Charles-Eusèbe Dionne

Charles-Eusèbe Dionne
Born	20 July 1846 Saint-Denis-de-la-Bouteillerie, Quebec
Died	25 January 1925 Quebec City
Nationality	Canadian
Fields	Natural history, taxidermy
Institutions	Université Laval
Known for	Books on mammals and birds of Quebec, talented taxidermist
Influences	Léon Abel Provancher
Notable awards	Honorary M.A. and D.Sc., elective fellow of the AOU

Charles-Eusèbe Dionne (20 July 1846 – 25 January 1925), also known as Charles Eusebe or C. E. Dionne, was a French Canadian naturalist and taxidermist. He is considered the first professional French Canadian ornithologist. Dionne was a self-taught scientist and wrote several books on the natural history of Quebec, including the first field guide to the province's mammal fauna; he was a well-respected scholar and became a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union.

Dionne was born in 1846 to a modest rural family in Saint-Denis-de-la-Bouteillerie, near Kamouraska, the eldest of six boys and five girls born to Eusèbe Dionne and Amélie Lavoie. His father was a cobbler and farmer but the couple attached considerable importance to education, and Charles-Eusèbe displayed a thirst for knowledge from a young age, which was first noticed by his aunt Philomène. Philomène Dionne was the first to notice his affinity for natural history. Dionne captured and stuffed his first specimen at 14. After he had completed his elementary study, Philomène was the one who paid so he could benefit from private classes, where he came across a natural history book, an incident he would delight in recount in his later years, even though he could not remember the title.

Dionne travelled to Quebec City in 1865 and, with the help of his cousin Zéphirin, who worked there, found work at the Séminaire de Québec. His predisposition was rapidly noticed and, having benefited from personal teaching sessions with Thomas-Étienne Hamel, he was promoted from cook to a position at Université Laval's (then administrated by the seminary) faculty of law. He became friend with historian and librarian Charles-Honoré Laverdière, and acquired from him scholarly techniques and instinct, all the while developing his knowledge and becoming an admirer of Léon Abel Provancher. He truly began to develop his natural history collections at that time. Unfortunately, his first attempts were of poor quality. It is possible that he acquired the basis for the techniques that would make his later fame from William Couper, a naturalist that resided in Quebec City during that period.

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