Among the best known scientists from the American Museum of Natural History who chose to work in Latin America before World War I were Frank M. ChapmanChapman, Frank M. and George CherrieCherrie, George (Fig. 9.1). The latter had already worked in Latin America prior to being hired by the Museum and had served as curator of birds at the National MuseumNational Museum (Argentina) ofNational Museum of Costa Rica Costa RicaCosta Rica, in San José. He continued research as an independent scientist through the 1890s, before he was hired to work in New York, at the AMNH. By contrast, Chapman, who was about the same age as Cherrie, and who had worked exclusively for the AMNH for the first half of his career, remained mostly interested in North American bird populations before turning his attention southward. In his autobiography, ChapmanChapman, Frank M. observed that “South America has played so large a part in my life that it is difficult for me to realize that I was in my forty-eighth year when I first visited that continent. ColombiaColombia was my landfall [1911] and I now look upon my expedition to that country as an adventure of my boyhood.“