forced to leave the college after a short time. From 1867 to 1870 he worked as employee in a drugstore and again as shoemaker. From 1876 to 1878 he made ornithological surveys to the Lesser Antilles

Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...

 where he discovered 22 bird taxa new to science. Two of them - the Lesser Antillean Flycatcher

Lesser Antillean Flycatcher

The Lesser Antillean Flycatcher is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family.It is found in Barbuda, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia....

 and the Montserrat Oriole

Montserrat Oriole

The Montserrat Oriole, Icterus oberi, is a medium-sized black-and-yellow icterid ....

 - were named in his honor by his colleague George Newbold Lawrence

George Newbold Lawrence

George Newbold Lawrence was an American businessman and amateur ornithologist.Lawrence conducted Pacific bird surveys for Spencer Fullerton Baird and John Cassin, and the three men co-authored Birds of North America in 1858.Lawrence left his collection of 8,000 bird skins to the American Museum of...

. During his writing career which lasted 30 years he wrote more than 40 books mostly travel books but also bird books and biographies about Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...

, Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...

, and Israel Putnam

Israel Putnam

Israel Putnam was an American army general and Freemason who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War...

. He died May 31, 1913 in his home in Hackensack, New Jersey

Hackensack, New Jersey

Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....

. Frederick A. Ober was among the founders of the Explorers Club in 1904.

Works (selected)

• 1880: Camps in the Caribbees: The Adventures of a Naturalist in the Lesser Antilles
• 1884: Mexican resources: a guide to and through Mexico
• 1888: A Boy's Adventures in the West Indies
• 1895: Josephine, empress of the French
• 1897: Under the Cuban Flag: Or, The Cacique's Treasure
• 1898: Crusoe's Island; a bird-hunter's story
• 1900: The Storied West Indies
• 1901: The last of the Arawaks : a story of adventure on the Island of San Domingo
• 1903: The Navy Boys' Cruise with Columbus or The Adventures of Two Boys Who Sailed with the Great Admiral in His Discovery of America
• 1904: Our West Indian neighbors : the islands of the Caribbean Sea, "America's Mediterranean": their picturesque features, fascinating history, and attractions for the traveller, nature-lover, settler and pleasure seeker
• 1904: "Old Put" the patriot
• 1905: Hernando Cortés, Conqueror of Mexico
• 1906: Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
• 1906: Pizarro and the conquest of Peru
• 1906: Ferdinand De Soto and the invasion of Florida
• 1907: Heroes of American History: Amerigo Vespucci
• 1908: A Guide to the West Indies and Bermudas: With Maps and Many Illustrations
• 1910: Mexico, Central America, and West Indies

External links