The Donald R. Dickey Collection of Birds and Mammals consists of over 50,000 skins and skeletons of birds and mammals from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and islands in the Pacific. The collection was developed by Donald R. Dickey of Pasadena between 1910 and1932. Donated to UCLA in 1940 by his widow, Florence Van Vechten Dickey, it is one of the world's best collections of birds and mammals of the American southwest and Central America. It is used for teaching and research by faculty, students, and visiting scientists

Born in Iowa, Donald Ryder Dickey (1887-1932) first visited California at age 16 and hiked up Mount Whitney with a Sierra Club group that included John Muir. Struck by a serious heart problem in his senior year at Yale University, Dickey was bedridden for the next two years. During this time he became fascinated by the wildlife he observed, and developed a remote camera to capture the animals on film.

After documenting birds and mammals from California, Dickey soon moved to other locations, including the wilds of Canada, Mexico, El Salvador and Hawaii. In addition to still photography, Dickey mastered filmmaking and produced some of the first motion pictures of wildlife in natural settings. His films of seabirds in flight were studied by Howard Hughes' engineers to improve their design of airplane wings.

Soon after returning to full health, Dickey dedicated the remaining years of his short life to building a museum collection of birds and mammals of southern California. The resulting collection of over 50,000 mammals and birds, 10,000 natural history books, and more than 7500 photographs was the first of its kind in southern California. This he accomplished in about ten years before he died in Pasadena at the age of 43.

Those interested in using the collections for research purposes are invited to contact: