Edwin Harris Colbert was born on September 28, 1905, in Clarinda, Iowa, to George Harris Colbert and Mary Adamson Colbert. Edwin’s father had gotten a job teaching in the mathematics department in the newly-founded Northwest Normal, so in the summer of 1906, the family moved to Maryville. Colbert grew up and spent his childhood in Maryville, originally living on Third Street, and later in the house his family built on the second block of east Seventh Street. 

He attended high school and from 1923 to 1926, studied at the Northwest Missouri State Teacher’s College before transferring to the University of Nebraska, earning his Bachelor’s of Arts in 1928. Colbert then transferred to Columbia University in 1929, completing his Master’s in 1930 and his PhD. in 1935.

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 While attending Columbia University, Colbert married Margaret Mary Matthews on July 8, 1933. Margaret was a scientific draftsman of fossils and the daughter of famous mammal paleontologist W.D. Matthews, curator of the American Museum of Natural History. Together they had five sons: George, David, Phillip, Daniel, and Charles. The family moved to Leonia, New Jersey in 1937

Colbert began his tenure in the American Museum of Natural History in 1930, which he would stay in for 40 years up until his retirement. There he served as Research Assistant Assistant Curator, Curator, Department Chairman, and Dean of the Council of the Scientific Staff.

From 1945 until 1969 Colbert was the Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at Columbia University.

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Colbert has taken trips all over the United States, and to England, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Lesotho, and Antarctica. During his 1969 Antarctic expedition, Colbert found a 220-million-year-old fossil of a Lystrosaurus, helping the acceptance of the continental drift theory. Over his career, Colbert received many awards and prizes for his contributions to paleontology. For his work in Siwalik Mammals in the American Museum of Natural History, Colbert was awarded the Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1935.

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Colbert took a field trip sixty miles north of Santa Fe in 1947. There he discovered a “mass grave” of dinosaur skeletons packed together in a layer of 214 million year old mudstone, most of the skeletons were nearly perfect. This became known as Ghost Ranch.

Once Colbert retired in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1970, he became a volunteer member of the staff of the Museum of Northern Arizona. Over his career, Colbert wrote over 20 books and over 400 scientific articles. Colbert lived in Flagstaff for the rest of his life, dying in his home on November 15, 2001.

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RESOURCES

• Stairway of Stars Booklet, Nodaway County Historical Society

• O'Connor, Anahad. “E.H. Colbert, 96, Dies; Wrote Dinosaur Books.” New York Times, 25 Nov. 2001.