[Thomas Mayo]. American patron of science, born in Boston, on the 21st of November 1814; graduated at Harvard College in 1835, and at the Massachusetts Medical School in 1838. In 1840 he became editor of the Boston Atlas, a Whig organ, and was a member of the publishing firm of Brewer and Tileson. He lived an active professional and business life, and became famous more particularly as an ornithologist. He edited a new edition of Wilson’s Ornithology (1839); and was joint author, with S. F. Baird (of the Smithsonian Institution) and R. Ridgeway, of North American Birds (1874). The only individual work projected by him was the Oölogy of North America, one volume of which was published in 1875 by the Smithsonian Institution, but, on account of its expense, was not completed. He died in Boston on the 22nd of January 1880.
