Upper left: Illustration of a Rufous Hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax mindanensis) by Joseph Smit, 1881
Right and Lower Left: Rufous Hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax mindanensis) and its collection tag (GRPM# 27208).
This blog was written by GRPM Volunteer Matt Black
For the last year, I have been volunteering in the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s (GRPM) collection, and due to my passion and knowledge about birds, I was asked to begin cataloging the Museum’s extensive bird skin collection (over 2000 specimens). The majority of these specimens were collected during the early years (late 1800s – early 1900s) of the GRPM, when it was still called the Kent Scientific Institute (KSI). One of the first specimens that I cataloged was a Rufous Hornbill, scientific name Buceros hydrocorax mindanensis, from the Philippine Islands, collected in 1887-1888 by E. L. Moseley. I became curious about how such a specimen ended up at the GRPM and began researching.
Photo of Edwin L. Moseley (1865-1948), taken before 1898.
The cover of E. L. Moseley’s first publication (1887): Lists of the Birds, Mammals, Birds’ Eggs, and Desiderata of Michigan Birds in the Museum of the Kent Scientific Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Edwin Lincoln Moseley was born in Union, Michigan, in 1865. From a young age, he was interested in the natural sciences, including ornithology, the study of birds. After graduating from high school at the age of 15, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Master of Arts degree in 1885. Moseley then started working at Central High School in Grand Rapids, which was also home to the Kent Scientific Institute. Moseley served as the mathematics and science teacher at Central High School and the curator of the KSI from 1885 to 1887.
During this time, Professor Joseph Beale Steere from the University of Michigan invited Moseley on an expedition. Steere wanted to return to the Philippines, having previously visited the islands the decade prior, during a five-year around-the-world expedition (1870-1875). On his previous visit, Steere had found many species of birds unknown to western science and wanted to return, especially to explore the interior of the Philippine Islands. To carry out this expedition, Steere invited several of his former students, including Moseley. The expedition crew also included two other University of Michigan students, Dean Worcester and Frank Bourns, and Mateo Francisco. Francisco was a native of the Philippines who came back with Steere after his previous trip to receive a Western education.
Left: Dean C. Worcester, undated. Center: Frank S. Bourns, 1899. Right: Mateo Francisco, c. 1880.
Steere required anyone joining the expedition to pay for their own travel. Moseley wrote a letter in March 1887 to the KSI’s board of directors asking for a loan of $150 to cover his travel expenses. The loan would be paid back with bird specimens from the expedition. An indication of the danger of joining the expedition, Moseley’s request included the stipulation that if he “should be killed or imprisoned or made a slave or in any way forcibly prevented from ever returning to this country,” the Institute had the right to all of his zoological collections to recoup their loss. The KSI’s Board unanimously agreed to the request and even took out a life insurance policy on Moseley.
Left: World map with Michigan and the Philippines highlighted. Right: Professor Joseph Beale Steere, 1877.
For twelve months, the group travelled around the Philippines collecting specimens. In October of 1887, Moseley collected a Rufous Hornbill (GRPM #27208) just ten miles north of Mateo Francisco’s home village of Ayala on the Island of Mindanao. The Rufous Hornbill became one of the over 5000 bird specimens collected during the expedition, with over 50 new species of birds.
Map of the Philippines. The star is the location of Ayala, near where the GRPM’s Rufous Hornbill was collected.
Upon Moseley’s return to the United States; he moved to Ohio to take up a high school teaching position in Sandusky, before becoming a Professor at Bowling Green State University. Moseley became internationally known for his research on geology, meteorology, milk sickness, and dendrochronology (the science of dating tree rings). Moseley Hall on Bowling Green’s campus is named in his honor, which is the original science building on campus. Moseley passed away on June 6, 1948 and was laid to rest in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Photograph of a Rufous Hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax hydrocorax). This Rufous Hornbill belongs to a different subspecies than the one in GRPM’s collection, as indicated by the fully red beak. The beak of the GRPM’s specimen only has red on the back half of the beak.
As for the Rufous Hornbill, it has faced considerable threats since Moseley’s encounter with one in 1887. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the species as Vulnerable. They face two main threats: habitat loss and poaching for consumption and trade. Although population data is limited, it appears their overall numbers have been decreasing rapidly. It is believed they are even locally extinct on smaller islands in the Philippines that they formerly inhabited. However, West Mindanao, where Moseley collected his specimen, remains a stronghold for the species. Today, the area is a national park, part of conservation efforts to save the hornbills and other similarly threatened species. The nearly 140-year-old Rufous Hornbill specimen at the Grand Rapids Public Museum serves as a powerful educational tool, helping communicate the importance of conservation and protecting species and the habitats they depend on. Its story highlights the need to protect vulnerable species, both globally and locally (for example, Piping Plovers – Charadrius melodus), so they can endure and be appreciated by future generations.
For more information:
Dickinson, Edward C., Robert S Kennedy, Derek K Read, and Frank G Rozendaal. “Notes on the Birds Collected in the Philippines during the Steere Expedition of 1887/1888.” Nemouria; Occasional Papers of the Delaware Museum of Natural History 32 (1989): 1–19. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/143491.
“Meet Our Animals – Rufous Hornbill.” Manila Ocean Park. Accessed May 14, 2026. https://manilaoceanpark.com/philippine_biodome/rufous-hornbill/.
“’Michigan Men’ in the Philippines.” In The Philippines and the University of Michigan, 1870-1935. Bentley Historical Library, 2019. https://philippines.michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/s/exhibit/page/michigan-men-in-the-philippines.
Niederhofer, Relda. “Edwin Lincoln Moseley: An Internationally Known Naturalist.” Bartonia, no. 54 (1988): 74–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41609962.
