Omnis Ex Ovo, All from an Egg

Gently lifted to his father’s shoulder, four-year-old Will peered into a brown thrasher’s nest and was thrilled at the sight of the neatly arranged eggs. This glimpse might as well have been a gaze into a crystal ball, for it was the first step on the path that would lead William Leon Dawson to become one of the world’s most renowned oologists. Born in 1873 in Leon, Illinois, he spent his first nine years exploring their Kansas prairie farm. Though oft quoted in contemporary ornithological works, the founding of this Museum will always be his greatest and most enduring work. With many projects unfinished, Dawson’s life with birds was cut short when he died unexpectedly in 1928.