Dr James Paul Chapin was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 ornithologist.

Life and career

One of the top ornithologists of the twentieth century. At age 19 he left Staten Island to become second in command of the American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

's six year expedition to the Congo. He received his doctorate from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1919 and worked at the American Museum of Natural History for 59 years. He moved to Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

 in 1892 and was a regular contributor to publications of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences as a young teenager.

Chapin was joint leader (with Herbert Lang

Herbert Lang

Herbert Lang was a German zoologist.Lang was born in Oehringen, Württemberg, Germany. His childhood interest in nature led to a job as a taxidermist and later work at the natural history museum at the University of Zurich....

) of the Lang-Chapin expedition which made a biological survey of the Belgian Congo

Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

 between 1909 and 1915. For his work, The Birds of the Belgian Congo, Part I, he was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal

Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal

The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Giraud Elliot, it was first awarded in 1917....

 from the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

in 1932.