Ralph Hoffmann
| Ralph Hoffmann | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 30, 1870 , United States |
| Died | July 21, 1932 (aged 61) San Miguel Island, California, United States |
| Occupation | Natural history teacher, author, ornithologist, botanist |
| Notable works | A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904); Birds of the Pacific States (1927) |
| Spouse | Eliza Gertrude Wesselhoeft (1871-1968); married 1894 to his death (3 children). |
| Children | Eleanor Hoffmann (1895-1990) Walter Wesselhoeft Hoffmann (1897-1977) Gertrude "Trude" Hoffmann (1904-2008) |
Ralph Hoffmann (November 30, 1870 – July 21, 1932) was an American natural history teacher, amateur ornithologist, and botanist. He was the author of the first true bird field guide.
Ralph Hoffmann was born on November 30, 1870, at , the second of five children raised by Ferdinand and Caroline Hoffmann. Ferdinand Hoffmann (1827–1906) was born in Germany, the son of a surgeon who had served in Napoleon's army. He came to America in the late 1840s where, with the assistance of educator Jared Reid, he founded the Berkshire Family School for Boys (also known as the Edward Place School for Boys) in 1855. Jared Reid is additionally known for being the father of painter Robert Reid. In 1868, three years after the death of his first wife, Elizabeth J. Hoffmann, Ferdinand married Caroline Bullard (1846–1908), the daughter of a Massachusetts' clergyman. Ralph Hoffmann would go on to attend Harvard University and graduate with the class of 1890.
Hoffmann began teaching at Buckingham Browne and Nichols in 1891. A few years later he helped to establish the Alstead School of Natural History in Alstead, New Hampshire where for a time he would spend his summer breaks from BB&N teaching. In 1910 he was chosen to be the first head of the Country Day School in Kansas City. Nine years later he relocated to Santa Barbara to teach natural history at the Cate School for Boys. There he became a mentor to the American botanist G. Ledyard Stebbins. In 1925 Hoffmann was named to succeed William Leon Dawson as director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
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